Reid Haithcock

Back in 2007, when Long Island-based sorta hardcore band Crime in Stereo decided to call their third record ...Is Dead, it seemed to foreshadow an event that would happen sooner or later. Any fears were pacified at the time by the band sticking to its regular touring activities and issuing another record in 2009, but it wasn't long until the prophecy was finally fulfilled.

On August 9, 2010, a Facebook/Twitter update from the band declared, "Crime In Stereo Is Dead (2002-2010)"--a particularly cruel twisting of the knife since the phrasing implicitly remind fans of an album whose songs they wouldn't be hearing in person anymore. Shortly thereafter, band member Alex Dunne issued a lengthy, vague statement discussing the breakup, and the five-piece scheduled a handful of final appearances. The last Crime show happened on their native soil at Bergen Point Country Club in January 14, 2011.

Then, on this past October 3, using one of the same social media outlets they did last time, the group announced, "Hiatus rescinded." Along with revealing information of note (they would start making new music immediately, they missed working together, they'd play a single show in 2012, etc.), they thankfully also had the sense to acknowledge how little time they spent in the grave. "We know," they wrote. "We were 'only' broken up for two years." It was some comic book death kinda shit, but really, quite the positive if you were familiar with how their arc was going before it was halted.

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Much has been afoot in Gary Grice's professional life lately. The Wu-Tang Clan colonel better known as GZA or Genius is working on a new astronomy/physics-inspired record called Dark Matter and a re-recording of Liquid Swords, his 1995 stone-cold classic, that will incorporate instrumentation by live bands. Get On Down is issuing a spiffy deluxe version of the original Swords that features a new all-instrumentals disc, a 20-page book, and a miniature chess set. Liquid Swords II should be coming down the pike at some point, too. On top of all this, he has shows to do, like tonight's performances of Swords backed by Latin funk group Grupo Fantasma.

Things were far more dormant when I spoke to the MC last fall for an interview that's sat on the shelf thanks to some bad luck. At the time, GZA was planning to lecture at Harvard University (he's since visited MIT, NYU, and Cornell, too), and as we join the conversation in progress, he's just discussed how his speaking engagement will look at how he puts rhymes together and structures lyrics, and how rappers confuse similes with metaphors.

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Samuel Gursky

During my high school years in the early 2000s, I wanted to be in a ska-punk band. This fantasy could have been sparked by an Operation Ivy record, Save Ferris's prom-night concert in 10 Things I Hate About You, the genre's sartorial trappings, or the sound of trumpets. But one thing's for sure: Anything I would have hypothetically done would have probably ended up sounding like the Arrogant Sons of Bitches.

ASOB, as they're called by de facto leader Jeff Rosenstock, trace their origins to October 1995—the same month No Doubt released Tragic Kingdom, and one year after the Mighty Mighty Bosstones issued Question the Answers. They made a bunch of records that are still exhilarating in their energy and self-aware smart-ass-itude. They toured a bunch without much success, playing wherever they can. Anxiety, rising debt, and shifting ambitions created tension, though, and they broke up in 2004, with Rosenstock moving onto the equally seditious and fun Bomb the Music Industry! (Rosenstock has penned a lengthier account of the band's existence.) This weekend, they're playing a pair of reunion shows in New York City.

Sound of the City recently chatted on the phone with the good-natured Rosenstock, who was listening to Electric Light Orchestra before he picked up.

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In 1978, the Sex Pistols would have hocked snot at the idea of being associated with prim layouts and orderly type. Sublime's signature colors were not purple, pink, red, and gray; The Replacements had no ties to concentric squares. Dr. Know and Gorilla Biscuits never put pinwheels anywhere in their art.

Swissted, however, makes all those alternate realities come true. The project, orchestrated by Mike Joyce, launched in January with a fiendishly simple premise: Joyce combs through flyers of old-school punk, hardcore, and indie rock shows, retains the vital info, and uses that text to create Swiss Modernist-style posters that often incorporate geometric patterns. His work favors minimalism, and his only font is Berthold Akzidenz-Grotesk Medium (lowercase, natch).

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