Photo Credit: Oliver Halfin Few bands have mastered the art of still being exciting after 30 years together as a band without beginning to tread water. While there might be flashier, more original, and more forward-thinking groups, Spoon has remained a reliable source of swaggering, Southern-influenced blues-rock. 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, featuring the hit… Read more
Photo Credit: Hollie Fernando Only the most hardened of cynics could resist the charm of Wet Leg’s breakout single “Chaise Longue” – filled with euphemisms, deadpan put-downs, and Mean Girls quotes. The band’s rapid rise – with just a handful of songs to their name, they managed to sell-out shows across the world and appeared on multiple… Read more
Photo Credit: Ward & Kweskin At a time of rampant ’80s nostalgia in music, trust Josh “Father John Misty” Tillman – never one to blindly follow trends – to take it a step further and look to the big band sound of the 1950s that has thus far been left largely untouched by contemporary musicians…. Read more
Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar said back in 1988 that “alternative music has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum.” That’s a great explanation of what started during the late-‘70s to early-‘80s as college radio features like Dead Kennedys… Read more
Photo Credit: Lupe Bustos “I’m living in your letters // Breathe deeply from this envelope // It smells like you and I can’t be without that scent.” Its lyrics like these that made Dashboard Confessional’s 2000 debut The Swiss Army Romance such a seminal, incisive record – one whose ability to capture the seismic pain of young heartbreak… Read more
With Coronavirus receding and the world slowly opening back up, the last year has allowed musicians to finally get back in the studio and record new music. Combine this with a pandemic’s worth of soul-searching and you find an entire generation of new talent making urgent music that meets this moment. From soul-searching singer-songwriters to… Read more
Photo Credit: Ed Cooke/Press Gang of Youth’s frontman David Le’Aupepe has made a career out of turning intimate personal trauma into maximalist rock anthems. On the band’s breakthrough single “Magnolia”, Le’Aupepe told of a drunken bender that culminated in a suicide attempt. Throughout two albums, Le’Aupepe recounted personal tales of substance abuse, a partner’s life-threatening… Read more
Photo Credit: David Belisle Perhaps Beach House decided to roll out their latest LP Once Twice Melody in four separate chapters to gradually acquaint listeners with its sprawling length. Clocking in at a little over 84 minutes in length, it’s the band’s longest album by a noticeable margin. The dream-pop innovators did not need to worry, however. Once… Read more
Photo Credit: Bad Suns Promo via Website The fourth full-length studio album by Woodland, California band Bad Suns Apocalypse Whenever doesn’t actually convey either indifference or the end of the world. On the contrary: most of it is both characteristically fun (if not “fun” with a serious side), and a great deal of care and planning went into making… Read more
Photo Credit: Michael Buisha It’s hard for the listener to know after only about a week which tracks will remain in your playlist rotation over time from an 80-minute, 20-track mega album such as this. Similarly, it can be hard for a songwriter to know the difference between a charming throwaway and a stunning little… Read more