Recent articles written by Griffen Callahan

Hamilton Leithauser / Jack and Eliza @ The Casbah – 5.13.15
All photos by Rob Schell. Jack and Eliza The cave-like maze of small dark rooms that make up The Casbah were brightened Saturday night by the warm chords radiating from the two guitars on stage, and also by the smiles beaming from the two people wielding them. The vintage of...

Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
Any album’s story that originates with the artist hopping in their van with “enough mushrooms to choke a horse,” and continues with them driving down the California coast in order to find their narrative voice, is bound to enflame one’s curiosity, if not flat out scorch it to the bare...

Justin Townes Earle – Absent Fathers
There is something inherently and undeniably Southern in Justin Townes Earl’s music. His sound conjures visions of beautifully humble meridional landscapes and miles of ancient dusty highways stretching below the Mason Dixon Line. His newest album, Absent Fathers, could be the soundtrack to an unwritten movie about the last lonely...

RATKING – So It Goes
If you happen to come across a writhing mass of rats intertwined by their tails, essentially knotted together with blood, feces and dirt, you have found a rat king. A rare phenomenon associated with bad omens, more specifically plagues. If you happen to come across a New York rap trio...

Atmosphere – Southsiders
It’s a bizarre thing to experience trepidation when one of your favorite artists releases a new album. To feel a fear based in the idea that we all age, change and are fallible. Atmosphere has been, after all, one of my top hip-hop groups for over a decade and with...

Deap Vally / Band of Skulls @ House of Blues, San Diego – 5/19/14
Words by Griffen Callahan / Pics by Robert Schell Photography Full photo galleries down below The aura of the crowd was one of nonchalance, and indifference, when Deap Vally walked out on Monday night. It was an all-ages show, which these days fill me with the desire to yell at the half-grown...

FYF Fest 2013 – Day 2
Words by Griffen Callahan, Photos by Rob Schell “Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink. We were, after all, the absolute cream of the national sporting press.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las...

FYF Fest 2013 – Day 1 Reviews and Pictures
Words by Griffen Callahan, concert photography by Scott Dudelson As our photographer and I hoofed our way through L.A.’s China Town, the mid-day sun breaking on our heads, the excitement began to creep its way up my spine. We were both rookies to FYF fest, and really didn’t know what to expect. ...