Well, Record Store Day is almost here again, and if you’re someone — maybe like me — prone to posting up in line obscenely early to get first crack at the goodies on your shopping list, there’s plenty of special releases to be found this Saturday.
Continue reading Eternal Summers’ Swooning And Distorted Record Store Day Track
Dum Dum Girls burst onto the scene in 2008 on the strength of visceral, yet messy songs and the charisma of vocalist Dee Dee Penny. But as the one-woman project morphed into a full-fledged band, that primitive grit has been incrementally sanded down, revealing a new polished side to Penny’s aesthetic.
Continue reading Dum Dum Girls: A ‘Vivid’ And Sparkling Sound
Yesterday, songwriter Sharon Van Etten tweeted a link to a YouTube video, saying “Make sure to watch before tomorrow.”
Continue reading Compare And Contrast: Sharon Van Etten Channels Agnes Varda
Shearwater is no stranger to high concept rock music. Through its first three albums, frontman Jonathan Meiburg built an ambitious trilogy around his interests in nature and science, and ornithology, masterfully marrying indie rock with prog rock grandiosity. Then, with 2012’s Animal Joy, the band totally shifted, downsizing in scope, yet crafting lean and distorted rockers.
So it’s not all that surprising that Meiburg’s next move was another conceptual album: On each of Fellow Travelers‘ ten songs, Meiburg and company pays tribute to an artist with whom the band has toured.
“But disassociation, I guess, is just a modern disease.” So sings Erika M. Anderson in the closing moments of “3Jane,” a pretty, yet disquieting ballad that freely references William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the influential cyberpunk sci-fi novel known for coining the term “cyberspace.” When it was published in 1984, the story of a past-his-prime hacker in a cold virtual reality was speculative futurism in the mold of Blade Runner or TRON. But its themes may resonate even more today.
Continue reading EMA’s ‘The Future’s Void’ Explores Cyberpunk In The Digital Age
There’s a moment at the very end of “Baby,” the title track from White Hinterland’s new album, when everything in the mix drops out, revealing just the voice of singer Casey Dienel. In those final 20 seconds, as she repeatedly howls “Is this my weakness?” — without all the ghostly reverb, or the dense layers of vocals, the serrated beats, and synthesizer sequences, Dienel exposes an raw vulnerability. It’s one of those jarring, sit up and take notice moments that underscores Dienel’s musical transformation — from skillful and sweet songwriter to a powerful, emotional singer, and a producer with confidence in her craft.
Continue reading White Hinterland: Boldly Embracing An Evocative Pop Sound On ‘Baby’
Try all you like, but it’s practically impossible to resist pumping your fists in the air or pounding on the steering wheel to “I’m Not Part Of Me.” While buried as the closer on Cloud Nothings’ new album, Here And Nowhere Else, this is the kind of explosive, hair-raising song that you’ll hit repeat as soon as it ends, just so you can shout along to the line “I’m not telling you all I’m going through” with satisfying defiance. And then there’s that chorus — “But I’m not, I’m not you / You’re a part of me, you’re a part of me” — which is so emblematic of what makes Dylan Baldi, the Cleveland, Ohio band’s primary force, such a potent frontman: He’s exceptional at piling three song’s worth of melodic pop hooks into one raucous punk banger.
Continue reading Cloud Nothings Stay Explosive On ‘Here And Nowhere Else’
I don’t go to a concert a night or anything crazy, but I do see a fair amount of live music. Last night for instance, I went to two shows at two different venues, and caught all or parts of five bands’ sets. First up was an early show at Mercury Lounge for young U.K. synth pop band Woman’s Hour, and its opener Future Of What. Then, made the short but rainy walk down to Bowery Ballroom for opener Sore Eros, songwriter (and Sharon Van Etten’s longtime guitarist) Doug Keith, and Philly rockers The War On Drugs.
Continue reading Where’s Mike? Apparently In Everyone’s Instagram Feed
Every year at South By Southwest there’s a whole slew of high profile stars who drop in with big time shows, taking advantage Austin’s complete media saturation and keeping them firmly in the spotlight. When you hear complaints about SXSW getting too commercial and taking eyes away from smaller acts slogging through many shows a day and fighting to get heard, this is what they mean. In hip-hop, that seems especially true when in recent years Kanye, Jay Z, Snoop, and many more show up with much hype. Still, it’s always possible to find new acts, especially when you cannot get into those packed late night shows. And every year there’s a few names that rise above the fray: Danny Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Action Bronson, Big K.R.I.T. and Chance the Rapper have all had recent breakthrough sets at SXSW on their way to bigger things.
Last year, one of those names, for me, was Le1f, who I caught at NPR Music’s showcase at Stubb’s.
We should state for the record, both Greg and I are huge Mehldau fans historically. I know that I have heard almost every single one of his albums, from this amazing Art of the Trio series with Jorge Rossy and Larry Grenadier, to his masterpiece collaboration with Jon Brion, Largo, to his more recent trio work with drummer Jeff Ballard. Few jazz pianists since the 1990’s have been more consistently inventive, diverse and interesting as Mehldau — and more, his trios are a sight to be seen live in concert.
Continue reading Dear Brad Mehldau, You’re Not Doing Yourself Any Favors