All posts by Anthony Kozlowski

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to read Kesha’s name in the news without biting back some kind of frustration. Since 2014, the pop superstar has been locked in a legal battle with former manager and producer Dr. Luke (aka Lukas Gottwald) alleging sexual assault and emotional manipulation, while seeking an injunction to be freed from her contract with Sony. So far the law has predictably come down on the side of the record label and the accused (which I’ve already aired my grievances about), but the cloudRead More

After eighteen months off the map, Writtalin’s favorite electropop band is back with new music in tow. Ahead of their forthcoming album, the LA four-piece Parade of Lights have given us a taste of what’s to come in the form of “Touch,” a bright, hook-packed piece of effervescent pop, the likes of which has been sorely missing from the indie scene lately. Gone are the heavily vamped guitars of their debut, frontman Ryan Daly and the gang instead pursuing a straight-forward dancefloor vibe that begs listeners to abandon their seatsRead More

I discovered PWR BTTM only a month ago, and they probably wouldn’t have crossed my radar without a little stoking from Apple Music. One Friday in early May, a raw punk thrasher called “Big Beautiful Day” from their new release “Pageant” found its way onto my New Music playlist. I was immediately enamored. As I began to read about their image of queer advocacy, the hook sunk deeper. Here were a pair of gender non-conforming musicians rocking drag, while howling out songs about bodily autonomy. I dug it in aRead More

This article contains spoilers of Alien: Covenant, Prometheus, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. No amount of plugging your ears and “la la la” will save you. Picture it: America, 2008. The country shook from an unprecedented event that rocks us to this very day. I’m speaking, of course, about the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Obama who? Stay focused.) It was one of the first nostalgia wet dreams of movie fandom, the revival of a long ago and muchRead More

I would like to share something that happened to me on Facebook earlier this week, and no, it had nothing to do with cat videos or a political yelling match. Monday afternoon I came across this piece in Gizmodo. For the “too long, didn’t read” crowd, it is a case study in Facebook’s community standards. User Erin La Ninfa, who runs the blog “Just Another White Hoe,” created and posted the above image to Facebook to find that she and the friends who shared it were flagged and the imageRead More

No year in recent memory has brought with it as much turmoil and general fuckery as 2016. From the celebrity lives lost, to the spiraling of world events, to the dumpster fire that was the US presidential election, it seemed like this was the year that would never end. And of course it had to be a leap year too, extending our misery for an additional 24 hours. 2017 can’t get here soon enough. In these twilight days of this lemon year, there are a few things to look backRead More

For all you LA devotees who like the occasional stroll down Hollywood Boulevard or shopping binge at the Grove, you might have spotted something out of the ordinary during the last couple months. Apart from the costumed performers, protestors, and all round weirdos that call these venues home (we’re really talking about any of the three at this point), a smattering of sign wavers have been making the sporadic appearance. Whether setting up shop on the Walk of Fame or taking up real estate on the trolley tracks, their propagandaRead More

Anonymity allows a certain degree of freedom, does it not? Free from the bounds and obligations of ego one can explore the whims of creativity apart from fear of criticism or judgment. It’s a dimension the internet age has afforded us. Behind usernames, proxies and guises our wildest fantasies come true. This liberation erases the boundaries whether they be personal, political, or in the amazing case of Soundcloud and other uploading services, sonic. Such an auditory liberation has given birth to a cornucopia of artists previously unheard by the massesRead More

The following article contains SPOILERS of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ Proceed only if you’ve already seen the movie, and if you haven’t what the heck is stopping you? If its $1 billion take is any indication, most of us have already witnessed the force awaken (maybe three times if you, like me, were alone this holiday season). For the most part, Star Wars: The Force Awakens seems to have done a great job washing out the bad taste left in our mouths from the much maligned prequels. The reviews have beenRead More

If animated shows have any advantage over their live action counterparts, it’s that they aren’t limited by what you can throw in front of the camera (without spending a mountain on visual effects that is). Case and point – “Rick and Morty,” Adult Swim’s latest cult hit, which recently capped its second season and seems to take the limitless possibilities of animation as a dare. It traverses multiple dimensions and exotic alien worlds, rendering the most bizarre visuals it can muster on a weekly basis. Yet for all the imaginationRead More

“Excuse me, sir. Do you have a minute to talk about rock and roll?” The question comes somewhat meekly during a break in an otherwise vicious wall of sound. Wearing a sharktoothed sundress, Rebecca Bortman looks more Alice in Wonderland than garage rock heroine. Nevertheless, she and her monochrome bandmates that make up lo-fi outfit Happy Fangs serve up the good word of rock and roll with a feverish bite. The night is still young at the Silverlake Lounge in Los Angeles. At 9PM on a Tuesday, I’m usually plopped onRead More

  This weekend marked yet another windfall for one of cinema’s most iconic characters. Falling just short of Skyfall‘s record-breaking $88.3 million debut, Spectre came on its heels at a healthy $70 million, etching another notch in James Bond’s recent winning streak. Let’s face it, the world loves to watch Britain’s most famous spy traverse exotic locales, drink martinis, thwart cartoonish villains and bed beautiful women, all while decked out in the sleekest suits money can buy. Bond is a cultural phenomenon that, while birthed in Ian Flemming’s books, belongsRead More

The throng inside Anaheim’s famed House of Blues presses toward the stage in silent, rapt attention. In the heart of Downtown Disney with all its lights, glamor and themed uniformity, one doesn’t expect to witness the raw expression and stripped-down performance of the act currently in residence. Keith Goodwin and Dan Schwartz of Philly folk trio Good Old War — armed with only an acoustic guitar and their searing vocal harmonies — hold the crowd in the palm of their hand. “When you play this way, the songs have to beRead More

Fans of British jangle pop rejoice! The 1975 will return later this afternoon with their new single “Love Me,” which drops at approximately 4PM/PST. How can we be so sure, you ask? Two weeks ago, the notoriously cryptic band posted a countdown on the splash page of their website teasing only that something big was on the horizon. Well, the short wait and speculation are both over. // L O V E M E – H O T T E S T R E C O R D – TRead More

If you’re like most of world, you will find your butt in a movie theater sometime over the next couple weeks reliving the heyday of early 90’s blockbuster cinema. This Friday will see the revival of a former Hollywood powerhouse franchise and what was for many of us a seminal moment in our childhood. Whether or not Jurassic World is any good, we will see it. Why? Because Jurassic Park is. It encapsulated a generation, bringing unprecedented visual wonder, classic characters and Spielberg’s singular stamp of sustained awe and sheerRead More