Matt Robidoux of Speedy Ortiz (l) and Death to Tyrants (r)
Matt Robidoux’s artist recommendation: “I first spotted Death to Tyrants on the “recommended listening” shelf of my closest independent record store and for about a year I just assumed they were as unattainable as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Growing up in rural New Hampshire, it was difficult to experience live music, meet other musicians or find people who actively listened to music. When I found out DTT were local and had in fact played a release show in that same record store, I was blown away. The music was of a confounding post hardcore instrumental kind, five brothers rehearsing multiple times a week with a Greg Ginn of the woods severity, chopping down trees and pulling parts like I had never heard out of the ether. Hemming disparate elements of jazz and noise together, they created a sprawling landscape as expansive as the distance between Boston and the summit of Mt. Monadnock.
Most importantly, DTT was the band that showed me I could be in a band. They played in unconventional spaces — libraries, burrito shops and record stores out of necessity — there was nowhere else to play. They toured nationally, had beautiful vinyl releases and brought the coolest bands to rural NH. I will always have my spray painted 4 minute long DTT tape.
Later on, when I became friends with the guys, they were not the inimitable elder statesman I perceived, but five of the nicest gents. Eric and Ian in particular showed me some important artists that really fucked my world up: Sonny Sharrock, Alvin Lucier, Off Minor, Penderecki. We started what I still consider to have been “NH’s largest free jazz collective” and I went on my first tour. For these things and many more, thanks Eric, Ian, Ben, Paul, Randy.”
Not familiar with New Hampshire instrumental punx Death To Tyrants? Matt suggests you start here: “Try Experience Will Be Your Monument and Your Love and the rest of the Clean Plate Records catalog!”
About our guest author, Matt Robidoux: Matt runs the Hidden Temple Tapes record label in Northhampton, MA. Matt also plays guitar for Speedy Ortiz, and when he does so, he wreaks havoc on stage (and, sometimes, off). As Brooklyn Vegan reported, his performances often include “… attacking his guitar or rubbing the fretboard against whatever he can find on stage…” and a recent Pitchfork profile of Speedy Ortiz reveals that Matt has also surprised both fans and his own band by leaving the stage and playing a solo in the middle of the street and launching his guitar through a fence. Yeah, these acts can be seen as theatrics, but make no mistake…this guy can play and he has the right amount of flair to balance with Speedy’s charismatic lead singer Sadie Dupuis. Hear Matt and the band simply kill it on their new album Major Arcana
record is one of the few albums I enjoy listening to the entire way through.
About our guest author, Darl Ferm: Darl is the bass player for Speedy Ortiz, the alternative band from North Hampton, MA that is winning big praise from local media as well as The AV Club and Pitchfork. Darl actually met the Speedy Ortiz band members when they opened for his previous band, Day Sleeper at Wesleyan, where he went to school as a film major. As far as influences go, he 
was the first Francine album I dug, and it paved the way for me to get into the releases that followed and preceded it. It’s sentimental–it’s a break up album, of course it’s sentimental–but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it covers a lot of ground over the course of thirteen beautifully constructed songs.”
About our guest author, Sadie Dupuis: The list of the coolest women in alternative rock just got a little longer, friends. Yes, Sadie Dupuis, the lead singer and guitarist for the North Hampton, MA band Speedy Ortiz (the band name references a character from the Love and Rockets comic, in case you were wondering) can be added to your rad lady list of Kim Gordon, Liz Phair and Kim Deal. She’s got the voice that darts along with the band’s bouncing guitar melodies. She’s got the biting lyrics that are sharpened from her immersion in creative writing, which she teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. And, she has a well schooled band that prefers to play basement shows to clubs (bassist Darl Ferm recently noted in an interview, “…the higher up on stage you are, the less connection you’re probably going to have with the audience…”). The band’s debut album, 
. Song for song, I think it’s her most consistent batch, and the production is seductively gritty. My other fave is 
— released a few years prior to A Boot and a Shoe To me, these two feel like companions. (I’ve no idea if Phillips thinks of them that way.) Both records were produced by T-Bone Burnett, and the cast of session players is similar — including drummer Carla Azar and guitarist Marc Ribot.
About our guest author, Adam Levy: We at Rocktorch.com recently found out about Adam Levy on a