Why This Rules

In terms of overall feel, the ground Westelaken is treading is a sort of weird country terrain that is hard to map in detail, so I’ll try to keep it vague: the Westelaken vibe is, in my opinion, [...]

I’ve seen Cots twice, first at a Kazoo! gig Steph and I played together—Lucky 13th Anniversary in the outdoor Gazebo outside GCVI high school—and again at Odyssey Records in London, where her [...]

Last time I saw Noah23, it was at a show I played at the University of Guelph in 2018. He had recently gotten the number 23 tattooed onto his forehead as a gift to himself to celebrate “retiring” [...]

Forces of nature: the first time I saw and heard Cartel I knew they were flexing a force rare and special. Though they were new to performing and rapping they had a visceral command on recordings [...]

I met Nadah in Cairo, Egypt at a party in the apartment of legendary hep cat and musical polymath Mahmoud Refat through a mutual friend (the great oud player, Yasmine El Baramawry). We talked for [...]