É-town Concrète

to play against west coasters after 1 am is to admit that losing isn’t that bad, really

Hell Dogs?
Bullet Dogs?
Global Force Dogs?

good column

In my first year doing the blog I made 50 posts. The next year I only did 25. I'm gunning for 100 this year if I can (I've only done 4 so far, but I have 3 more basically done)

There's been a wave of online ska that's happier, gayer, and more organ-centric that calls itself "new tone". This isn't that, but it's more than just eight white dads with tattoos playing ska and smoking legal weed. The Hempsteadys are physical, visceral. Grounded. I discovered the Hempsteadys when looking up Connecticut-based bands, saw the music video for "Still Life With Woodpecker", and was hooked. It's a nearly-perfect heartland rock song, coming off a great ska record that I have on vinyl. I was a little worried about On The Undercard, to be honest. Their non-album single, "Golden Tooth", felt low-effort and flat. I wanted them to lean into the things that the other ska bands weren't doing, blending ska, surf, and pre-landfill indie rock.

On the Undercard by the Hempsteadys is a good album, and I like it.

doublebinary.neocities.org/blog/2026/he...

Sinister how?

the band that blew out the speakers in my car

I thought you said this totally wasn’t a Lucent situation

50 DAYS AT ILIAM channel early 2000s metalcore heat on their self-recorded debut demo - IDIOTEQ.com You know that feeling — the one where a riff kicks in and you're immediately back in 2004, watching some band from New Jersey tear through a VFW basement? 50

Many thanks to @idioteqcom.bsky.social for profiling my new band! idioteq.com/50-days-at-i...

I bought this from the merch table of Mr. Mt. Oriander, Keith Latinen, after seeing his set as a member of Parting. Latinen, better known as a former member of Empire! Empire! I Was A Lonely Estate, didn't have any Parting CDs, and I knew I was going to fill up on vinyl at Jerry's and at the Mr. Roboto Punk Rock Flea Market in Pittsburgh later that week, so I grabbed the only CD that was available at the table.

Post Marked Stamps #7, the split between Mt. Oriander and Engagements, is a bad EP but I like it. Bafflingly frail CD packaging holds some bittersweet 90s emo revival. Other than that, it's pleasant, if forgettable.

doublebinary.neocities.org/blog/2026/en...

i love not knowing the difference between matthew lillard and damien lillard

it’s not on S*****y, but I’ll find it and give it a spin

sure, but what about Eagles?

more like buttlerian jihad am i right fellow humans

I'm publishing this article on the 20th anniversary of the release of Donuts, by J Dilla. If you want to read a piece celebrating the legacy that James Dewitt Yancey left behind in its entirety, go elsewhere, but here's an abridged version of Dilla's story: Detroit rapper-producer mastered the AKAI MPC sampler, collaborated with the greatest artists on the edge of the Black underground music scene in the late 90s and early 00s, died young of autoimmune disease. Legend says that he produced at least some of these tracks while fighting lupus in a Los Angeles hospital. The more boring truth is that he was probably using Pro Tools and the album was sequenced, the tracks named, and possibly some of the beats were produced by Peanut Butter Wolf and Jeff Jank. Again, there's some really good, click-supported journalists who've written better pieces than I ever could, so let's just knuckle down and taste some pastries.

Donuts by J Dilla is 20 years old today. It’s a good album, and I like it.

doublebinary.neocities.org/blog/2026/j-...

that mike record is something else

I think I’ve listened to the Snow Patrol cover of Crazy In Love 3x as much as I have the original song

I am displeased to report that measuring out my coffee grounds and water actually does make my pour over taste better than eyeballing it does

#CDs forever. Easy to copy, easy to burn, portable, lightweight, perfect mix of digital convenience and physical presence.

The gimmick of my music review blog is simple:

Albums can be good, or bad.

Independent of their quality, I can like them or dislike them.

Hence "Double Binary by Goalie Fight".

goaliefightnj.com/blog

The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.”

That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.

Happy 2026. I guarantee, however bad you thought 2025 was, 2026 is going to be way worse unless we do something about it. 2025 was pretty good for music, or so I'm told. I spent most of it knee deep in death metal and metalcore. Now that I'm in a heavy band, I need to know what the standard of brutality is so that we can surpass it. My AOTY was the album that gave me a window into metalcore's past, so that I may understand metalcore's present and future.

My AOTY this year was @yourspiritdies.bsky.social 's My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest. Read about it on Double Binary!

doublebinary.neocities.org/blog/2026/yo...

inhale the vapors

and yet we persist

we being you and me

which means you also gotta persist or I’m gonna look like an idiot

their bet is that the kind of person who doesn’t want to see a snuff film is also the kind of person who wants the right thing to have happened. someone so desperate for peace they’ll accept any justification to retroactively make the thing correct.

it's good

incredible

for reference 222 ormsby is a glorified house venue built in a former corner store in the south hills. long running punk & metal venue.

starting to question the efficacy of posting. just a hunch

i cannot make the Cal Chuchesta expression with my face. how does he do that.