Pick Up an Instrument with UVU
Many locals are taking up the task of teaching or demonstrating their musical skills online—and if you’re considering tuning in to learn, it may be hard to choose who to trust. Well, if you prefer expertise, where better to go than to college? The Utah Valley University Community Education page on Facebook is a rich resource for online classes going into summer, and some classes they’re offering are music-related. Among them are Intro to Guitar, along with the general music study class “Music Made Easy,” where one can learn the basics of rhythm, melody, harmony and pitch recognition. Having access to a guitar for the former and a keyboard for the latter would, of course, be beneficial to anyone interested. For anyone with time to kill (all of us) looking for long-term projects to keep us busy and goal-oriented, these 6-week programs offer up an opportunity to become better at reading, writing and playing music. Step-by-step instructions will be provided via audio and video recordings. The guitar course offers a range of genres of guitar music, from rock to country, and all the stylings those genres contain. The guitar course, which runs through July, is currently priced at $95, with “Music Made Easy” still TBA on info. Follow the courses and get more info at facebook.com/UVUCommunityEducation. (Erin Moore)

Clayton Smalley Brings Country Home
Being forced to stay in also means spending a lot of quality time at home. Many of our local musicians have been taking advantage of all that time to make more music. Southern Californian transplant Clayton Smalley is now a Utah country artist based in Spanish Fork, where he juggles his passion for music with the “blue collar family man” life he otherwise leads—which, according to his own bio, he feels ties him to his old-fashioned country predecessors like Merle Haggard, George Strait and Reba McEntire. Since the release of his 2019 EP Whiskey Sunrise, Smalley has been busy. Easy-going and catchy singles like “Ride or Die” off that EP signaled promising talent for the country troubadour. A new single, “Happy Place,” is due Friday, April 17, and he’s got more beyond that coming up, too. If any fans of the humble country stylings of Smalley want to hear it sooner, he’s kicking off a Wednesday Night Live Stream every week, starting this Wednesday, April 15, at 7 p.m. Pop open your own bottle of whiskey and tune in. Learn more about how to tune in on facebook.com/ClaytonSmalleyCountry. (EM)

Worlds Worst, Worlds Worst
Released: April 13, 2020
We are all living in a liminal space, where the next stage is unknown. But at least while we wait on public life—and live music—to restart, we can still enjoy new music from our own Salt Lake musicians. Jake Phillips, Zach Mayo, Andrew Aronson and Max Schoenfeld are the newly-formed band Worlds Worst. Self-recorded and mixed by Shoenfeld, their brand new self-titled EP brings listeners a much-needed raw post-punk, shoegaze-like grunge that is Kool-Aid for the parched, angsty, quarantined soul. The punk shines through with Aronson’s over-pronounced singing style, which compliments the twangy guitar lines that pepper the tracks. The fuzz of the guitar and the heavy riffage is not unlike that of My Bloody Valentine (the first song “Talk” is very reminiscent of MBV) with a little Snail Mail mixed in for good measure. Worlds Worst is the perfect soundtrack for riding your skateboard to the local 7/11, or for your nightly introspective stroll—good ideas for getting out of the house, too. Without cherished venues for local artists to play at and share their work, it’s more important than ever to support their online efforts. Check out Worlds Worst at worldsworstslc.bandcamp.com. I, for one, am very much looking forward to seeing these guys live in the (hopefully not-so-distant) future. (Emma Roberts)