My father used to call it ‘blowing out the carbs..’ I was a little girl, in Northeast Texas, in the middle 70s. We had old cars, my entire childhood, often hotrods, or in leaner times at least a family car with a big-assed surprise under the hood..

Some of those older hot rods of his were high-performance cars that had four-barrel carburetors. If you drove slowly around town, you'd use only two of the barrels. To exercise the other barrels and keep them from sticking, you'd have to get the car on the highway and accelerate hard for at least a short time.

Overall, the general tide in Indie rock pulls heavily towards the twinkley.  Lots of synth, lots of electronics, lots of over-dubbing, lots of special effects, and less dirty guitar with each passing year.  Not that I would attempt to deny the appeal that this trend has – I’ve grown fond of pretty much the whole spectrum over the past decade – but what this trend conspicuously lacks is grit.  Grit and twinkle just don’t go that well together.

Howdy Halloween freakers, Vince Herman here! The Salmon are swimming into the Fillmore again for a wild night of music, costumes, debauchery and late night parading down Colfax!

Formed in 2003 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Crystal Castles consists of producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. They are named after the lyrics "The fate of the world is safe in Crystal Castles" and "Crystal Castles, the source of all power" both from the theme song for She-Ra's fortress. They are known for their melancholic lo-fi sound and their explosive live shows. Their debut album was included in NME's "Top 50 Albums of the Decade".