Spoiler alert! The new Midlake record is not from the band that you grew to love with The Trials Of Van Occupanther. With each successive album, the members of Midlake transformed, foregrounding a different favorite section of their record collections. Now comes Antiphon (ATO), which announces itself with an opening title track that rocks harder and more insistently than anything in the group’s prior catalog. Midlake again sounds like a new band. And, this time it is: It’s Midlake’s first since the departure of principal singer/songwriter Tim Smith, its first with guitarist Eric Pulido stepping into those lead roles, its first with former touring members Jesse Chandler (keyboards, flute) and Joey McClellan (guitars) officially joining drummer Mackenzie Smith, multi-instrumentalist Paul Alexander and guitarist Eric Nichelson. Chandler and Nichelson will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Midlake feature.
Nichelson: Shift is another of the great establishments of Denton, Texas. Owner and operator Angelo Fesperman has created the first “slow” coffee bar in town. It’s probably the best shot of espresso I’ve ever had. And that’s really hard to say considering all the places I’ve had coffee. But whatever is going on at Shift Coffee needs to happen all over the world. Unfortunately, Angelo can only be at one place at a time!
