Categories
Articles Arts & Culture SLUG Magazine

DAVID JIMENEZ & TASTEMASTERS: CRAFTING CONVERSATIONS

David Jimenez & Tastemasters: Crafting Conversations

Jimenez hopes he can keep expanding and growing Tastemasters. He hopes to keep talking to people in different areas of fermentation, such as kombucha and hot sauce. He also wants to host new kinds of guests, including politicians and policymakers. “If I ever come and reach out to an individual, I’m just here to truly hear your story,” he says. “So, don’t be afraid to come on or have a conversation with me.”

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Food SLUG Magazine

SLACKWATER: FINDING SUCCESS IN SLC

Slackwater: Finding Success in SLC

After finding success with its first two locations in Ogden and Sandy, Slackwater is finally in Salt Lake City. The restaurant brought its artisan pizzas and vast beer selection to the Granary District in late 2021, and as it did with its first two locations, Slackwater hopes to win over SLC with its fresh ingredients, house-made dough and abundant drink selection.

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Food SLUG Magazine

TOMMY NGUYEN & THE PEARL: THE BEST OF GROWING UP

Tommy Nguyen & the Pearl: the Best of Growing Up

For Tommy Nguyen, owning a restaurant with his own curated menu didn’t always seem like a possibility. Once a high school dropout working at a Denny’s in Utah County, he eventually made his way to Salt Lake City, where he found opportunities working in the city’s food scene: He rolled sushi at Takashi for 16 years, helped open restaurants such as Rye and the Post Office Place and was a part of developing the taco program at Alibi. With years of experience and hard work under his belt, Nguyen is now co-owner and head chef of one of SLC’s newest 21+ restaurants, The Pearl.

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Arts & Culture SLUG Magazine

SURMISE CLOTHING COMPANY: JUSTICE THROUGH PARADOX

Surmise Clothing Company: Justice through Paradox

The big picture for Surmise in 2020 is continuing to take on more social and political issues in the vein of police brutality. Jones and Surmise want to make change through T-shirts and attempt to bring more attention to those kinds of problems in the world. “I’ve tried really hard to focus on only uplifting voices that need to be heard through this movement,” he says. “And to use my platform to share what is going on, as well as raise money for folks who need it—for mutual aid causes, for bail funds and stuff like that.”

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Arts & Culture SLUG Magazine

MAST: EMPOWERING THE ARTIST ENTREPRENEUR

Mast: Empowering the Artist Entrepreneur

Today, MAST is a program put on by SLFS and is driven to help young filmmakers and artists hone their craft and to become “artist entrepreneurs”—fledgling filmmakers who know how to construct a proper business plan in distributing their work, which is a skill many creators today lack. “Successful artists must be entrepreneurs,” says Romney, “but art schools rarely teach business-survival skills like marketing, networking, brand-building, accounting or even how to build a business plan. That’s where we come in.”

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Music Music Reviews SLUG Magazine

WAVVES – YOU’RE WELCOME

WAVVES –YOU’RE WELCOME

You’re Welcome is one of the better albums I’ve heard so far this year, too. With a lot of psychedelic bands coming out from the ether lately, it’s nice to know that punk still works and can still sound new. Wavves fans might not be in love with every track on the record because of the challenge, but if you’re open to the new sound and give it a few rotations, I’m sure that you can find a few of your own gems and appreciate what Williams is doing. And if not, “Animal” should hopefully keep listeners satiated until they can complain about how the next Wavves album doesn’t sound like Wavves.

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Music Music Reviews SLUG Magazine

THE GROWLERS – CITY CLUB

THE GROWLERS – CITY CLUB

It still feels like new music, doesn’t it? Each new record from The Growlers has something gripping enough that makes it as exciting as a debut. The Growlers swooned us back in 2013 with “One Million Lovers” and Gilded Pleasures, those “Humdrum Blues” with Hung At Heart, and then, within the more recent couple of years, that magnificently depressing “Good Advice” on Chinese Fountain. We’ve been seeing The Growlers for a while now, and we know all their tricks: bashful love songs softly cradled by opiate-euphoria, kick-shit pub songs aggravated by rum and amphetamines, and, of course, how genuinely they’ve always related to the everyday man when the going gets tough. But something has been different with The Growlers lately. They’ve been coming home later at night smelling like cheap perfume and whiskey with a slick new Members Only jacket, and they’re not caressing our needs as much anymore. At this point, they know how obsessed with them we’ve become, and they don’t feel obligated to fill our every need. Now, they’ve decided they’re going to do what they want to do. They’re going to stay out and drink for however long they want. They’re going to pick up new moods and scents even if you don’t like them. They’re going to flirt with something new if it fancies them, and they’re going to turn up their fuzz and synthesizers however fucking loudly they want.

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Music Music Interviews SLUG Magazine

VIOLENT SOHO: FINDING A WAY OUT OF THIS THING

Violent Soho: Finding a Way Out of This Thing

It’s been an emotional ride for Australia’s Violent Soho. The troupe—Luke BoerdamJames TidswellLuke Henery and Michael Richards out of Brisbane, Queensland—has gone from trying to grab the attention of America in 2010 to moving back in with mom and dad and applying to McDonald’s to recording a gold-selling album and landing as a premiere Australian pop punk band. They released their fourth album, Waco, in March, and are set to promote it in America this fall in cities like Toronto, Denver and Salt Lake City on Sept. 2. They’ll be taking another chance here since their last American endeavor six years ago, but this time, with a larger catalog, they seem more confident—they know what it’s like being in a band that’s seen the absolute worst situation and, also, the absolute best.

Read the full article!

Categories
Articles Music Music Interviews SLUG Magazine

FIDLAR: HONEST, CLEAN, ORIGINAL

Fidlar: Honest, Clean, Original

If you have listened to FIDLAR’s albums, Fidlar and Too, you see what they represent: at first you’re in the heat of the party, burning in the prime of your youth. But then, before you know it, you’re nursing your hangover in rehab. For their frontman, Zac Carper, these two albums have been exactly that. Around the time of the first album’s release, Carper had been smoking crack with kids at shows and injecting heroin. Now, Carper is a year and a half sober. He’s stopped going to the after-parties, and he doesn’t even smoke weed anymore. It’s interesting to hear about his habits and how he has made such a polar shift. But what is really interesting is his honesty. Apart from the conversation he had with SLUG, Carper has opened up to blogs from Vice to Stereogum about past life and drug habits. My biggest question was, why is he so honest with the media?

Read the full article!