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(10/12/15 2:46am)
Many times collaborations between great artists don’t work. This isn’t because of a lack of musical ability or poor production, but instead the artists are focused on their style or outperforming the other and not about the mix as a whole. Other times, artists work so impeccably well together that you almost forget it’s a collaboration and look forward to the new group’s next project. Big Grams, the hip-hop project from Big Boi and Phantogram, falls into the latter category with their debut, self-titled EP.
(10/01/15 5:24am)
Wavves’ Nathan Williams is not ready to grow up. On the contrary, he seems to want nothing more than to Benjamin Button back to ninth grade where he can bask in all of his confused, bored, self-doubting teenage glory. Fortunately for us, this contradicting adult-teen-angst makes for fantastic songwriting, showcased in every pop-punk, noise rock infused minute of Wavves’ fifth installment, V.
(12/01/14 4:54am)
Since the 2013 release of Volume 3, She & Him’s Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward have switched to Columbia Records to release their covers album, Classics, December 2. Joined by an impressive 20-piece orchestra that Ward arranged, Deschanel takes the lead on most of the tracks. The song choices are, in fact, classics, and though the duo do a beautiful job at recreating each one with their own little quirks, the songs have all been covered hundreds of times, leaving little room for originality and a lot of room for scrutiny.
(11/19/14 5:44am)
“Sean Lennon, you know what I mean/ Born to the manor, never quite clamoring free/ It’s family” Teddy Thompson sings on the first track of collaborative Thompson album Family. Overly hyperbolic comparisons aside, Teddy has some pretty big shoes to fill in the folk music industry. His father, Richard Thompson, is considered one of the best acoustic guitarists of his generation and is a renowned composer across many genres, while his mother, Linda, is a respected folk singer (the two toured together for ten years before the end of their professional and romantic partnership). The album briefly reunites the two legends, along with other musical geniuses of the Thompson family (such as Teddy’s siblings Kami and Jack, as well as his nephew Zak), for a family affair of epic folk music proportions.
(11/14/14 3:31am)
Just a little over nine months ago, AJ Davila of Puerto Rican garage rock band Davila 666 released his first solo piece, Terror/Amor, via Nacional Records. Davila has released his sophomore album Beibi alongside a new Davila 666 album, on top of touring the U.S. with both projects. For Beibi, Davila moved over to Burger Records, a DIY-based independent label that promotes its music organically through vinyl, cassettes and insane tour caravans of outrageous garage/punk rock bands throughout the country. Burger’s focus on the audacious purity of rock ’n’ roll parallels immaculately with Davila’s Beibi, one of the best “sugary, flower-punk” garage albums of the year (since Terror/Amor, of course).
(10/29/14 4:03am)
There are two kinds of breakups—a dramatic eruption of passion and anger in a be-all-end-all final blowout and a slow, fading death of passion without any fireworks and an overpowering sense of “throwing in the towel.” The first category is glamorized in television, movies, music and pop culture—its excitement and emotion lures in the audience with each fight and each tear. The latter, then, is frequently overlooked because it lacks a climactic boiling point and seems uneventful to a third party. However, it is often a far more painful experience.
(10/22/14 3:31am)
The fifth installment of Portland-based Horse Feathers, So It Is With Us, is Justin Ringle’s attempt to shed the skin of the folk-heavy albums that came before and open up Horse Feathers to something a little more upbeat and fun.
(10/15/14 3:53am)
For some reason, I just don’t think I will ever be able to take OK Go seriously. It might have to do with the fact that their first viral explosion—the “Here It Goes Again” video—came out during the peak of my YouTube awareness curve. This being my first impression of the band, I can’t help but group OK Go in my middle school brain with the “Muffins,” “Shoes” and “Old Greg” videos—compiling this time of my Internet life into one big, bad comedy sketch.
(10/10/14 3:00am)
It’s hard to believe an album of two banjos, one voice and no other instruments could keep a listener captivated for its 45-minute endurance, but musical duo Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn make it look effortless on their first self-titled album, Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn. The married couple’s first collaboration together combines Washurn’s traditional folk stylings with Fleck’s Grammy-winning crossover genres—diffusing the banjo into jazz, blues, classical and funk. The track list contains both original pieces and unique covers and classics.
(09/30/14 3:33am)
Approaching the hole-in-the wall haven that is The Frequency, I could feel some real live music magic in the air. The rest of the square was pretty much dead, but the lull of bright lights and cigarette smoke lured us magnetically towards the end of the block, where we found musicians and concert-goers alike basking in the awesomeness of the first quarter of the night.
(09/25/14 10:27pm)
Twenty years after the debut of American rock band Wilco, Jeff Tweedy has veered off from the band’s consistent schedule of new releases to instead showcase new project “Tweedy,” a family affair featuring his 18-year-old son Spencer Tweedy on percussion, alongside additional members Scott McCaughey on keyboards and backing vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig from Lucius. The album, Sukierae, is a lengthy 20 songs in 71 minutes, and what it lacks in excitement and spontaneity, it makes up in the heart and soul of this talented father-son combo.
(09/23/14 4:04am)
“Twin Peaks” is an ABC television drama created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It follows an investigation lead by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer in the town of Twin Peaks. Its pilot episode was first broadcast on April 8, 1990.
(09/17/14 10:37pm)
My Brightest Diamond is the multi-instrumental alt-rock project helmed by singer-songwriter Shara Worden. Since 2006, she has released three multimedia projects that encompass her exploration of traditional string chamber and opera styles combined with modern electronic rock, backed by hypnotic Florence and the Machine-esque vocals to create an eerie power in each track.
(09/10/14 2:04am)
It almost feels silly to try and critique the work of Robert Plant as a rock ‘n’ roll fan today (cue Wayne’s World—“We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”). In an age where Led Zeppelin still hovers over any new music in the rock genre (the live recording of their one and only reunion show in 2012 won the Grammy for Best Rock Album), Plant still manages to create his own unique work and make a name for himself in contemporary music that’s not one of a washed out rock star clutching onto his thirty-year-old Billboard hits, but one of a truly talented musician continuously remaining relevant.
(04/29/14 2:11am)
San Francisco rocker John Dwyer can’t seem to sit still. Along with touring with lo-fi trio the Coachwhips and releasing his own electronic music under pseudonym Damaged Bug, Dwyer has just released the supposedly last record—before an indefinite hiatus—of his garage rock band Thee Oh Sees.
(04/15/14 4:45am)
Amps for Christ is the long-running solo project of California-based Henry Barnes, former head of metal/hardcore legends Man Is the Bastard and offshoot Bastard Noise. However, this is anything but the harsh noise Barnes was recognized for in his previous work. Amps is a polyethnic mixture of traditional American and Celtic folk with traces of Indian instrumentals, overridden by electronic backdrops and mesmerizing guitar riffs.
(04/08/14 4:09am)
Nick Van Hofwegen, under stage name Young & Sick has been previously well known in the art community for his visual work at music festivals, street fairs as well as his notable album artwork for artists such as Foster the People, Maroon 5 and Robin Thicke. After an exceptional acoustic set at SXSW and the release of Young & Sick, however, Hofwegen is making a name for himself in the auditory art faction as well.
(03/28/14 1:06am)
On March 25, Legacy Recordings released Out Among the Stars, a full album comprised of 12 never-before heard studio recordings by the late Johnny Cash. The tracks were unearthed by Cash and June Carter’s only son, John Carter Cash, who said he found the recordings while browsing the family archives. The tracks were produced by Country Music Hall of Famer Billy Sherrill in the early 1980s in Nashville, Tenn. and were then shelved by Columbia Records.
(03/13/14 10:22pm)
Ambrose Akinmusire has been critically acclaimed as one of the most skilled trumpet players in today’s culture. His 2011 album When The Heart Emerges Glistening was named as one of New York Times’ best albums of the year and solidified his spot at the “trumpet player of his generation.” On his newest album the imagined savior is far easier to paint, Akinmusire returns with his longtime quintet—saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown—and adds a few more artists to stray away from his jazz trumpet roots that gained him such rapid fame in the brass community.
(03/06/14 10:39pm)
Nothing was formed in the wake of frontman Dominic Palermo’s two-year stint in prison, where he spent his time in intense reflection and undergoing long, painful writing sessions. They formed in 2011 when Palermo met guitarist Brandon Setta. They eventually attained two more members to create Nothing. Guilty of Everything, the band’s debut album, was recorded and produced by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, War on Drugs, etc) and released March 4 through Relapse Records.