Yim Yames Does George Harrison 2008 was a stellar year for My Morning Jacket. Stoked by the release of its fifth album, the critically acclaimed Evil Urges , the band reveled in a first-time appearance at Radio City Music Hall in June, and by New Years Eve, graduated to a celebration at the massive Madison Square Garden. While the band is kicking back, on a bit of hiatus, news continues to pour from frontman Jim James, or, as he is now [...]
Wilco (the webcast) this Saturday Wilco (the band) has been pretty giving with its new release, Wilco (the album) . Not only did Jeff Tweedy and company offer a stream of the album after it was leaked a couple of months ago, but now the band is webcasting Saturday night's sold-out show at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. The show is available in Quicktime on http://wilcoworld.net and via the new [...]
Athfest: Lighting up Athens, GA Few college towns can throw a party to celebrate the local arts, and then stack the bill with innovative, world class musicians like Athens, Ga. And they have done it for 13 years. Athfest, the annual music and arts festival, has been pulling back the curtains to this sleepy town, and showing off its music scene – one that has birthed R.E.M., Widespread Panic, Of Montreal, and countless other prime acts – since 1997. Founded [...]
Double Dagger: Setting punk straight The early 21st century has been a time of metamorphosis for punk rock, a period that has splayed the genre, offering a wide swath bands attributing their sounds to the genre, and few actually stepping forward with music to leverage such big talk. Revivalists like Rancid and Green Day have taken vastly different approaches, the former slipping into classicist regalia, the latter emerging as rock-opera visionaries. Emo has sucked out the attitude, replacing it with tawdry makeup and [...]
Vote Bloodkin It's only June, and 2009 can already be noted as the most accomplished of Bloodkin's career. Critical acclaim surrounding the band's Baby, They Told Us We Would Rise Again began prior to its February release, and it hasn't slowed a bit. The album – the best the band has released – has drawn accolades from across the industry, including Rolling Stone , Paste and Hittin' the Note . Now, the band has [...]
Guns for San Sebastian: From the Hip Guns for San Sebastian is making ripples on the West Coast, but given time, these ripples will surely swell and crest as they roll east. Charlie Marvin, Lorne Smith, Matt Kelly, JJ White, and Ryan Lukas are bound by a love of '60s and '70s rock and roll, and their sound is uniquely marked by Marvin's soul-filled vocals and White's deft harmonica work. This year brought the release of Guns for San Sebastian's [...]
The Coathangers Play with Fire In the '90s, rock music was shaken by a girl group revolution. Riot Girrrls rode undercurrents of feminism, led by Sleater Kinney and Bikini Kill, and less political acts also grappled for a hold on modern music. L7 brought intensity and shock value, the Breeders added polish and alterna-chic, Babes in Toyland emerged from Minneapolis to counter Seattle's burgeoning grunge scene, and Juliana Hatfield set self-deprecation to indie pop. It was high school, and while too young to understand [...]
Halloween, Alaska: Warm Inside Minnesota is a landscape dotted by lakes and battered by harsh elements, characterized by frigid winters and broiling summers. But Halloween, Alaska has created a defense against the fierce elements of its home state, a crystalline sphere of sound that encompasses vibrant melodies and impassioned intentions. Champagne Downtown , the quartet's third release, is a set of unpretentious rock-and-roll songs warm enough to melt the frigid winter with stylish ease. Over the course of the album's 10 tracks, Halloween, Alaska [...]
Deer Tick, Sunset Rubdown Return Sunset Rubdown and Deer Tick both released debuts in 2007, both releases were critically acclaimed, and both bands will release sophomore albums this year. This really does indicate much, and is surely coincidence, but I am please to provide a first glimpse at the lead single from Deer Tick's Born on Flag Day and Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer . Both will be released on June 23. Learn: [...]
Wilco Waves its American Flags Wilco can't keep a secret. The band has yet to establish a title or release date for its forthcoming studio release, and Jeff Tweedy and company are already baiting fans and critics alike with a potential track list and confirmation that "You and I" features a guest appearance by Leslie Feist. [...]
Harlem Shakes: Technicolor Dreams The concrete landscape of Brooklyn, New York is sonic fertilizer for young upstarts use their studio apartments and practice spaces as incubators for rock stardom. From the proliferation of musicians that emerge from to the borough, most fail; however, some do surpass the stature of noise-monger and introduce respectable – even groundbreaking – music that is propelled beyond the sidewalks and [...]
A Thank You from Extra Golden Formed in the Buru Buru neighborhood in Nairobi,Kenya, Extra Golden began as a stripped-down experiment undertaken by Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff of the Washington D.C. band Golden, and Onyango Wuod Omari and Otieno Jagwasi of the Kenyan benga band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa . It has been five years since the quartet converged to record its debut, Ok-Oyot System [...]
Yarn: Real American Music Yarn has made short work of establishing itself in the national music scene. And the band has done so playing a sonic brand that binds all corners of American music together into a well-formed clamor colored by California sunshine and Appalachian moonshine with a touch of New York City buzz. Empty Pockets , the Brooklyn-based quintet's sophomore release, is acoustic- hewn and vibrant, stringed and understated. Blake Christiana, [...]
The Movies with Justin Townes Earle Playing music wasn't much of an option for Justin Townes Earle; it was inherited. But being the son of songwriter Steve Earle and the namesake of the late Townes Van Zandt allowed Justin more opportunities to carelessly spill his God-given talent than to carefully pour it into a repertoire of songs. Growing up in Nashville, Tennessee, he [...]
Band of Horses Ride into Spring Since releasing the highly acclaimed Cease to Begin in late 2007, Band of Horses' tour schedule has been nonstop, taking the band around the world more than once. And the tour rolls on. Ben Bridwell and company have announced additional dates this spring which will find the band playing to West Coast audiences, visiting Carnegie Hall [...]
Otis Gibbs and the Common Man Otis Gibbs' art is rooted in the common man. His photographs depict the hue of hard-worn lives, experience and endurance chiseled into the wrinkles that cut across his subjects' faces. A native of Wanamaker, Indiana, his songs tell humble, hard stories outright; plain-spoken verses recount lives that could only belong to the characters in those photos, their stories playing out to a stripped down, rotten-wood soundtrack. Brimming with blue-collar nuance, Gibbs' fourth release, Grandpa Walked the Picket [...]
Bloodkin Rises from the Flames Bloodkin has been deemed under-appreciated for so long, it has almost become cliche; however, the sentiment has never been more true. Grown from the lifelong friendship between Daniel Hutchens and Eric Carter, the Athens, Georgia band is revered by its peers, but largely ignored by the mainstream. Survivors by nature, Baby, They Told Us We Would Rise Again, the band's new studio release, brims with lessons learned the hard way set to fiery rock and [...]
Gaslight Street Finds Blue Skies Gaslight Street is another in a long line of Charleston bands holding promise by the purse strings. Many have swelled, some have crested, but few have broken. But when this band makes it, it will not be due to where they are from, but for what they bring. Blue Skies for Fools is the band's debut, but it's not a [...]
Showered and Blue-Blazered
Avicii – Two Million
Yellow Magic Orchestra edit from Chrome Canyon
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
