Formed in Houston, Texas in 2009, Khruangbin is composed of bassist Laura Lee, guitarist Mark Speer, and drummer Donald ‘DJ’ Johnson. The band’s origins reach back to 2004 when Speer and Johnson met while playing in a church Gospel band. Three years on, Speer met Lee and he encouraged her to learn to play bass. They both ended up playing in Yppah’s live touring band. This experience encouraged the Speer and Lee to create original [...]

While melodic Pop-oriented Punk has existed since the late ‘70s, the term ‘Pop Punk’ (or ‘Punk Pop”) wasn’t widely used until bands like The Offspring, Green Day, Rancid, and Blink-182 brought the genre to the mainstream, selling millions of albums in the process. MTV and radio embraced this new movement that was as hook-filled as it was loud and aggressive. It is hard to tell whether Pop Punk was a reaction against the slick Pop and smooth R&B [...]

'Dean Tabaac Head of AMPED Distribution Proving the vitality of physical music in a market with fewer places to sell it is a challenge that keeps Tabaac motivated. “I’m most proud of the combined tenacity of our labels and us to keep physical releases relevant, knowing that other distributors, and the labels they represent, are deemphasizing those configurations,” he says. Tabaac cites the ability of AMPED’s distribution centers to “continually get product into retailers, offline [...]