SLUG Magazine

Tagg Coppins is the songwriter and singer behind the experimental BEETSBLOG. Using effects apps, such as Apple’s GarageBand, Coppins recorded anything with an interesting sound and edited it to fit into his album, LOVERS AND FRIENDS. With the help of friends and family, Coppins has created a feel-good album that encompasses ideas such as self-love, sex, and the positive aspects of the millennial generation.

For Coppins, the production is incredibly important to the songwriting. “They think they inform each other,” he says. “If one doesn’t make sense with the other, the whole listening experience falls apart. I think that care and attention are what make a recording sound unique, especially when recording at home. You have a lot of freedom to create something that comes right from you.” Coppins learned his general music skills in high school, but shortly fell away from music after college. It was only a year ago when Coppins picked up music and songwriting once again. “It was during this acid trip I was on that I wrote the song ‘Lovers and Friends,’” he says. “One of my favorite things about the effects of LSD and making music is the auditory hallucinations, especially the voices coming out of you. You can feel it in your chest, feel it reverberate all around.” It was at that point that Coppins began experimenting with alternate voices and strange sounds, making BEETSBLOG the unique entity that it is.

One of BEETSBLOG’s standing trademarks is the sense of humor that Coppins brings to the lyrics. “I love singing silly songs, making jokes, and I think humor is really important to music,” he says. “It can often be left out. Sometimes pop music is so serious that I can’t even relate to it.” One good example is “Working on my Body”—a lighthearted song that is about self-improvement and being less selfish during sex. “I hope it’s a nice song about giving,” says Coppins. “You can laugh if you want, but you don’t have to stop and examine what you do with your life.” Other songs speak more to mundane daily tasks—such as “Work To Do,” which is about the endless cycle of work that’s necessary to continue living and eating in an overly priced world.

Most of the album’s songs, however, speak to millennials—the ones who are attempting to break free from the mundane and want a better life for themselves and those around them. “Young people are looking for a way out and feel like the need to invest their lives in a career,” says Coppins. “I think that is really amazing and empowering. I love my generation. I think we’re really onto something.” Though Coppins admires millennials, he also recognizes the constant demand millennials have to produce and market themselves, even in daily social spaces. “A big theme is social anxiety,” he says. “It’s something I experience and most of my friends experience. I hope I can get everyone who listens to [Lovers and Friends] maybe feel a bit better.” Overall, Coppins hopes people can reflect on the feel-good, go-out-and-party vibes of the album.

In his writing process, Coppins relies more on the sounds than the lyrics of each song. “I hope the ideas and even just specific words you’re listening to can leak in through all the noises, all the sounds,” he says, “and can contribute rather than the listener supposed to be concentrating on what you’re trying to say.” Even the album art for BEETSBLOG incorporates his ideas: Coppins in the center surrounded by pursed-lipped celebrities in a large swimming pool. “My wife designed the cover and compiled all the images,” he says. “I think it shows where it’s coming from—from me, in my weird, little world w

Salt Lake City’s ’90s-influenced band, The Statuettes, is a music group that locals will want to know and love before they take off. With four EPs, three full-length albums and having numerous features on a variety of television networks (including ABC, NBC, USA, FX and MTV), the Statuettes’ sound is growing in popularity. Michael Gross, vocals and guitar, formed the band in 2008 along with bandmates Jimmy Kelly (guitar, keys), Ben Johnson (bass, keys) and Todd Hammond (drums). Their most recent album, Modern Despondence, is a pop/rock fantasy with a pure sound.

Modern Despondence is different from its predecessors, namely in the way that songwriting was approached. “In the past, I would come up with ideas myself,” says Gross. “Maybe a rough outline of a song and melody, and we’d hash things out and work on parts. But when you’re a band for a long time, you look for ways to keep things fresh and interesting so you’re not always doing the same thing. So for this one, I wanted to try something that we hadn’t ever tried: I wanted to write a full song in one rehearsal session.” The band members came together nine times for one-and-a-half to two-hour rehearsals, each time creating the tracks that would comprise the new, nine-track album. “It forced us to be creative. We had no other option.” This forced creativity paid off in the long run, as the album has a pure blend of music that also allows its listener to distinctly hear each element.

The pureness of the album, according to Gross, is mainly attributed to recording studio. “We recorded in Los Angeles again,” says Gross. “We have a good friend there who is a fantastic engineer / producer / musician, and he recently had a studio space that he opened with a friend of his in Downtown L.A. in a loft of an old building. We recorded five songs in three days.” Having prepared everything beforehand, the bandmates were prepared for concentrated sessions of jamming. “We also have friends out there in southern California and the greater L.A. area,” says Gross, who enjoyed the work-on-vacation atmosphere and seeing friends from old shows and tours.

The record’s production value alone is worth listening to the album. “When I hear super-clean, that just means clarity that you can hear everything that’s being played,” says Gross. “You can hear the kick drum as well as the keyboard, the guitar and vocals. That’s what I look for in a record, personally.” Gross’ vocals are a mixture of raspy and pure—a blend that makes for smooth listening. The instruments can all be heard distinctly, and no one instrument is more overpowering than the next. It isn’t a shock at all that people have connected to the music. “We had a release show, actually, in Ogden on the rooftop of a place called Alleged,” says Gross. “As we were sound checking, a few people were there having a drink. They decided they liked what they heard, so they actually came back a couple hours later just to see us and bought an album.”

The Statuettes’ next goal is to keep growing and continue showing their music to people. “Aspirations for the Statuettes is to just keep writing and releasing more music,” says Gross. He is hoping to hear feedback from people who have never heard them before or who are outside of the Statuettes’ friend circles. “When I get an opinion outside my sphere of people, I feel like it’s more honest. They’re more objective.”

The song you’ll hear on this podcast is “Heartbreaker” off of Modern Despondence. If you want to support the Statuettes, there’s a few ways you can do that. You can download or stream their music from thestatuettes.com and digital retail sites, such as ITunes. You can also support them

As a band that started nine years ago with every intention of becoming the world’s loudest band, INVDRS are currently making some noise around the country at various festivals this year—and their trajectory looks like it’s going to get even louder. Bandmates Phil White (throat), Dave Moss (guitar) Julie Stutznegger (bass) and Andy Patterson (mastering / recording) have been working on and refining a new album, to be released soon. A heavy metal band based out of Salt Lake City, INVDRS play loud, over-the-top music. “Some would say, ‘You guys are too loud,’” says White. “I would say, ‘That’s not even close to Motörhead—we need to be louder!’”

The crew recently arrived back in SLC after this year’s second annual Psychofest in Las Vegas. “We were literally booked by the booking agent because he thought we were a rad band,” says White. “I was blown away. It’s four days of amazing bands and nonstop partying—and one INVDR show.” Stutznegger comments on the energy of the festival, calling it a “convention of rockers” with an unending supply of great bands. As the second band to play on a Sunday afternoon, not only was it difficult for INVDRS to have their gear prepped and ready to go, but it also seemed difficult for the audience members to get up early on a Sunday after partying. However, things looked up for the band. “There was no one there for the first band,” says White, “but after we got onstage—I mean, it was bombarded with people who thought [we] were awesome!”

INVDRS is a band that is much more about the camaraderie than the fame. “There is no one in the band who is promoting ourselves,” says Stutznegger. “We’re really just playing together because we love it and we love each other.” INDVRS do what they love for each other, and also for the people of their hometown. “One of the best things about SLC is it doesn’t matter what kind of band you’re in,” says White. “The art community and music community supports each other so fucking hard.” Even though INVDRS are insanely supportive of each other and various local bands in SLC, that hasn’t killed their dream of being the gnarliest, loudest and grittiest band around. One of the ways INVDRS sticks out is the stage presence—and by that, I mean a stage full of amps and cabinets. “We use a lot of amps,” says Moss. “I have three Model-T heads that I turn everything to 10 [on] except for the treble, because that would just kill people.”

For the band members, they realize that their music is incredibly loud, sometimes to the point of sickness. “It hurts,” says White. “It’s not fun, and it’s not nice. It’s ugly and shitty, and it hurts your ears and fucks with your head. But if you stick around, you stick around because you dig it.” Adding to this effect are more over-the-top lyrics and song titles, such as “Kill Yourself.” Their new album, which was recorded and re-recorded three times to perfection, is filled with the energy of these four talented musicians. Something INVDRS hope for are more festival opportunities. By the end of this year alone, INVDRS will have played at four festivals: Crucialfest 6 here in Utah (June), Disinfect in Reno (July), Psycho Las Vegas (August), and their upcoming festival will be at the Midnite Communion IV in Long Beach, California, this November.

On this podcast, you’ll hear a new song that has never been released, titled “Into Your Grave.” Check out more music and upcoming shows from INVDRS on their Facebook page.

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves.

This week’s SLUG Soundwaves features local math rock band Form of Rocket. If the name rings a bell, it’s because they’re no newcomers to the local music scene here in Salt Lake. Since forming in 2000 and then taking a hiatus, Curtis Jensen (guitar/ vocals), Peter Makowski (guitar/vocals), Tyler Smith (drums) and Ben Dodds (bass) are back for this year’s Crucialfest. Along with playing Crucialfest, they will also be rereleasing their first record, Se Puede Despedir A Todos, on vinyl, with only 250 pressed copies for purchase. With the help of Justin Reynolds who provided the album artwork and Andy Paterson who remastered the album for vinyl, Form of Rocket have been able to pull this all together in just a short amount of time.

Reminiscing on their earlier shows, Makowski questions, “People were so into the music, especially at Kilby,” he says. “Was it the music we were playing or was it the time period?” Having gained the attention of Salt Lake locals, Form of Rocket were playing shows to rooms packed full of people.

“For all the vocals we had on that record, I would say maybe 40 percent are actual lyrics,” says Makowski. When it came time to do a lyric sheet, they had to go back and listen to the record and write down what the vocals were. Jensen and Makowski were adventurous with their lyrical content—they wanted to create a record of songs that built and released tension in an effective way.

After that, Jensen had left the band to pursue other desires but came back to record vocals for Men.

Jensen, who’s in town and set to get hitched, has moved around quite a bit. In 2011, he had moved back to Salt Lake after spending some time in Alaska and got everyone back together to play some shows. Having returned, Form of Rocket are ready to get back in the music game and dazzle the audience once again.

Form of Rocket will play at Kilby Court on June 11 and Urban Lounge on June 17. You can also check out their responses to some fans favorite Form of Rocket memories here. 

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves.

SLUG Magazine’s mission is to provide an honest journalistic alternative to mainstream coverage of arts, music, events and lifestyle. SLUG adds value to lifestyle through community engagement. Available in print and digitally on SLUGmag.com.

This week’s SLUG Soundwaves features the local avant-garde pop group Elytra. Lindsay Heath, the founder of this project, has been performing for 17 years in an assortment of bands. Heath is a musician, a painter and a voice for the millennials. Joining her in Elytra is vocalist Scotty Ray, founder of the Bad Kids Collective, a collective of queer artists that encapsulates anyone from DJs to drag performers to singers.

Heath started Elytra after coming to an end of her solo project—she wanted to create something different and collaborative. She approached Ray at Craft Lake City’s DIY Festival after he had played a show with La Femme Medea.

“Scotty Ray is going into very personal places with his lyrics and story telling,” says Heath. “He’s a perfect voice for everyone in the band.” Heath would like listeners to know that the members of Elytra have all been through a lot of hardship. “Each of the members are very authentic in who they are and how they’ve come to establish themselves in this place,” says Heath. “Being queer in a Mormon-dominated state requires a strong individual.”

“The album takes you on a journey of being a millennial: what you go through as a queer person in a conservative community—what you go through as a human being in today’s world,” says Ray.  A large part of the project for Ray as a lyricist is de-stigmatizing mental illness and being able to be vulnerable and open about his experiences and his pain.

Elytra hope that the light in their music can keep others going, as they’re able to do for each other. That’s what they want to share: Being able to come together as a group and express this unique perspective and voice, musically.

Elytra is a collaborative project featuring six artists: Lindsay Heath (drummer) Scotty Ray (vocalist), Chris Murphy (synth), Klaus (cello), Janet Chotia (bass) and Secily Sanders (guitar).

You can catch their upcoming show at Club Metro May 23, opening up for James McCartney.

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves.

SLUG Magazine’s mission is to provide an honest journalistic alternative to mainstream coverage of arts, music, events and lifestyle. SLUG adds value to lifestyle through community engagement. Available in print and digitally on slugmag.com.

This week’s SLUG Soundwaves features local hip-hop artist Ryan Worwood, better known as Dusk or Dusk Raps. Dusk has been rapping for over 20 years and making beats for 10 years, and he is a lifelong visual artist.

For Dusk, it’s OK if he’s been working on his art for months and not making beats. It’s all the same to him—why separate the two creative forms? I think we can all say that we’ve had someone in our lives, at one point or another, tell us to focus on one thing. Dusk operates best by staying busy and doing everything that interests him rather than dropping other creative pursuits and focusing on one. “It all goes to the same place,” says Dusk. “I’ve been doing all this stuff longer than I haven’t … I don’t consider it to be something I do, it’s just a part of who I am at this point.”

“We all only get so much time. I want to spend my time doing what I want to do … It passes by too quickly,” says Dusk. When everyone is out and partying, he’s at home by himself working on his art, whether it be visually or musically. If things don’t go smoothly in other parts of his life, he has the comfort of knowing that at least he’s got this part locked down, and that’s what’s important to him.

When he finds himself getting scared, he knows that’s the time to get busy. Having to go through that uncomfortable learning curve is a part of the whole process and of growth. “There’s no substitute for time invested. If you really like something, what’s going to make it happen is really getting dedicated,” says Dusk.

Dusk does whatever he can to be encouraging to others who are trying to pursue their own interests and recognizes that there’s no need to be completive when we should all be supporting each other.

Dusk is performing on April 19 at Club X. Others on the bill include: King Magnetic & Ruste Juxx, Moe Hendrix, Black Socks, Clawson and DJ Intimin8.

For more information on Dusk Raps and his beats, check out his Bandcamp at music.duskraps.com.

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves.

SLUG Magazine’s mission is to provide an honest journalistic alternative to mainstream coverage of arts, music, events and lifestyle. SLUG adds value to lifestyle through community engagement. Available in print and digitally on slugmag.com.

In this week’s episode, we chat with Brycen Deters of Golden Plates.

Golden Plates is a solo project from musician Brycen Deters, playing off of the LDS faith as tropes for the band, Deter takes on the role of Elder Brycen, with the names of his albums and songs as references to the church.

In 2015 he released his debut EP Eugenics, along with a series of singles through his Soundcloud account. In April of 2016 he released his first full-length album The Light, coinciding with his free live show at Urban lounge March 31.

Deters moved to Salt Lake City from San Francisco about two years ago. Him and a buddy started Panda Sex Gurus, a group made up of parody joke songs. Deters says after only three short months here in Utah his friend moved back to California. He spent the next eight months looking for a drummer after writing his first EP, and after little luck jumped in and did them himself.

The name Golden Plates came along after Deters held a “Name My Next Band” Facebook contest. “I got messages all the time on Facebook asking ‘Hey is this a Christian group?’” In the beginning Golden Plates was largely based on satire and started out as being a joke. “It’s very much existential and tongue and cheek,” says Deters.

Deters has played in roughly seven bands while based in L.A. “The problem with that music scene, because it’s so saturated, so many people come out here after selling out there local venues. It’s depressing because people are always trying to exploit them.” Deters says that in order to playa lot of the venues in L.A. they make you pay for at least 50 tickers at 15 dollars each per band.

“But there’s a lot of good music that comes from everywhere, ‘cause everyone has a different experience.” The worst music scene Deters has ever been apart of was in San Francisco. “Theres a lot of great music here and a lot of not so great music,” says Deters about the Utah Music scene. Some of his favorite local bands include UFO TV, Grand Banks and Your Meteor.

You can check out more on Golden Plates at his Facebook page here and see Deters perform his first full-length album, The Light, at Urban Lounge March 31.

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves. For all things SLUG Magazine, visit SLUGMag.com.

This episode of SLUG Soundwaves features Matthew and The Hope—an alt-country trio that currently comprises Matthew Bashaw, Mathieu Jean Robinette and Todd Belcher. The project formed in 2012,when Bashaw started performing around town as a soloist with the occasional backing musician and guest spot. Over the years, the lineup has changed, incorporating different musicians who bring their own unique talents to enhance the sound. In 2014, the group released their debut full-length album, Burn It To The Ground, followed by a four-month Southwest tour. 

The group says that stylistically, they consider themselves as pretty basic country. “We pull from all different genres in the country realm—a little bit of traditional and bluegrass mostly,” says the group. The originality within this band, with the music that is being written right now, will surely set them apart. “We are three individual people bringing something individual to the table,” says Bashaw.

Matthew and The Hope will perform new songs at Treefort Music Fest off of their new EP, which will be releasing soon. “This is an entirely new band,” says Bashaw. “It’s always changing.” This new EP, A Bittersweet Decline, will include five downloadable songs. Matthew and The Hope are currently working on another full-length album, set to be released this summer. Aside from the EP and the upcoming album, they also have a whole line of new merch that will be available. 

“Salt Lake’s music scene, locally, as a whole, is incredible. I think the people here might not now how spoiled they really are,” says Bashaw. The group also recognizes how important community radio is, saying, “Community radio is the most important kind of radio, because they’re the ones showing people that are actually grinding, day in day out—the local guys that are out their killing themselves to make a paycheck. It’s not commercial-based.”

Catch Matthew and The hope at the Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho. They will play Tom Graineys‘ on Friday, March 25, at 11:15 p.m. 

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves. For all things SLUG Magazine, visit SLUGMag.com.

In this week’s episode of Soundwaves, the official podcast of SLUG Magazine, we chat with the band Color Animal about their most recent 7″ release, as well as their upcoming full-length album due out this April.

Color Animal are an alternative rock band based out of Salt Lake City, who formed shortly after lead singer and guitarist Andrew Shaw’s band Calico disbanded. He joined up with drummer Tyler Ford to create some new tunes, but the band sat on the shelf for a few years until 2012 when Nick Neihart and Felecia Baca joined and released their first album, Vision Lies, in January 2013.

Neihart left the band shortly after making that album, but was replaced by Seth Howe for the current lineup today. They’ve since released a few singles, and a second full-length, Bubble Gum, in July 2014. Recently the band paired with Shaw’s other project, Magic Mint, to release a self-titled 7” split, and are currently finalizing their third album, Why Don’t We Have Fun?, which is due out on April 2.

In this episode, SLUG writer Kristyn Porter spoke with Shaw and Ford about all their latest endeavors, and afterward we hear the song “Heal Me,” both from their 7” release, as well as the Death By Salt V compilation.

Color Animal on Bandcamp.

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves. For all things SLUG Magazine, visit SLUGMag.com.

In this week’s episode of Soundwaves, the official podcast of SLUG Magazine, we chat with the punk band Problem Daughter about the release of their latest album, Fits of Disorganized Boredom.

Problem Daughter are a Salt Lake–based punk rock band who have been together since 2009. The band comprises Regan Ashton on bass and vocals, Trey Bird on drums, and Tyler Sisson and Shane Augustus on guitar. The band released their first album, American Heronie, in 2009 along with sporadic singles and EPs, only to temporarily disband in 2010. The group reunited a year later to release more EPs, followed by their self-titled full-length album in 2012. The band spent the latter half of 2015 working in secret on their fourth full-length album, Fits of Disorganized Boredom.

With the bands growth and constant change, Fits of Disorganized Boredom standsout from the rest of their albums, featuring more experimental elements. “When you play music with the same people for so long you’re bound to make something new, especially with all the time we’ve had in between albums. Hopefully it’ll sound a bit more cleaned up around the edges,” says Ashton.

Problem Daughter considers themselves the mini-series of bands. A short and sweet album, comprised of 8 songs total, Fits of Disorganized Boredom is exactly what Problem Daughter wanted. “We’ve also started on a few scratch songs for a demo or an EP,” says Bird. So we can expect more to come after the album is released.

This will be the band’s first release on a record label. “It’s nothing big, but it’s exactly what we need for this release,” says Ashton.

Problem Daughter plan to hit surrounding states and work up a greater tour, but until then you can catch them at their album release show next month at the Underground, as well as a show at Kilby Court in April with Show Me Island.

You can listen to more of Problem Daughter at problemdaughter.bandcamp.com.

Thanks for listening to SLUG Soundwaves. For all things SLUG Magazine, visit SLUGMag.com.