Melvins

At A Crawl

On the Melvins, and reconnecting with bands you thought were past their prime.

Ritual Cross

Introducing Ritual Cross

New band, new music, new newsletter.

Krill

If you want to feel like a failure…

Dispatches from the first quarter of 2025.

I wish the horrors would have spared you

Of all the strange details I remember from growing up in a funeral home perhaps the most childlike was my fascination with the memorial cards. I remember them being delivered in small cardboard boxes and my father opening them with a giant letter opener. As a kid obsessed with baseball

Kriegshög

The Former Clarity 2024 Year-End Extravaganza

New music, new movies, new records.

Absolut

The end of punk summer

From raging D-beat to weirdo, outsider demos, here's the summer's best punk records.

Motorhead

Lost in the ozone

Back in the saddle with Lemmy and co.

Aaron Turner

Aaron Turner: The Former Clarity Interview

Talking about the new SUMAC album, tattooing, art, and what drives him to keep pushing forward.

Faster Than I Can Think

Welcome back to Former Clarity. I had some topics I wanted to explore up top here, but I don't want to wade into the muck on those things right now. Instead, I want to direct you to a couple of items that I think are worth your time

Leatherface

I wouldn't lie to you

New music, old music, new thougts.

Pile

Talking creativity with Pile's Rick Maguire

By now, it's well-documented that I'm a huge Pile fan. I've written about them a ton, interviewed the band's songwriter Rick Maguire several times, and just generally championed Pile whenever the opportunity has presented itself. This week, less than a year after

The Former Clarity 2023 year-end recap

And I feel… not so fine.

The joys of healthcare in America

Four years in one gulp

Looking back and moving forward.

SSD

Al and Nancy Barile on documenting the past and setting the record straight

Talking to two hardcore legends about bringing history to the present.

The year rolls on: Your fall music report

Some thoughts on new music that I've been digging.

Pat Flynn

Talking with Fiddlehead's Pat Flynn about hardcore's historical record

On the influence of Sinead O'Connor, Rage Against The Machine, Crass, and so much more.

A 2023 midyear report

Some very good records came out this year and I'm highlighting a select few just because I can.

Crass

The Former Clarity guide to Anarcho-Punk

Do they owe us a blog post? Of course they do!

Postcards from the end of the world

After a bit of an extended hiatus, I've decided to fire up the old newsletter to write about everyone's favorite topic: generative AI. Now, far be it from me to position myself as an authority on a topic that many, many others are more well-equipped to

Unwound

What I See Is The End Of The End

Unwound's reunion just feels different.

Turning the screws

No, that's not just a clever title, this is a very real descriptor of what I've been doing the past couple of months. For those who don't know, I spent the end of 2022 tearing down my finished basement after some minor flooding and

The Former Clarity guide to Japanese hardcore

From Gauze to Burning Spirits and beyond.

Alex G

Good music from the second half of 2022

Some of my favorite albums and EPs from 2022.

Dazy

A mid-year list of good music

Records I liked from the first half of 2022

Fugazi

Can an observer be a participant?

What's worth being documented and why.