By Carrie Brownstein And it's naptime. ( courtesy of The Patton Veterinary Hospital ) It's hard to believe that we've reached the end. For the past two weeks, all of us -- the NPR Music Team, a handful of outside contributors and myself -- have explored the last 10 years in music. Did we cover [...]
Words: Jodi Root | Photo: Clayton Huack Maps and Atlases served as the perfect bait to lure me to my most (and quite frankly, only) anticipated field trip into Chicago's Lincoln Park – the city's newest venue, Lincoln Hall . While Maps & Atlases put on an incredible, entertaining set– thanks to Muzzle of Bees contributing Champaign writer Jon Stone, we already knew that . Instead of repeating his previous praise, I'd like instead to focus on the highlights (and there are many) [...]
With the first steps into their building, I was immediately blown away by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music . The new campus on Oak Street is gorgeous, and I was lucky enough to attend their first annual Tuned In fundraiser. All groups performing during the evening had to have either a current conservatory student or an alumni in their membership. With those kind of credentials, I knew the caliber of talent was going to be high. Perhaps I'd encounter Yngwie Malmsteen's and Victor Wooten's [...]
Frank Yang Q: Without a new record to promote - Mr. Love & Justice has been out for close to two years - what reason did Billy Bragg have for staging an ambitious cross-Canada tour ? A: Who cares? Any time you get the opportunity to see Billy Bragg live, you take it, no questions asked. Of course, I say that having missed his last three appearances in Toronto - the September 2006 show at the Music Hall for not one but two weddings, [...]
Album of the Quarter : A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar Runners up: Memory Tapes - Seek Magic , Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem I am well aware that this podcast is a good month and a half removed from the end of 2009's third quarter, and that we are balls deep in the year's capping three-month span. But, perhaps the extra reflection has further winnowed the included tracks down from the fickle week to week whims of the blogosphere? Let's just pretend that that's [...]
I'm going to do something different here. Have you ever had the experience of going to a show, only to find out that the band you were there to see wasn't the headliner? If you go to shows a lot, it happens, especially when each band on the bill is at similar places in their careers. Well that's exactly what happened the other night at D.C.'s ever so tiny Red and Black. While the Evangelicals were set to be the nights closer, Holiday Shores were the reason I was there. It wasn't anything personal, just happenstance that they [...]
I'm going to do something different here. Have you ever had the experience of going to a show, only to find out that the band you were there to see wasn't the headliner? If you go to shows a lot, it happens, especially when each band on the bill is at similar places in their careers. Well that's exactly what happened the other night at D.C.'s ever so tiny Red and Black. While the Evangelicals were set to be the nights closer, Holiday Shores were the reason I was there. It wasn't anything personal, just happenstance that they [...]
There's a good chance many of you reading this have not heard of Ghettosocks . That's fine, I mean, after all, that's what we're here for, to try and remedy that situation. But I will says this: if you like classic hip hop (more specifically hip hop & hip hop culture from the early to mid nineties), if you do hear a Ghettosocks album, I'd be willing to bet my leather Africa medallion that you're going to like it. In fact, we should make the Grand Wizard Ghettosocks required listening for any fan of Golden Age [...]
By Lars Gotrich As soon as a musical movement gets a name, someone is already declaring it dead. Sometimes you wonder about the people who coin the terms; whether they regret the mass categorization of a tight-knit group's creative output. It's almost baffling how quickly "hot new thing" status gets doled out, only to receive backlash, inspire an academic write-up in The New Yorker , experience backlash against the backlash, become loved ironically, and then wind up staunchly defended by those who've been there since the beginning. Because, you know, it's just rock 'n' [...]
This time of year is always tough on the ears of music lovers. We're assaulted with a nonstop barrage of hackneyed holiday standards, irritating seasonal "satire," and a ceaseless stream of sad attempts at making Christmas music cool. Well, you need keep your head buried beneath a sound-absorbent pile of used Santa suits no longer, because we've mapped out a tune-a-day plan for you to keep a song in your heart throughout the 12 days of Christmas without having a coronary. Just don't expect any dewy-eyed odes to tinsel and mistletoe in this sonic Christmas stocking. [...]
Ocho offers up, in a fittingly numeric way, eight songs of inspired, rough hewn Americana and intelligent alt-country with just enough indie rock seeping though to keep things sharp around the edges. Collin Herring , a Fort Worth native now based in Austin, sometimes sounds like you might imagine early R.E.M. might sound if they'd been knocking around bars and clubs in Texas instead of Georgia: the guitars grind with an earnest kick on songs like "Young Ones" but at the dusty core there remains a more mystical, sun-baked pace with the occasional steel guitar (from Herring's dad [...]
For ramblings on how I came to compile this list go here . And for commentary on previous selections: [ #50-46 ] 45. The Weekend - The Weekend (2000) Probably the most obscure selection on my personal list comes by way of London Ontario's now defunct The Weekend. At the turn of the century I was listening to a lot of embarrassing music and, as expected, when I took the time to revisit some of those [...]
It's taken me since my first listen to Tha Carter III , but I've had an epiphany: Lil Wayne doesn't give a shit about anything other artists do. This is a guy who records all the time and opens up his mouth and immortalizes on tape his sizzurp-fueled ramblings on luxury cars and his bedroom skills. The enjoyable thing about Lil Wayne is just watching him go. He's a great mix of today's rap: Sex-driven men who gleefully drown in their own testosterone and drug-addled rappers with some messed up daddy issues. And [...]
I'm a cynical sort when it comes to re-releases, re-packages, deluxe editions, etc - they're obvious marketing tactics from record labels seeking to gain the maximum mileage out of the same material, especially as they try to bolster the inevitable decline in physical sales. Having said that, I'm going to remain completely transparent here and say I received advances of both the Duran Duran re-releases and the 40th Anniversary Special Edition of David Bowie's Space Oddity from EMI; because both David Bowie and Duran Duran contributed generously to my early music education, I felt it would be worth [...]
Reader's Choice: Artic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not Was anyone shocked to see Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not win the popular vote for Best of 2006? If you were, you were probably born in 2007… just woke up from a 4 year coma. The album is stunningly simple. Its guitar work and lightening quick vocals are basic, but there's genius in that simplicity. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not feels rough around the edges, but [...]
Come celebrate TILT's 2 Year Anniversary with us and special guest Franki Chan in our first (of two) installments. Headlining the night we have TILT's favorite artist of the year Thunderheist coming back to for a 2nd time! This fusion Hip-Hop/Electro Duo from Canada amazed us with their live performance last time and we can't wait for them to rock it proper again! Click HQ to see it in sparkly clean High Def [...]
So when i flicked this thing back on a couple days ago I had a couple of completely amorphous and occasionally ambitious ideas of what form this shoppe would take, if any. I've got big ideas, see, and every so often the wherewithal to carry them out. But one such concept I had involves this longer project that's been, well, haunting me for the past few years. As I told a kind and literary-minded coworker of mine who asked what I was working I sort of rolled my eyes, explaining "When I lie in bed and think about [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. M. Thomas Gammarino's debut novel Big in Japan is a surprisingly funny romp through rock music and Japan that isn't afraid to tackle big issues. Ron Currie, Jr. wrote of the book: "In Brain, Gammarino has created a perfect hero for the Age of Anxiety. Propelled by the author's knack for both pitch-perfect dialogue and startling metaphors, the reader [...]
by Bill Pearis DOWNLOAD: The Cribs - We Were Aborted (MP3) DOWNLOAD : BOAT - Prince of Tacoma (MP3) DOWNLOAD : BOAT - We've Been Friends Since 1989 (MP3) DOWNLOAD : BOAT - Lately (MP3) DOWNLOAD : BOAT - I'm a Donkey for Your Love (MP3) DOWNLOAD : BOAT - Last Cans of Paint (MP3) DOWNLOAD : Pants Yell! - Cold Hands [...]
Yes, it's Veterans Day, a "bank holiday", as the brits like to say; like so many other bloggers, I should be posting songs on the topic. But a recent bout of the dreaded H1N1 flu has left me late for end-of-term grading, perhaps one of the biggest sins a teacher can commit. As such, instead of taking advantage of the fine fall day outside, I find myself hunkered down over the dining room table, slowly making my way through a huge pile of previously-unseen papers and midterm exams. The post below was originally [...]
![The Cribs - We Share The Same Skies [Later... with Jools Holland]](http://cache.elbo.ws/youtube/624iQ2Veaw8_130.jpg)
[mp3] Beach House: "Norway" Today we get the first mp3 from the unbelievably gorgeous new Beach House album Teen Dream (1/26 Sub Pop). Here is [...]More about Beach House
MP3: Lady GaGa - Telephone [Featuring Beyoncé] More about Lady GaGa
Just wanted everyone in L.A. looking for a to do this Thursday night, to check out a great show, from London-Transplant, now L.A. inhabitant Samuel Stewart. He is the offspring [...]More about Vampire Weekend
Beck pays tribute to sound architect Harry Partch with 10 minute opus, defends Radiohead who pay respect to WWII British solider Harry Patch. Beck -"Harry [...]More about Beck
Haven’t done a real time review in a while, and hey, Fall Be Kind just leaked. Let’s see what’s up. Here’s a live blogging of my thoughts, [...]More about Animal Collective
Beyonce has recently released the deluxe version of 'I Am...Sasha Fierce' which includes 4 bonus tracks and a DVD. The deluxe edition came out on November 2nd, [...]More about Beyonce
Baria Quereshi, guitarist for The xx has left the band due to exhaustion, leaving questions about the group’s future. Consequence of Sound can tell you about it: [...]More about The xx
Got two crazy new tracks from Young Money finest Lil Wayne from his upcoming mixtape No Ceilings which drops on Halloween. Also in this mixtape there will [...]More about Lil' Wayne
So here comes this freestyle or whatever it is from Kanye. No one seems to know if it is new or some unreleased stuff but [...]More about Kanye West
Tonight, so long as this fucking rain stops, the Yankees and Phillies will go head-to-head in the World Series! It's been nine long years since the Yankees last [...]More about Jay-Z
The Cribs - We Share The Same Skies
k-os - I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman
nekocasefallon
Animal Collective - In The Flowers
new music from vampire weekend – cousins + music video
No Curve Allowed (Grading This Week's New Tracks)
Beach House: Norway
Friday Five: Surf Songs
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
