Buzz Blog

We got a lot of online material to cover as we start making our way out of June, including two release shows this weekend. —- We'll start with a compilation out of Provo going by the name Dirty Provo – Vol. 1. What separates this from your average comps is that it's comprised of musicians who have declared themselves to be “outside the norm” of the music coming out of Utah County. That's a pretty fair statement as these are the bands you don't normally see at the usual venues every week or find at a backyard barbecue every weekend playing for the neighborhood. There's some pretty good company in here with bands like Lydians, Temples, Lake Island, RS2090, Baby Ghosts, Mooninite, Nick Ottley and Salazar. You can snag this 24-track album completely free from Bandcamp.

Next up is the latest from SLC band Monkey Rum, a four-piece rock group comprised of longtime musicians Charles E. Cochran III, Richard Naylor, Bryan Harrison and Chris Cochran. If you haven't seen them around, that's no surprise as the band only plays at 5 Monkeys, so much so they might as well be the weekly house band if they aren't already. They've got a brand-new album called Banished From the Garden, which you can download off iTunes for $10 and Amazon for $8.99.

Slipping in under the radar a couple weeks ago was the latest release from Jesust. For those of you unfamiliar, Jesust formed a few years ago and were kicking ass around the valley, but then kicked a member out of the band and turned into Judast , later releasing an awesome album in 2012. This is actually the album they were working on when they split, going under the title Stealin Thunder, recorded in Andy Patterson's SLC studio with some help from Joel Pack during a 2011 session. It's definitely worth checking out to see what could have been. You can get it for whatever you'd like to pay on the label's Bandcamp.

Moving into programmed noise, we have the latest from The Illusory Open Door. This is one of many names under a Provo-based electronica producer who only refers to himself as Behind Eyelids Media. The unnamed producer has a half-dozen projects to his alias, and this is the latest album to come out from one of them under the title AN. It sounds like a soundtrack to a low-budget '90s sci-fi thriller, and can be purchased on his Bandcamp for $10.

Keeping with the ethereal noise, we have the debut release from Braeyden Jae. Jae has been involved with local music for over a decade in various incarnation and acts, but as a solo performer under his own name, there isn't much there. He actually says in his bio that his music is ”sound spaces for a background or foreground listening experience. Music for naps, homework, drinking tea or whatever.” So if you're into background music to just take up the empty space behind you, then you'll love his debut solo-album, Heaven House. You can pick it up from his Bandcamp for a mere $5.

Next up from the obscure end of the spectrum, local musician Andrew Maguire has released what he calls an “art project” in the form of Artsy As Fuk. This is a four-track album of experimental sounds, but you're going to have to go seek it out as Maguire put it out only in physical form, wrapped up in a sheet of paper that looks like the one below. Yeah, we're sending you on a scavenger hunt, but at least there's a prize at the end in the form of local music. Have fun finding it!

Getting into some alternative rock, we have the latest from SLC band Genre Zero. This is a cool band comprised of Rob Vorwald, Brad Hart, Joshua Isbell, Tiffin Brough and Noah Gabbard, who have been playing around town since early 2011. They've got this funky combination of lighter alt-rock with some classical instrumentation that sounds like it should have come out of of the mid-'90s—very low-key and very DIY. Their debut album, titled Get Dressed, Do Nothing, came out yesterday, and it sounds pretty damned good. You can download it for $7 off their Bandcamp page.

Moving to release shows, tonight, Velour will play host to the debut from Bat Manors. I won't need to say much, because Kolbie Stonehocker actually wrote them up in this week's edition of City Weekly. After reading that, go check out the release of Literally Weird as they play with Book On Tape Worm, Imperial Mammoth and Officer Jenny. Tickets are just $7, and the show starts at 8:30 p.m.

And then finally, this Saturday, Disforia will release their long-awaited sophomore album. The five-piece metal band from SLC have been running hard for seven years. I don't think there's a venue they haven't played in Utah; there was even a point where they were a bi-monthly fixture at the former Club Vegas. But in all that time they've had only one album, their 2011 EP titled Our Time Defined. So you can imagine how excited fans are to finally get their hands on their first full-length release, titled The Age Of Ether and due out this weekend. The band (seen above, courtesy of Facebook) hasn't let anything from the new album leak and or performed any of the new songs in concert, so you'll have to get a copy on Saturday to get the full experience. Which you can do tomorrow at The Murray Theater as they play their release show with Turned To Stone, Never Before, Dethrone The Sovereign and Machines Of Man. Tickets are $10, and the show starts at 7 p.m.

Love music, head out, buy local.