Blog: The Stu Reid Experiment

So you might have noticed that The Stu Reid Experiment has gone silent over these past few months. Chris and I respectively moved on to New York and graduate school recently and, as a result, we simply no longer had enough time to keep TSRE at the level we would have wanted. Even with the internet, long distance relationships are hard. However, all is not lost. I'm still dabbling in blogging and have set up a tumblr over at flannelhoodlesssweatshirt.tumb lr.com . I plan on throwing up some music and other random stuff as I come across [...]

Newsflash from academic frontier: YACHT is back and better than ever. Dystopia is just plain unstoppable. Four minutes of post-apocalyptic electronic strutting. Yacht - Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire) ( YSI ) ( filesavr )

On this day in 1994, 20-year-old Nasir Jones dropped Illmatic. In other words: On this day in 1994, 20-year old Nasir Jones dropped the greatest hip-hop album of all time. Obviously this is not a statement of fact. There are a number of contenders for this title, and many would argue that Illmatic can't even be called the best [...]

I can't really describe Purity Ring. Perhaps I don't really understand them myself. The best I can say is that these two tracks are hypnotic. Synthy, somber, bouncy, repetitive, delicate - all of these adjectives could be applied to these tracks. Give them a listen, I guarantee you will have to listen to them multiple times in a row. Why they those such a silly name is something else I cannot hope to answer. Purity Ring - Lofticries ( YSI ) ( filesavr ) Purity Ring - Ungirthed [...]

Oh, hey there. Its a post! Miraculous! Imagine the introspective dubstep of Burial, add in some smooth R&B vocals, tone down the moroseness, and lastly add a bit of swagger and you have Jamie Woon. Another graduate of the London-based BRIT School, Woon is primed for massive success. This is some genre-blending stuff. I cannot stop listening to Jamie Woon and the new Burial tracks -- is this the year that dubstep takes over the US of A? Jamie Woon - Lady Luck ( YSI ) ( filesavr ) [...]

When Death From Above 1979 broke up five years ago a big gaping void opened up in the world of music. Now thankfully that void has been filled by DFA 1979 again! They announced their comeback earlier this year and played a set at SXSW this past week. Go check out the videos circulating the interwebs its pretty awesome. DFA 1979 makes dirty, heavy, adrenaline music, yet they rely on deeply melodic structures that always undergird the distortion and thrashing. I wonder what other gems Chris is going to come back with from SXSW? Death From [...]

I love Burial. Archangel moves me in ways few albums have. But not only is Burial a fabulous artist in his own right, he also has great taste in collaborators. First it was Four Tet last year on the awesome Moth and this year it is with Thom Yorke and Four Tet on Ego. Heady, atmospheric stuff, yet always rooted in the beat. I've been listening to both of the split EPs on repeat for the past week with no end in sight. Burial, Four Tet & Thom Yorke - Ego ( YSI [...]

Whoops, so we had a little 10 day break there, sorry about that. Chris has been hanging out at SXSW (jealous!) and I've been drowning in grad school work. But so it goes. I recently came across the new EP by writer, comedian, actor, and rapper (?) Donald Glover and guess what? Its pretty good! With his writing on 30 Rock and acting on Community I wasn't quite sure what to expect from his hip hop persona Childish Gambino, but after getting over how much he is trying to sound like Lil Wayne and Kanye's lovechild, I am [...]

I was pretty excited to see the Rural Alberta Advantage last night at the Middle East. It was the first American stop on their tour in support of their new album Departing and they were pumped up (although their drummer was weirdly hidden the whole show). They ripped through songs, worked up a sweat and before we knew it an hour was gone and they were taking an encore. Unlike some shows, the RAA played the perfect mix of old and new material. All the old favorite off of Hometowns made an appearance alongside rousing renditions [...]

I've heard a lot about Yellow Ostrich from friends, but have yet to catch him live. Recently, though, he came across my radar in the form of two great covers that got some buzz around the interwebs. The first is a cover of Rural Alberta Advantage. The second sees Mr. Ostrich giving his take on Beach House's excellent "Zebra." While I'm not convinced that these covers are improvements on the original, they are certainly talented re-takes of great songs. Yellow Ostrich will be down at SXSW this year, and I'm hoping to catch him somewhere [...]

I've been loving this tune, "Truth" from Alexander Ebert, the frontman of sprawling hippiepop outfit Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes. Love that band and their happy-go-lucky attitude, and it's cool to hear Ebert in a new context. He's a fantastic musician, and his debut solo album is solid all around. This is probably my favorite tune off of the record. It's laid back, but the hook is impeccable and Ebert's voice sounds great. Before I heard the album, I heard this song on Sirius XM approximately 8 times before I figured out that it [...]

So the fire alarm is going off in my building and I can't really think straight, so this is going to be quick. We Have Everything is a fine piece of space disco. Expansive and surprisingly emotional. Good stuff. Check out the video too -- its a perfect fit. Young Galaxy - We Have Everything ( YSI ) ( filesavr )

And thus certainly do not need any more from me. Gorilla vs. Bear has been hyping Puro Instinct pretty heavily for a while now and I finally get what they are talking about. Headbangers in Ecstasy is supremely melodic, but without seeming to try too hard at it. You just get caught up in those female vocals and shoegaze-y guitars and then whoops you are suddenly at the end of the album. Plus, perhaps what is most exciting about Puro Instinct is that they sound different . I can't put my finger on it, but its like [...]

Remember way back when in 2009 when we started buzzing about Computers and Blues, the final album from Mike Skinner's The Streets? See here and here . Well that album has finally been released. Two of the tracks we blogged back then -- "Trust Me" and "Roof Of Your Car" -- ended up making the final tracklist on what is a return to form for Skinner. I could write pages and pages on this album (indeed, I wrote 1300+ words for PrettyMuchAmazing on the subject ) but suffice it to say, here, that [...]

Radiohead did something on Friday, I think. Released an album, maybe? There wasn't much talk about it on the interwebs. Just kidding. King of Limbs is great, duh. But rather than post a track from that album like every other blog in the universe, I wanted to toss up a couple of my favorite less-well-known Radiohead tracks. I first heard "Where Bluebirds Fly" on a recording of a show Radiohead played in Manchester maybe 8 years ago. They didn't actually play the full song, but just a little teaser of it to open the show; [...]

Yes, big news! Even bigger than the new Radiohead album. Tune-Yards is on the verge of releasing her second album titled Whokill . The first track off Whokill is Bizness, which was a staple of Tune-Yards' live show during her last tour with Dirty Projectors (which was awesome btw). The song is cleaned up, streamlined, and features less of the rough production of her Bird Brains . Snazzier production should not be seen as a detraction: Garbus sounds as lively, earnest, and powerful as ever and her looped beats and swirling vocals retain their hypnotic qualities, just now [...]

Phew, grad school has started up again, which means no more free time -- ever! But, winter is showing signs of retreat in New England and Alela Diane's new album Wild Divine is scheduled for release on April 3. So everything is not doom and gloom. First off, what a babe! Secondly, Alela Diane's music is perfect bleak folk for the late winter doldrums, but with just enough of a hint of hope to make it work. How perfect are those whistles on Foreign Tongue? There couple of tracks are off of her first release The Pirate's [...]

My best friend from back in the day -- like pre-elementary school back in the day -- has recently been making some noise in the hip hop world, with some nice verses over sick beats. This is the kid who basically introduced me to rap - much respect. I remember listening to Eminem "My Name Is" on his busted CD drive when his mom was out of the room. Anyway, he's taken those suburban roots and turned them into a pretty legit music career under the name Ricky Rude. Last year, he got some pub for his [...]

It took me a little while to warm up to Fleet Foxes - I didn't really see their appeal the first few times through, and was probably going through some P4k backlash syndrome or something like that. But I've warmed up since then and realized that their debut album is pretty damn brilliant. And, of course, "White Winter Hymnal" is one of the best tracks on that album. Recently, Oh Land dropped by Newtown Radio to record an excellent cover of that song. You can check out the video below - it's pretty dope. [...]

I've been a big fan of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, ever since I caught them playing a show at Dartmouth a few years ago. They have a fun vibe and a great ability to take traditional music and make it accessible to modern audiences. That being said, they also have a great ability to take modern music and give it a traditional spin. My favorite song of theirs -- in a live setting -- has always been a cover of Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style." It takes the bouncy original and gives it some jaunty traditional [...]