Squadda’s voice trails off as he contemplates life after the monetary change, but if beats was money, then North Oakland hip-hop duo Main Attrakionz would have so much you could find them setting piles of their cash ablaze like The Joker. Not that money is the end-game for Charles Glover a.k.a. “Squadda Bambino” or Demondre “MondreM.A.N” Grice. Both freshly 21, the two have been rapping since they were 12; consider their journey the anti Lil’ Bow Wow. In 2002 as seventh graders at Oakland’s Carter Middle School, which is no longer, Mondre met Squadda cutting classes. [...]
It's been a little while since we've gotten new material from QM friends PAPA . The Los Angeles band who played one of our shows earlier this year have been hard at work on their upcoming album, and the first of it hit "The Web" today (the internet, I mean the internet). "Put Me To Work" continues the sort of propellant energy from songs like " I Am The Lion King ," steadied by the cool of Darren Weiss's even-tempered vocals. There's still a bit of raw shape to their performance, a little roughness around the edges [...]
Patrick Stickles has bold bones to pick. Endlessly moaning on 2010’s The Monitor in lament over the sediment of Civil War, the Titus Andronicus frontman now uses this most recent release to hone in on the micro-level conflicts that torment himself and his immediate surroundings. The brutality of truth and blunt cynicism that Local Business abides by is a testament to Stickles’s undying investment in calling attention to all things shitty, with a strained throat that throbs in agonizing helplessness. Because desperation is nothing new to Titus, the album seeks refreshment in its riffing nods to previously unexplored [...]
You know a video for a song is good when you can no longer separate rolling image from melody after exposure. Like an outbreak (not the scary monkeys ) of musical disease, it infests every future connotation of the tune in your head, expanding a context beyond the sound. An already memorable track, UK production duo Disclosure just released an accompany video to "Latch" this week. They've crafted its visual counterpart, a spellbinding brush with the near future, set against all the sensual intrigue of a downtown loft party without all the weird actual encounters of a [...]
MØ is 23-year-old Copenhagen native who makes punchy electropop that's already been compared to Grimes , and fellow Scandinavian Lykke Li . "Pilgrim" is brooding and unapologetic, carried by well-placed horns and supportive synths that can't overshadow her deep-belly vocals that feel like they're burning a hole through your back pockets. It has some ominous progressions, but any dark tones are balanced by enough of a smart pop sensibility and clean production that will keep this one playing in your head on loop until her debut is out later this year. Check out "Pilgrim" below.
MØ is 23-year-old Copenhagen native who makes punchy electropop that's already been compared to Grimes , and fellow Scandinavian Lykke Li . "Pilgrim" is brooding and unapologetic, carried by well-placed horns and supportive synths that can't overshadow her deep-belly vocals that feel like they're burning a hole through your back pockets. It has some ominous progressions, but any dark tones are balanced by enough of a smart pop sensibility and clean production that will keep this one playing in your head on loop until her debut is out later this year. Check out "Pilgrim" below.
We've been fans of Rhye since their mysterious debut track "Open" came out of nowhere early this year. Well we now know a little bit more about the Los Angeles by way of Berlin duo Robin Hannibal and Mike Milosh, but it's almost better keeping their shroud of mystery in tact behind the fleeting moods their songs inhabit. From "3 Days" to new single "The Fall," they've developed a niche in trying to hold on to moments as they're slipping through. Steady, heartbeat rhythms keep things intimate without being desperate, and strings always inject a classic awareness [...]
Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” has incurred a staggering amount of cover versions. Perhaps it’s the earnest lyrics or simple chord progressions that lend themselves so beautifully to harmonies ( exhibit A , exhibit B ), but for whatever reason, the Swedish electropop song has shuffled its way off of the dance floor and into the kitchens and living rooms of countless Youtube troubadours (youtroubadours…consider it coined). Los Angeles-based folk singer Javier Dunn portrays the song from a male perspective. “Call your boyfriend,” Dunn croons over a lilting acoustic guitar, replacing the original’s righteous urgency with a melancholy [...]
On an unusually active Thursday night at Oberlin College, I had the curious opportunity of sharing some words with Ariel Pink, currently on tour with his band Haunted Graffiti supporting their new record, Mature Themes . Pacing the sidewalk with impressive composure for a 34-year-old in a glittered blouse, the neon-haired Pink had some feisty things to say concerning his bratty persona, the LA music scene and life as a recent divorcee—but it's not Ariel Pink’s facetious glam banter that needs to be said. It’s neuroscience and uh, Chinese food. [...]
Last night, Frank Ocean released ("dropped") a non-album track via his Tumblr page that acts both lyrically and sonically as an epilogue to his recently praised album Channel Orange . Though Ocean's signature falsetto is nowhere to be found on "Blue Whale," a song he raps instead of sings on, it's still full of his corner-of-the-room thoughts, with a hopeful "life goes on" refrain to ease its digestion. His subtle, stream of consciousness style hints at seeds of issues (" My hometown flooded, " "How that gravel taste?/How you paid your medical [...]
Last night, Frank Ocean released ("dropped") a non-album track via his Tumblr page that acts both lyrically and sonically as an epilogue to his recent much-loved album Channel Orange . Though Ocean's signature falsetto is nowhere to be found on "Blue Whale," a track he raps instead of sings on, it's still full of his corner-of-the-room thoughts, with a hopeful "life goes on" refrain to ease its digestion. His subtle, stream of consciousness style hints at seeds of issues (" My hometown flooded ") without imposing on the listener, all over a [...]
"NYC" is the debut single from UK bedroom producer Brolin, who sounds like the urban, streetwise counterpart to San Diego's Youth Lagoon . Water treading vocals will quickly bring to mind the way Trevor Powers builds tension through muffled secrets before a well-timed outburst of filtered clarity, but trades in an environment of floating space for the grounding hustle of city life. It quietly yearns from afar, with all the escalating headphone momentum just before a clear-headed decision to follow through despite past apprehension. It exists in the delicate, chilly air at dawn, just before the sun [...]
Certain music lends itself to a heightened form of driving, that makes the entire experience, even here in good ol' Los Angeles "melt outside the lines." What may be our subconscious admiration for cinematic moodiness inclines us towards the slow-motion vision that kicks in once the right song soundtracks our automotive voyage (because that's what it becomes). Somehow, people have more fully-formed faces and our already beautiful city takes on a fleeting, long-form perspective that I believe gets buried somewhere deep in the trenches of your brain. On An On (conjunctions be damned!) were formed from the remaining [...]
Eighteen year-old Danish singer Jonathan Schultz (not Daniel Radcliffe) is behind Schultz and Forever, whose lead single "Falling" is an early morning stroll through the woods. Its quiet, simple strumming reflects like ripples in a creek, that points to both the beginning and the end of finding and losing someone, like a vignette that fades back into water. Schultz is the kind of singer whose depth of voice draws you in to every nuance and breath that he'll definitely grow into over time, that gives the song a sense of calm that continues on after its end. Check out the single [...]
Our current generation of "alternative" music revels in the re-appropriation and blending of past genres. It is not uncommon for bands emerging from Brooklyn or Echo Park to pull from a long list of historical musical adjectives to construct their post-punk shoegaze dream pop electro-funk fusions. While less successful ventures skate dangerously close to the edge of self-parody, those that maintain the integrity of their forbearers breathe new life into styles that lay dormant and reintroduce great music to a new generation of listeners. Such is the case with Wild Belle, a Chicago-based duo that accents classic Jamaican [...]
Los Angeles band and QM friends Harriet have been recording a new album and releasing cover videos while they’re doing it. They put up the first session on YouTube the other day, and it’s a split of John Hiatt’s 1988 “Have A Little Faith in Me” and Frank Ocean’s recent “Lost.” In the days before the researching wonders of the Internet, I still remember sitting in the pews during elementary school mass practice wondering what secular song was playing (“Wait a minute, this isn’t ‘Emmanuel’….) during the Eucharistic procession that I at that [...]
A good remix is like a good, well, nevermind. Swedish producer Dan Lissvik dips Chad Valley track "Fall 4 U" in a Balearic pop bath from the start, giving the lovestruck material a feeling of euphoria that was largely missing from the original. It rids itself of the staleness that never quite took off alongside the soaring vocals that felt a bit boxed in, like its ringing synths couldn't quite find their way out of the room. The rework makes the air under both Valley and Cameron Mesirow of Glasser 's delivery float around in endless [...]
If you’re one of the many children of the 21 st century who have completely emasculated their attention spans and now find themselves incapable of dedicating more than thirty seconds to reading a review and digesting an idea, let me break down Mad Planet’s debut LP Ghost Notes in as simple of terms as I can. The band sounds like Heart and Blondie’s love child, conceived via in vitro fertilization by shoegaze, and raised across the street from a cemetery where it spent its formative years playing alone amongst the head stones, wondering where lovers go [...]
Traditional blues-based rock is not the flavour of the day, but Pearls and Lazer relish in their authenticity. The howling saxophone solos are a throwback to an elder breed of rock 'n' roll musician as the genuinely chilled-out west coast soul of the duo hits all the right tones. This band carries the spirit of classic rock with a refined, hip ethos that seeps through the music. The relaxed passion of the saxophonist’s note is hard combined with the lyrics of tattooed attraction and are entirely relatable to the average punter but marked by a distinct Pearls and [...]
Isaac Delusion is the French duo who are curiously neither named Isaac. Friends since high school, Jules Paco and Loic Fleury make music that seems to be influenced by both Icelandic pop and American folk, with a shared tradition of rolling travels. "Midnight Sun" walks with a bounce in its step, supplied by the pulsing energy of a city night come to life meeting a rising morning-after calm with every aspect of your surroundings in mind. An infectious, looping melody backs vocals that have a bit of a Billy Corgan airiness to its subtle quack, and the entire stroll [...]
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