A slow blog about loud records.

Pick Riot started in 2019 as a Google Doc passed between a handful of friends who couldn't stop arguing about records. Five years later it's mostly the same thing, just publicly indexed.

We write about independent music — broadly defined. That means a lot of indie rock, but also rap, jazz, electronic, ambient, country, and whatever else somebody on the masthead has been playing on repeat. We try to write quickly enough that the conversation is still alive, and slowly enough that the writing means something.

We write honestly about the records we play. When a review is part of a paid campaign — there have been a handful — it's labeled clearly at the top.

If you'd like to submit something, the door is open: listen@slowburn.fm. We listen to everything. We can't promise we'll write about everything.