My favorite thing to do on any of my trips to Japan is to check out shows in various parts of the country. Shimokitazawa, Koenji, Shibuya, Shinjuku, even Yokohama and beyond (heck, Teppen was officially launched after a night at Yokohama B.B.STREET). Japan, as a whole, has vibrant and diverse music scene with great music to be heard live every night. Replicating those vibes overseas is difficult. We’ve covered stuff like Japanese wrestling shows in the US and always felt they fell quite short of replicating the Japanese experience, which shows that even with a big budget, it’s hard to get everything right.

Illustration by Ricky Vigil Operation C is a simple game; it’s a run and gun, straightforward and not subtle, like thrash metal (Sodom’s Agent Orange album art looks like a Contra game). Add in the…

Illustration by Rick V. Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (or The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls) is a fun action/JRPG hybrid that feels like a relative to Link’s Awakening (it uses the same engine…

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Cover photo of Torqued Ellipses by Richard Serra, on exhibition at Dia: Beacon in Beacon, NY. Taken by Rich. Another month full of great music. We got some great shoegaze, noise, folk, and much more. ...

Intro price of $19 until June 24, 2026. Regular price $39. Dubious Electrics is a sample library of ten different electric instruments, each of them in some way off the beaten path. It contains: Extra...

A look back at another great month full of releases, ranging from Teppen favs The Tiva, to Modest Mouse, and a collab between David Byrne and Natalia Lafourcade. Like last month we've included some al...

For years, I’ve joked about starting a promotion called “ARTWRESTLING”, not just as a play on ACTWRESTLING, but also because I feel like professional wrestling truly is a great artform, and so many ar...

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