![[Retrospective: Yeasayer @ FFF Fest]](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/2126608_lg.jpg)
[Fun Fun Fun Fest '09] I'm not late on this at all... Of the three major music festivals that grace this city each year, Fun Fun Fun Fest is certainly the locals' secret. Granted, it's a horribly kept secret, but there's an aspect to Fun Fun Fun that makes it seem so much more manageable. Watching Fun Fun Fun Fest grow and progress each year definitely lets you see just how much this city thrives on music. From it's humble beginnings as a $20 or so catch-all of [...]
In celebrating the 20th anniversary of Slumberland Records we contemplated listing the label's best albums as we've already done for Matador and Merge earlier this year, but we realized that Slumberland's tradition is built more on the 7" release than it is on the full album. Since they started the label has put out more 7" singles than anything else and they've all been a magnificent mix of styles and sounds. Bands as varied as caUSE co-MOTION! , Stereolab , the [...]
A funny thing happened to Wyclef Jean that led to the recording of From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansions . He was approached on the street by a young autograph seeker, who was disappointed to find Jean was not Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas. Rather than throwing a tantrum and ending up on TMZ , Jean decided to back away from the pop tendencies that have characterized much of his recent work and reestablish his reputation as a rapper. Not an easy task, given that indelible quality of the video for "Hips Don't Lie," [...]
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 [...]
Frank Yang Last Thursday night was spent at The Garrison, the newly - opened west-end venue that'll be home to the final year of Wavelength as well as a plethora of other local music happenings. A fine example of this was this evening's bill, featuring bands with long names from near, far and sorta-near-but-not-that-close: The Wilderness Of Manitoba , Slow Down Molasses and Olenka & The Autumn Lovers . Slow Down Molasses represented the "far", hailing from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and were up first. I'd spent some [...]
Capybara - Earlier this year, Capybara self-released their excellent debut album - Try Brother - and are now planning on a proper release next week on indie label The Record Machine. Hopefully that means more exposure for the band, whose music deserves any attention it receives. Freak-folk might be an appropriate label for the Kansas City group, but they rest on the softer, more melodic side of the genre. Their lo-fi approach - utilizing guitars, banjos, and various percussion - gives their songs a charmingly rustic sound, but its the songwriting that truly shines [...]
This post is part of our "Top Albums of The Decade" series. Follow the series to read about the best music to grace our ears in the 2000s. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic (Mint Records) Hailing from the snowy Canadian plains, The New Pornographers shook everyone from the ground up when their incredible blend of contagiously joyful pop first hit record shelves. The band simply oozed of freshness, delivering stunning melodies, amazing riffs and catchy lyrics all wrapped [...]
The next time someone tells you rock and roll is dead and cites Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers or Kanye West as proof, just tell them a) they're wrong and b) Taylor, the JoBros and Kanye are the bomb. Now if they tell you that there's no good current music and cite Britney Spears, Animal Collective and Jason Mraz as proof, just say a) I'm feelin' ya, bro and b) you're still wrong. Because in 3 days this month, I experienced 5 shows that cleared away the cobwebs, got the blood pumping and proved that J-Roll's double may [...]
In life, the best things are usually the ones you don't know about, stumble upon and end up enjoying thoroughly. It's hard to plan. The best things just fall into place. As is the case with music festivals (and CMJ is no exception to this rule) it may be the reason for the phrase. Like SXSW, CMJ is full of unofficial parties, secret shows, and all sorts of RSVP lists that open the doors to epic parties, or parties that could be epic but no one knew about them, and hence, no one showed up. Luckily, we're going to clear [...]
ANBAD isn't really used to having awards bestowed on it, but be still my beating heart: here on the wonderful Break Thru Radio , ANBAD is Blogger Of The Week! The delightful Mimi Kim of Break Thru Radio interviewed me and the results are in this show , which, even if I do say so myself, is lovely stuff. I talk about all these things: Why I write about a new band a day, and why I haven't gone crazy yet [...]
Fresh from his self-titled releases that have caused a fair bit of fuss in record shops over the world, we welcome on board English soul tinged, slo-mo producer, Cottam for the 16th Random Mix. Cottam1-Side B by Cottam (buy) After catching the ear of a host of top djs with his Erykah Badu and James Brown sampling, #1 , Cottam (real name Paul) immediately hit us with the follow up, #2 (spot the theme developing here) which took Angie Stone into [...]
What Sin Replaces Love? Love is gone. There's a hole where it used to be. What is the quickest way to fill it? That's what Ryan Adams asks in one of his most epic songs. And he wants to know RIGHT fucking NOW. The answer he inevitably settles on seems to be murder. He wants to "kick love right in its gut; beat it and leave it for dead." It shouldn't come as a surprise that 'What Sin...' was never officially [...]
Previously: Part 1 Sometimes kids have been enlisted to sing words that are perfectly suited to their youthful status, such as on "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, where they join in on the schoolyard chant, "No more pencils no more books/ no more teacher's dirty looks." The Smiths go for a similar but darker effect in "Panic," as the kids echo Morrissey in his mournful "Hang the DJ!" chant. The sound of the schoolyard, with those disembodied, joyful voices rising and falling, was all Belle & Sebastian needed to lend an instantly evocative [...]
I must apologize for the amount of time I spent transcribing this interview, but this found itself to be one of the most difficult transcriptions I have ever done and I contemplated not bothering. However, Little Brazil is a fantastic band and there were some really great answers provided in this interview that I couldn't allow it to just get buried. At this point, I'm sure you're wondering what happened. Little Brazil 's guitarist Greg Edds and I left the venue in search of a quiet spot to conduct [...]
Covers albums are always a tricky proposition. Even with artists I like, I find that covers come off as one of two things – either they hew too close to the original and lack any definitive point on their own, or else they play much too fast and loose in their interpretation of a classic song. In either case, they're often treated as a bit disposable, merely quickly recorded, poorly thought out b-sides or cash grabs. It seems like a lose-lose proposition. Do you want to be the artist who ruins a classic or the one who makes a completely [...]
Will the festival season ever end? Part of me hopes so, but another part hungers for more. And The Wire sponsored Adventures in Modern Music Festival at Chicago's Empty Bottle this past week pushed that hunger to a limit. I'm now pretty sure that another festival would kill me. Now, that's certainly not to say that I didn't enjoy my four days at one of Chicago's best venues; it didn't help that I was sick, and couldn't make it out of the house for one of the five shows. But, the array of noise, improv, under-the-radar, generally weird [...]
Around 11.2 miles lie between the heart of Hoxton and Hainault forest, a secluded sect of wooded suburbia, cracked pavements and for one weekend only, splashed eyeliner and smashed scenesters. Expanded on last year's boho boutique knees-up, it's in with the industrial leathers as bemused local pushchair wielders gaze on perplexed as sperm counts diminish and lungs are perpetually battered with a barrage of tar. Musically, times have changed as hardcore hipsters rip the spotlights from the catacombs lingering over the doom pop of The Horrors and London upstarts R O M A N C E and Ulterior under the [...]
Interview by Dub MD www.twitter.com/dubmd84 Starting this week off with the 7th Q&A session in the 10 question(s) series. This week we get into the mind of up and coming Bronx native, D-Black. Coming off the back of releasing his well received latest fee mixtape download "New Black City." D-Black is preparing to unleash whole host of new product onto the streets/online over the next year, with new albums with super producers Illmind and Khrysis, as well new solo mixtapes, he's one emcee that isn't planning on letting up any time soon. D-Black [...]
I woke up Thursday morning, the day of the big "date", with a sore throat. I tried not to think much of it, but I quickly hurried to pack a small bag with a change of clothes, and hopped in my car to begin my drive home to Jersey. When I got to my mother's house, I told her that I was going to be hanging out with with some of my high school friends in the city, and staying over at one of their apartments. I thought this was an interesting lie at the time because I had actually [...]
We've been fans of David Schultz's work on Earvolution since he started the site, so we're honored to welcome him to the Hidden Track team. In the late Eighties, at the height of the MTV era, Living Colour emerged from New York City and with songs like Cult Of Personality, Which Way To America? and Open Letter (To A Landlord) added their articulate voice to the populist response to the Republican politics of the Reagan/Bush era. On the strength of [...]
‘09 Been Kind
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
Zipper (Dj Manaia Remix)
remixed: the beach boys, lady gaga, duck sauce, ellie goulding, shakira, la roux, madonna, & more!!!
