All posts by Anthony Kozlowski

The Nashville music scene seems to favor a certain type of up and coming artist. But if you don’t wear a cowboy hat and boots and sing about tractors, is it still possible for you to find an audience? In the case of Tennessee natives COIN, that answer is a resounding “yes!” Though they may bear little resemblance to Alan Jackson or Lady Antebellum, they still owe their rise to the same renowned music scene, which nowadays churns out bands in nearly every genre imaginable. Chase Lawrence (lead vocals), JoeRead More

There’s a very good chance that a little indie outfit from Ithaca, NY is one of your favorite bands and you don’t even know it. X Ambassadors have been making waves on the underground for quite some time. From the snowballing success of their EPS to the World Cup virality of their single “Jungle” and a score of featured collaborations including both Eminem’s “Wicked Ways” and Zedd’s “Transmission” released earlier this week, it seems almost impossible to turn one’s head without catching wind of their urgent blend of indie rock andRead More

In the early days of Writtalin–which admittedly isn’t that long ago since we’ve only been going strong for about a year and a half–I had the distinct pleasure of meeting one of alternative rock’s rising stars. On the idyllic tract of downtown Fullerton, Ryan Daly, Anthony Improgo and the rest of electoropop quartet Parade of Lights shook KROQ’s Locals Only Show like a firestorm. They were poised to take the alt nation by storm, owning the stage like a post-apocalyptic Walk the Moon or a sweeter pop answer to AWOLNATION.Read More

Remember a little Swedish Kickstarter project making the rounds in early 2014 that played like an 80’s time capsule overload? We certainly do. In David Sandberg’s Kung Fury, a “kung fu renegade cop” travels back in time to defeat the most evil kung fu master of all time – wait for it – Adolf Hitler. Along the way he enlists the help of ancient, gun-toting Vikings, fights a sentient arcade game, and rides into battle astride a Tyrannosaurus Rex all to a bombastic 80’s synth soundtrack that’s equal parts nostalgicRead More

Though their third studio effort Pop Psychology may be just over a year in the past, alt-pop band Neon Trees aren’t ready to take a break just yet. This June, the Provo, Utah quartet will embark on their aptly-titled “An Intimate Night with Neon Trees” tour, during which they will be playing a series of small venues across the US. And since their latest hit single “Sleeping with a Friend” has long since faded from the airwaves, Tyler Glenn and company have decided the best way to mark the occasion isRead More

In just a few hours, the movie industry’s biggest night will once again sweep onto our television sets to inform us which films of the past year were indeed the best cinema had to offer. We the movie-going public can’t possibly be left to decide on our own. If we were, we’d just pick Maleficent for Best Picture and Robert Downey Jr. for Best Actor (does anyone even remember what he was in last year?). In any case, thank God for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and theirRead More

Punk rock and basketball certainly aren’t the first things that come to mind upon listening to singer-songwriter Stefan Pruett’s debut single, but both make up the cornerstone of “Carefree” – a smooth slice of 80s dream pop that plays like a lost track from The Breakfast Club and the National’s first foray into EDM. If that sounds like an earful, listen and judge for yourself:   If the culture clash of punk and hoops isn’t immediately apparent, Pruett wouldn’t blame you. The evolution of his music into the dark popRead More

Phoenix Skylark needs no introduction. As the world’s foremost non-author, he’s made headlines since his first foray into the literary community some 5 years ago. Now, it’s hard to imagine a world without him. Our News Feeds are so cluttered with articles from “10 Reasons Traveling is Right for Your Relationship and You Won’t Believe What I Say” to the “Puppy That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity” to the tides of BuzzFeed quizzes that the barrage sometimes threatens to overwhelm us. Luckily, pioneers like Skylark have stepped forward andRead More

Can it really be December already? It seems like just yesterday that I got that prophetic ping in my Facebook inbox from a former college buddy asking me to write for his new website. Twelve months, 1,000+ posts and a failed company trip to Vegas later and Writtalin is still chugging along on the internet hype machine. I don’t know what I expected from this first year, but the fact that we haven’t thrown in the towel yet is reason to celebrate, right? And what a year to call our first. ThroughRead More

It’s day two at the Sunset Strip Music Festival in the blistering heat of late September West Hollywood and the festivities are already in full swing.  Four blocks of the infamous strip have been cordoned off and filled with stages, stands, beer gardens and food trucks – a cross-section of the LA lifestyle in a walkabout.  The businesses that line the street are still open and flaunting festival discounts as well as water bottles at lower-than-festival prices (imagine that!).  And if you’ve had too much of the merciless California sun,Read More

For every band living the rock and roll lifestyle – smashing guitars and raiding the mini bar a la Iggy Azalea – there is another that’s traded in the high life for an adult one.  And that philosophy doesn’t only apply to tucking in their shirts and adopting 401Ks.  Some have created an entire identity for themselves, completely autonomous as both artists and people.  It’s rare that an indie group is truly independent by these standards, but every once in a while one will peek through the rows of label-puppets.Read More

This past Wednesday marked a glorious occasion for fans of dance-along, paint-your-face indie pop.  Giddy, metro rock outfit Walk the Moon – still selling out shows on the back of their massively successful second album – released a taste of what’s next in the form of the whimsical dance floor track “Shut Up and Dance.” The Ohio foursome – comprised of members Nicholas Petricca, Kevin Ray, Sean Waugaman and Eli Maiman – have spent the summer supporting Panic! at the Disco on their Gospel Tour, but it appears that theyRead More

Even those who frequent Pitchfork and BIRP might have a difficult time stumbling upon a certain quintet of upstarts from Hamilton, Ontario. Funny, considering that Arkells all the rage on the Canadian indie scene, amassing the Juno Awards (the Canadian Grammy) for New Group of the Year in 2010 and Group of the Year in 2012. A brief journey through their discography is all it takes to see why. Their debut album Jackson Square announced them as a loud, persistent force backed by a subtle Motown influence and a uniqueRead More

Being the lazy, easily distracted millennial that I am (just ask TIME), I wandered onto Netflix the other day in my usual procrastinatory way. I was on a mission to hack my way through Season 6 of Dexter, but my benevolent overlords of content streaming had something else in mind. The feature bar exploded into full screen, depicting the hand-drawn image of an anthropomorphized horse swilling a glass of scotch and sporting a tweed jacket. Understandably, my first reaction was an emphatic “What the f*ck?” and the accompanying trailer onlyRead More

Take a long, hard look at this design and tell me what you see.  Is it the innocent image of a rooster, or do you get a throbbing feeling that the designer had something a little more phallic in mind?  That’s the source of the blowback directed at catering company Dirty Bird Fried Chicken for their controversial new logo. According to graphic artist Mark James, the man behind the cockerel, the image is nothing more than a barnyard bird. “We were given the name Dirty Bird as the brief, and startedRead More