Archive: 2025

When Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band got booked into a small performance space in an industrial pocket of Northeast Portland, Oregon most venue owners had little idea he was about to blow up with the release of his sprawling and masterful album New Threats From the Soul. Luckily, John Shepski did. The owner of […]

Thus far, cinema has been a powerful medium used to demystify complex topics ranging from feminist discourse (Barbie) to touching on DNA and cloning (Jurassic Park franchise). However, whenever we see tech on the big screen, it’s always the standard frantic keyboard mashing or a hacking mainframe on the character’s monitor.  Despite there being an […]

Odds shape more choices than we think: they sit behind weather forecasts, commute plans, and even which movie we pick on Friday night! If we learn to understand odds, we will notice patterns faster and make calmer decisions. This skill pays off across many fields, from health to personal finance.  Near the end of this […]

IMG Two decades can turn what once felt radical into common language. The mid-2000s delivered a wave of albums whose DNA still threads through playlists, charts, and film scores. Instead of fading into nostalgia, these records taught producers to hybridize genres, taught singers to favor intimacy over volume, and taught listeners to expect adventure inside […]

Thus far, cinema has been a powerful medium used to demystify complex topics ranging from feminist discourse (Barbie) to touching on DNA and cloning (Jurassic Park franchise). However, whenever we see tech on the big screen, it’s always the standard frantic keyboard mashing or a hacking mainframe on the character’s monitor.  Despite there being an […]

Online gambling can be fun, but it can also be costly, especially if you’re on a downward cycle. There are alternatives that don’t require your own money. Demo modes and social and sweepstakes casinos all offer something unique. Curious what that is? Here’s the breakdown. Demo Modes: Casual Fun With No Risk Demo modes are […]

We here at the Caustic factory want to wish everyone a joyous Halloween, but if you’re too old for trick-or-treating, we have a grab bag of fresh releases to sink your teeth into. The factory takes no holidays for those who don’t either, and this week continues October’s hot streak of stunning LPs. With surprise […]

Recorded in two sessions in 1956 and released the following year on Savoy, Hank Mobley’s Jazz Message #2 stands as one of those compact but essential hard bop statements that rewards close listening far beyond its brief runtime. It captures Mobley still a few years shy of his Blue Note masterpieces like Soul Station and […]

There is an intimacy to Lydia Luce’s third and latest LP, Mammoth, that feels almost invasive. Across a dozen ethereal tracks, she touches on pain and relationships, eventual acceptance, and ultimately to contentment, all delivered over a lush soundtrack. Luce gets right into it with the opening title track —a slow-tempo, remarkably beautiful song about […]

Willi Carlisle is an entertainer who works hard and puts himself out there to offer encouragement and support through the strangeness of life. And he does it by injecting his own brand of strangeness into traditional folk music. One might wonder if he’s a throwback to times of old, or a cutting-edge troubadour leading the […]

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 […]

Because Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963 covers much the same ground as the 2025 biopic A Complete Unknown, it is the ideal collection to release in the wake of that film. As has been the case with previous editions of this archival enterprise, the curators, headed by co-producers […]

Most people today use the internet for just about everything. You wake up, check your messages, scroll the news, and maybe stream something while you eat. Work, shopping, learning, even catching up with friends; it’s all online now. With billions of users worldwide, the web has become an integral part of daily life. But it’s […]

The cover photos on reissues of Rory Gallagher’s Against The Grain (released 10/31/75) are much preferable to the original graphic design’s contrivance. The close-up of the late Irishman’s Fender Stratocaster shows the guitar’s well-worn finish, an apt depiction not only of Gallagher’s rough-hewn blues-rock but also of the man’s stubbornly forthright aversion to commercializing his […]

Train Conductor is back with their second LP release this year. The title of the new album is Feeling Town. Earlier this year, the band released a stunning collaborative experimental electronic album with REIGHNBEAU titled Who is this? Now the band has a new, fuzzed-out psych-punk record. The album features Albuquerque’s most talented musicians and […]

FISHLORD is a punk project from Stefan Bindley-Taylor, a Trinidadian-American author and musician from Maryland. FISHLORD’s eclectic influences range from System of a Down to Earl Sweatshirt and Mitski. Outside of music, Bindley-Taylor is a published author, having most recently won the 2025 Chautauqua Janus prize. He also performs as an alternative hip-hop act called […]

Jeremy Pinnell’s latest LP edges away from the strictly traditional country sound that anchored his early records, where Roots, Western Swing, and Honky Tonk set the tone. His new Shooter Jennings-produced release, Decades, builds on that foundation but folds in streaks of blues and 1970s rock—not that surprising given the eclectic mix he was raised […]

The 1980s were heady times for synthesizers and drum machines. Ushering out the distorted three-chord guitars and traditional drum/bass/guitar lineups of the punk and stadium era rock of the decade that preceded it. New Wave bands like OMD, Human League, and The Pet Shop Boys created a dance-friendly genre that was light on sneers and […]