Author Archives: Theric

Visit me at Thmazing.com.

Haun’s Mill: “Away”

November 8, 2012 1:00 pm \ Leave a Comment \

.

Haun’s Mill’s new album came out on September 21. They sent me a copy for review more than two months before that. And I’ve been listening to it regularly in that time, but what with touring (theirs) and illness (mine) and losing things (universal), this darn interview has taken for bleeding ever to get into a final form. But we arrived! And it was worth it!

Because of my ongoing inability to embed videos on Linescratchers, the full version of this interview will appear only on A Motley Vision, but to whet your appetite, here is an excerpt:

Continue Reading →

Posted in: alt-country, dark pop, folk, interviews, rock \ Tagged: , ,

Hot and Mormon and on the Radio

August 4, 2012 12:37 pm \ Leave a Comment \

.

[Because of my ongoing problems with embedding videos, please read this post about The Killers, Neon Trees, and Imagine Dragon at A Motley Vision. Thanks.]

Posted in: alternative, pop, rock \ Tagged: , , ,

Campfire Carols from Jiminy Finn and the Moneydiggers

June 26, 2012 3:53 am \ Leave a Comment \

.

Crossposted in a slightly different form at A Motley Vision.*

.

Campfire CarolsBlair Hodges, whom you probably know best as an insightful reviewer of smart-person books you never quite manage to read, also does drums and vocals (usually backup) and kazoo for the band Jiminy Finn and the Moneydiggers. We’ll talk more about the kazoo later.

Continue Reading →

Posted in: folk, reviews \ Tagged: ,

provoshows.com

June 1, 2012 12:14 pm \ Leave a Comment \

.

First: I want to be clear that I am not suggesting Provo bands = LDS bands. Such, as we all know, is not necessarily the case. That said, there is overlap.

With that established, you should check out provoshows.com and today’s Motley Vision interview with its curator, Chris Coy.

Me, I’ve often wondered about the history of music in Provo, but without much collective memory (college town) that’s been a hard thing to track. Now, that history is finally coming together.

Also, those of you with knowledge should help out.

Posted in: Uncategorized

Imagine Dragons demolishes MTV’s castle keep . . . unless you have a better play on words

April 20, 2012 1:58 am \ Leave a Comment \

.

The winner of the 2008 Battle of the Bands at BYU, Imagine Dragons, has been all over lately including KCRW which in my mind means they’ve made it.

This week they’re MTV’s Push Artist, whatever that means. At least part of it is that this video’s on cable.

So it’s a Vegas/Cougar band in a postapocalyptic San Francisco Bay with one of Mahonri’s rock which has properties Moroni never told you about. Best thing ever?

Check it out.

Posted in: alternative, video \ Tagged:

Interview – Church Williams

November 28, 2011 12:59 pm \ 1 Comment \

I can’t tell you how unsurprised I was to learn that Church Williams was a musician. Sharp-looking guy, snappy dresser, coolest spectacles I’d seen in some time. Of course he’s a musician. The only thing that could have made me more certain was if he’d been an utter slob.

Well, no. I’m listening to his album Touch the Sun as I type this, preparing to send you on to the interview, and realizing that “slob” is not an option for Church.

My recommendation? Pop that link open and take a listen while you check out this interview.

Continue Reading →

Posted in: electronica, indie, pop \ Tagged: ,

Three brief reviews of three brief things.

August 16, 2011 12:00 am \ 1 Comment \

 

Continue Reading →

Posted in: alt-country, alternative, folk, indie, reviews, rock \ Tagged: , , , , ,

Haun’s Mill: The handsewn CD

August 8, 2011 12:10 am \ 1 Comment \

When Syphax first emailed the Linescratchers’ author list about Haun’s Mill, I was instantly intrigued:

… an awesome group from Texas called Haun’s Mill (formerly Haun’s Mill Massacre). They do old-timey music but it’s more of a Southern Gothic-type thing, and their stage show includes weird and admittedly creepy projector movies. A lot of their lyrics deal with old dark times, like the Spanish Influenza epidemic or the Great Depression, etc.

I immediately replied that they sounded awesome—like someone had tapped into my id and found the music it secretly wanted. An hour and fifteen minutes later, he wrote back to say he might be able to get an album sent to me. It was too late because I had already bought it. My id would not be denied!

I knew this could go either way. It could be my fate to love this band because, really, how could I not like a gothfolkMormoncreepoöldtimey band? Or it could be that, with my expectations running so high, even the greatest gothfolkMormoncreepoöldtimey band ever to play Kolob could not live up to what I envisioned.

Continue Reading →

Posted in: dark pop, folk, goth, indie, reviews, southern gothic \ Tagged: , , ,

Interview – Pawnbroker

May 11, 2011 12:10 am \ 6 Comments \

Spencer Ellsworth is a writer and English teacher who has presented at Sunstone a couple of times and would like everyone to scour their back issues of Dialogue for his stories. Because writing isn’t unhealthy and egotistical enough, he also writes music, sings, and plays bass in Pawnbroker, an up-and-coming band in the Bellingham, WA music scene.

Theric: So up at the top of this website it says “LDS Musicians who don’t write LDS music” — Why do you suppose they capitalized “Musicians” but not “music”?

Spencer: Because the Musicians are members of the church and the music is not. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Mormons are better (and thus more capitalized) than anyone else. For example, Joseph Smith is capitalized but copernicus is not. Continue Reading →

Posted in: interviews \ Tagged: , , ,