Posts by Ryan Dillon

Florence Welch, the voice and mastermind behind the modern pop sensation Florence + The Machine, has become an enigma in contemporary music. Her discography showcases both her ability to craft undeniable smash hits, as in “Dog Days Are Over,” and cinematic, daring alt-pop, as on her Dance Fever LP. All the while, Welch has proven […]

Like any long-standing music genre, punk rock was destined to evolve, just as it had from the generation before it. Punk, thanks to its DIY ethos, egoless contributors, and tireless thirst for something new they can call their own, has evolved more quickly than other genres, branching into intricate subgenres that highlight different nuances of […]

Just when it felt like 2025 was hitting a lull after an onslaught of unforgettable releases that dotted previous months, the second-to-last week of October comes out swinging. This week is a colorful one, bursting with returns from icons, posthumous releases that carry the torch of legends, and a collection of deluxe albums that bring […]

The nineties have been romanticized since the decade came to a close, and sometimes the hyperbolic praise of the era isn’t too far off. Most see the 90s as a free era, pre-social media, where creativity ran the entertainment business, and corporations like record labels and movie studios were willing to take risks on experimental […]

Monte Booker is an artist most music fans have heard, whether they realize it or not. The producer extraordinaire recontextualized the marriage of electronic music and Hip-hop for post-blog-era stars like Smino and Kenny Mason, as well as modern R&B icons like Mereba. With a production catalog that can compete with some of the most […]

Enthusiastic followers of modern R&B/Soul remember only a few months back when Cautious Clay unleashed The Hours: Morning. The quick yet potent, 8-song LP found the singer/songwriter/producer exploring a bright, pop terrain with his emphatic songwriting and natural knack for infectious melodies. The Hours: Morning was a daring genre leap compared to Clay’s more R&B-oriented […]

Pop is a genre that is slow to catch up to its forward-thinking contributors. While the sounds of yesterday find placement in the Billboard charts long after the innovators of the genre have moved on from that sound, it is essential to give credit where credit is due. Animal Collective deserves a healthy heap of […]

Artistic evolution comes for every memorable musician, whether you like it or not. To selfishly ask an artist to stick to the elements of their sound that made you a fan would be a detriment. How else do you expect greatness if repetition is involved? Where can an artist go when fans and critics have […]

It is starting to get just cold enough to wear a sweater, but not cold enough to freeze the stadium-sized gears on our delicate machinery here at the Old Caustic Factory. As we toss more coal into blazing ovens beneath huge conveyor belts, our trusty machines spit out another stellar list of fresh releases from […]

Longevity is a beautiful thing that most bands can only hope to experience. There are plenty of ways for a young band to etch its name into the history books. Still, those collections of music history are only as good as the people writing them, leaving plenty of room for interpretation on who is classified […]

An album as universally adored and critically acclaimed as The Last Dinner Party’s debut album, 2024’s Prelude to Ecstasy, doesn’t come around too often. The London-based, genre-pushing alt-rock five-piece proved to be a creative force from the start, building up to their stellar debut by generating a strong buzz as a must-see live act. It […]

On paper, Militarie Gun should be in a celebratory mindset heading into God Save The Gun, the highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed, monstrous Life Under The Gun LP from 2023. That album propelled the band, centered around songwriter/vocalist Ian Shelton, to the forefront of an exhilarating and burgeoning post-punk movement, a scene filled […]

Sudan Archives, the project of singer/songwriter/producer/violinist Brittney Parks, has been quietly crafting one of the more diverse discographies in contemporary music. Since her signing to the illustrious Stones Throw Records a few years back, Parks has proven to be a restless creative spirit with a stubborn refusal to repeat herself sonically. This approach forces the […]

Philly Music Fest 2025 is officially underway, and the city hasn’t hummed like this since the Eagles Super Bowl parade. The seven-day, multi-venue non-profit event has become an honored tradition for The City of Brotherly Love, bringing the colorful art scene together through intimate performances from some of Philly’s finest representatives. Everyone from The Wonder […]

It is always hard to believe how quickly these New Music Fridays creep up on us, but this is the type of week music fanatics dream of. This week’s Caustic is a sprawling one, with wildly exciting returns sitting next to artistic feats of immersive experimentation and conventional bliss. From soul that soars over mountaintops […]

Led by one of the most powerful frontwomen of all time, The Avengers are one of the more interesting punk bands to emerge from the West Coast. Outside of the fact that Marvel made it difficult to find footage of this band, and that they were the opening band for the Sex Pistols on the […]

Guitar, the Portland-bred indie rockers, centred around songwriter and producer Saia Kuli, have always been up for a challenge. From fighting for their spot in a burgeoning art scene in their home city, to toying with the limits of their lo-fi aesthetics to achieve colorful compositions, Kuli has never shied away from the complexity of […]

Empty your minds and open them up to new ideas. Princess Nokia has arrived with a new project. Following the animated, hyperpop-tinted I Love You But This Is Goodbye, Nokia emerges with Girls, a venomous, daring, and vulnerable LP that challenges established norms and fearlessly transforms pain into uplifting anthems and heartfelt poetry. If you’ve […]

October is officially underway, and the air is already starting to crystallize with the brisk breezes of Autumn. Just like an old car, we need to keep the machines at the Old Caustic Factory turning to keep the engines alive. Thankfully, we have a plethora of new music for our machines to sift through and […]

Metal music has always been crafted to hit you directly in the chest, with a perfectly aligned chord that pierces through the speakers and sticks to the bottled-up aggression most people carry with them. Like the finishing move in a fighting game, there is a violent, celebratory poetry that cuts through the stereotypical wall of […]