Garage Rock

In Solitude

by K Gocebe a.k.a. The Strange & Odd Secrets Club


What is The Strange & Odd Secrets Club? It’s not a club, or even a band. It’s really just one person – Me. Hello there! I try to put an emphasis on making my songs sound like a collective effort rather than the solo project that it truly is. Through some “social experimenting” with other musicians I found that I work much better in solitude. Part of this is due to my insecurity surrounding vulnerable lyrical and arrangement ideas, but also because I love taking on the personal responsibility of creating each element of a song.

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1% Suckers

by Fabian Schelbert of Dear Misses

Dear Misses


Since 2017, I’ve been the singer and guitarist of the Swiss band Dear Misses, although my first band experience started in 2005 when I was 15. My roots lie in a mountain valley, which is the embodiment of Switzerland: high mountains and deep valleys, a cold blue creek, a lot of snow in winter, green meadows, and Swiss cows during summer. If you don’t believe me, just Google “Muotathal.” It’s old Germanic and means “wild water valley.”

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Love Is Punk

by John Kennedy of The Dark City Kings

The Dark City Kings - Love Is Punk


Out of the blue? That doesn’t even describe the moment. Dark City Kings was the runt of the litter in the Asheville music scene. We’d lost two guitar players in the Spring and had just brought in a new guitar player and fiddle player. The core of Dark City Kings has been around the Asheville music scene for a decade – but this band was the runt of the litter and then tossed into a raging river to drown.

Dark City Kings? We were a drunken brewery band that was slowly writing original material. We wrote simple songs. We meant them. We wrote melodies you can sing in the shower and big sing-along choruses. We’d just decided to try again, write an entirely new songbook with this new band formation, practice twice a week, and play a show once a week.

We played our first show together on August 5th.

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Music is the soundtrack of life’s journey

by Jun a.k.a. Innocent Blue Birds

Innocent Blue Birds


Why do people listen to music, play instruments, or sing? It’s because they want to enhance life. Amidst the myriad responsibilities like studying, work, and chores, life lacks excitement. That’s where music comes in.

It can heal emotions; the right music can soothe the soul when facing disappointment or despair. In moments of joy, upbeat tunes elevate the experience. Music is the soundtrack of life’s journey.

I compose songs to inspire or stimulate emotions in my or someone else’s heart. If, within three minutes, my music can heal, uplift, or resonate with your heart, that would be wonderful.

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Life Is Just A Mashup

by Alex Black

Alex Black


For those who don’t know my name is Alex Black, but I go by many names. I’m Alex Black. I’m Flash The Stampede. I’m Johnny Louisville. Hence the The Man With Three Faces moniker. When I practice martial arts I’m Three Chāoláng (超狼) LOL. My main creative persona is Alex Black, however. I’m an artist in every sense of the word. A dreamer, hard worker, flamboyant, charismatic, experimental. I’m gorgeous, and one of the most dopest people walking this planet. I’m one of one, I do what I want, when I want & how I want which confuses people.

I’ve said this somewhere else but people see a 6’5 dude from Brooklyn, muscular, with an androgynous pretty boy style, constantly rocking something flamboyant. They’ll see this dude pull up in a streetwear brand from London, or maybe he’s rocking some vintage designer clothes from the 80s and 90s, mixing it with crazy footwear and eyeliner. An eccentric human being, but his talent and charisma is undeniable. That’s who Alex Black is.

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New Single and Video ‘Take it Easy on Me’ – out Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14th

by The Terminally Well

The Terminally Well - New Single and Video 'Take it Easy on Me - out Valentine's Day, Feb. 14th
The Terminally Well are an independent American rock band conceived of and formed by Rob Runkle – who has previously released several album’s worth of music as Intense “The Bohemian Pimp” from Philadelphia hip-hop group Schoolz of Thought (having worked with Questlove of The Roots, 88-Keys, Pink, Scratch, Zap Mama and Illmind, among others).

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Soaked in Secrets

by R L Armstrong

Soaked in Secrets by R L Armstrong
The day is November 9, 2019, and I live in Calgary Alberta, Canada. I grew up in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, the same town as Justin Bieber. Belieber it or not I actually babysat him once and played music with him a few times before he became the hugely famous, hated, loved, etc etc .etc .superstar kid-adult that he is now. That being said the youth culture that I grew up in that town a few years before he was not at all like what you would think a town that Justin Bieber partly grew up in would be…

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How We Forgot To Plan Ahead and Got Stuck With This Band Name

by The Brothers Of Depression

How We Became Known As “The Brothers Of Depression”

Hello friends. We are from the prairies of southern Alberta where it is sparse and dry, kind of like us. We don’t know what we’re doing or what we want, but we think we will continue. Join us as we try not to suck, but also don’t worry too much about being great. We’re just trying to be ok.

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Sifting Through Garbage: The Pet Traits Story

by Kyle Johnson

Sifting Through Garbage: The Pet Traits Story by Kyle Johnson
I have an incredibly vivid memory of the first time I heard Bad Brains. It was the first punk rock I had ever heard. I was fourteen years old, and I’m twenty-one now, but I can still conjure the feeling of that moment. The music tore through me. I felt the sound more than I heard it. It was summer, and I was staying in on a beautiful day to listen to music that a youtube algorithm was recommending me – but I’m so grateful I did. It made something click in my brain, like a light in a dingy basement being flicked on for the first time. I felt completely at home in the break-neck speed and sheer volume of the music. If you know that record, the first Bad Brains record, it is insane sounding even by today’s standards. I left the first playthrough of hundreds a completely changed kid. The world looked and felt different. I was in on some kind of secret.

I would later learn, of course, that I was far from being the only person that had this exact revelation. Very far. But it felt so special to me. I’ve played in bands and written at least a couple hundred songs since that day. I started a band with my best friends (Bad Nostalgia, check us out) that’s still kicking to this day, and we’ve played countless shows. We made an album by ourselves. I have grown as a person and lived through trial and tribulation as we all have. But that first experience hearing punk rock music was my watershed moment.

It encapsulated everything I love about music, art, and life. It’s all lead to me starting Pet Traits. I wanted to capture that feeling of excitement and wonder and use it as a creative power-tool. I threw out a lot of what I knew about music: the conventions, the chase of perfection, the safe bet, for total creative liberation. This is how I did it.

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