Author Archives

Listen / Music — 10 Comments
16
Nov 09

Vampire Weekend – Cousins

Vampire Weekend Cousins listen

When I first heard Cousins, I watched it at seven in the morning on a Thursday in a grainy Youtube video, all strobe light and dancing kids, and I did everything that fantastic and lucky weekend singing to myself the precious few syllables that I understood. “Me and my cousins and you and your cousins I can feel it coming.” And the drums and the drums and the drums and the way the guitar slid and the bassline. The words were different then and unintelligible. It was very breathless. I hear it now (the album version for the first time, tonight) and it is a different animal entirely, but no less stunning and no less breathtaking. The truth of the matter is, in my mind, that Vampire Weekend have not released a single bad song, and I have always had incredible faith that they will never release a bad song. Cousins is the logical continuation of this wonderful streak of utter awesome, in that it is utterly awesome. It was utterly awesome in March when that Youtube video surfaced, and it is utterly awesome right now while I play the album version for perhaps the hundredth time trying to make sense of my feelings. What follows is the best I can do. I truly do not have the words for this band. They will not stop impressing me. Continue reading →

Gig Reviews / Music — 2 Comments
2
Nov 09

The Antlers, Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton MA 9/26

The Antlers, Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton MA 9/26 gig reviews
I spent most of the Antlers’ set at Northampton’s tiny, almost empty Iron Horse Music Hall wondering why they weren’t doing it for me. When I wasn’t thinking about this I was considering wearing earplugs to shows and I was thinking about where I was going to catch the bus back to where I live and wondering if it was possible to read four parts of Virgil’s Aeneid in twenty-four hours (fortunately, it’s possible, but I don’t recommend it). This is an issue because when I go to a good show I can think of nothing but lyrical and sound progressions and what’s going to be next, what’s going to be next? I don’t care about my inevitable hearing loss or bus schedules or homework, especially. I don’t care about making a fool of myself with ridiculous dance moves and ecstatic cheering when the band breaks out some classic jam. I don’t think about why this is working or why this isn’t working. If I did think about all these things, I would probably have no place reviewing concerts. I was a little upset with myself that I let my mind wander so much, but customarily when you are in the front row watching a band perform a bunch of tracks from their breathtaking album you have to try to let your mind go elsewhere. Continue reading →

Album Reviews / Music / Reviews — 11 Comments
21
Sep 09

Washed Out, Life of Leisure, EP Review

Don’t forget to rate this album at the end of the post (something I’m trying out)
Washed Out, Life of Leisure, EP Review album reviews reviews 2 Washed Out
Life of Leisure EP

Mexican Summer
out October 20th

69/100
[Rating Scale]
Buy it at Insound!

[rating:69/100]
Life of Leisure is an appropriate title for an EP that sounds like partying all night in a dark, sweaty room and waking up on a beach at dawn next to someone you like, cold sand in your hair. Like night-swimming, half your face submerged, and the moon across the water. Like walking home on sandy streets lined with resorts, gently holding someone’s hand, feeling in your chest the distant pulsing bass from basements and passing cars. It sounds like something sweet and simultaneously sharp – fruit-flavored vodka? It doesn’t sound like dance music or party music or techno music – it is a sensuous electronic whirlwind, but that isn’t really a genre, is it? Continue reading →

Album Reviews / MP3 / Music / Reviews — 53 Comments
9
Jul 09

Discovery – LP, Album Review & Vinyl + CD Giveaway

Discovery LP, Album Review & Vinyl + CD Giveaway album reviews reviews 2 Discovery
LP

XL
out July 7th

86/100
[Rating Scale]
Buy it at Insound!

[rating:86/100]
With the recent passing of Michael Jackson, every blog I read had some kind of eulogy to the king of pop – by the same writers who, a post earlier, had extolled the music of Dirty Projectors or Grizzly Bear or Animal Collective, or by musicians whose work seems worlds apart from Jackson’s. We might see indie music and pop music as worlds apart, but the trick is not to think of indie music as a reactionary measure, but as a division of pop music that is just less well-known. I feel like sometimes in our day and age people have a genre allegiance that thoroughly blinds them – a weird pretentious image, “too good for pop music.” “Too hip for pop music.” When you think about this, I’m sure you can realize how useless it is. Where would any of us be without pop music? There would be nothing without pop music. None of us is too good for the music we grew up with, and the music that inspired every musician we know.

In short, pop music is not a crime, and what I’ve been getting at this whole time is that Discovery’s LP is not a crime and it is perfect summer pop music. What’s wrong with that?

Continue reading →

Gig Reviews / Gigs / MP3 / Music / Reviews — 2 Comments
29
Jun 09

Miike Snow – Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, June 20

Miike Snow Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, June 20 gig reviews

Miike Snow are six on stage, and they all wear matching shiny black track jackets. One, obstructed by stacked trunks bearing equipment, wears a cowboy hat. Their music is complex and dancy, all synth and keyboard and a thousand unnameable gadgets, a little guitar and drums that sound like a machine. Everything is arranged in a neat arch on Music Hall of Williamsburg’s wide stage, organized in little stations for each member.

Somewhat surprisingly, Miike Snow’s songs are about sadness and depression – songs to walk alone in the rain to, lyrics-wise. Their music is music to get down in the club to, unthinking and unconsidered. The bald man twisting dials on the synth in front of me bobs his head excitedly – “he looks like he belongs DJing in a club,” my friend insists – to lyrics like “don’t forget to cry at your own burial.” The crowd dances more than I had expected them to. Depressing lyrics don’t matter – for Miike Snow, words are an afterthought, something to provide added rhythm, to layer with fuzz and xylophone. They are good words, often, but unnecessary. What matters is music – sound, loud and echoing and varied and ecstatic, regardless of anything else. Continue reading →

Gig Reviews / Gigs / MP3 / Music — 6 Comments
6
Jun 09

Grizzly Bear, Town Hall, New York, May 29 2009

Grizzly Bear, Town Hall, New York, May 29 2009 gig reviews
Town Hall on 43rd Street in Manhattan is full of smoke like a 1920s lounge. With red velvet chairs and polished mahogany and giant crystal chandeliers, everything seems like a throwback. Grizzly Bear’s music seems to fit here – sometimes it contains elements of the past, but they are wrapped up in smooth modern twists – reverb, omnichord, a pile of effects pedals on the floor. But there is that choir element, a layering upon one another of four voices; there is the string quartet and the piano; there is the flute and the clarinet. Grizzly Bear’s music comes from another time and it is not now, and it is difficult to say whether it is the past or the future. Continue reading →

Listen / MP3 / Music — 8 Comments
22
May 09

Eva ft. Lupe Fiasco – Slow Down

Eva ft. Lupe Fiasco Slow Down listen
“Slow Down” works like this: classy R&B lady croons about young men moving too fast over an echo-y club beat of faux strings and thudding bass drum, popular rapper adds a verse from the point of view of said young men, inserting proof of his bad-assery, song ends with auto-tuned reprise of catchy, snappy one-liner chorus. Eva’s soprano is pretty, the beat is classy and dancy, and Lupe’s verse is alright, but I simply cannot muster much positivity about this song because I am pretty sure I have heard it two million times before, and in this incarnation the lyrics are pretty lame. “Save your tears for a rainy day!”

If classy R&B ladies auto-tuning about pushy dudes are your thing, you might appreciate this song far more than me. Give it a listen. Continue reading →

Listen / MP3 / Music — 5 Comments
22
May 09

Make The Girl Dance – My Name’s Breezy / South

Make The Girl Dance My Names Breezy / South listen
Make the Girl Dance is a Parisian duo, and they are going to make me dance. I don’t remember the last time I so appreciated – I don’t even know what to call it. Maybe it’s techno?

“South” is some very constant, dancy bass and chimy rock guitar with breakdowns into thunderstorm sound effects. Simple and tremendously effective. With no real vocals, the song depends on the music to be engaging, and it definitely is.

“My Name’s Breezy”’s only lyrics are from a 1973 Clint Eastwood-directed film called (obviously) “Breezy” (That’s right, I googled it!) The song’s most constant beat is heavy breathing, with added quick drums and soaring keyboard. It’s not as good as “South” – the heavy breathing is a little bit distracting – but serves its purpose as gleeful dance music.

Check out these songs if you like Justice or the Rapture – just for the clangy guitar and dancy beats. Give them a listen. Continue reading →

Listen / MP3 / Music — No Comments
21
May 09

St. Vincent – Bicycle

St. Vincent Bicycle listen

“Bicycle” is dizzy, distant, repetitive – piano and keyboard in a redundant, spiraling whirl, like the spinning of wheels on a bicycle. Annie Clarke’s voice is sweet, haunting, mingled with accordion and drums that echo, and she sings about how love can be like a ghostly encounter (“I blinked, and you were gone”). Listening to this song makes you feel like Annie – followed by a ghost, a deliberate and haunting presence. It’s beautiful, and mesmerizing.

Give it a listen, or two. Continue reading →

MP3 / Music / Remixes — 3 Comments
21
May 09

Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes (Dam-Funk Remix)

Animal Collective Summertime Clothes (Dam Funk Remix) mp3

“Summertime Clothes” is playful enough as it is, with sweet lyrics and a dizzy beat, but Dam-Funk makes it ten times more so with squiggly synth and classic remix-groove drums. What I most appreciate about this remix is how it doesn’t mess with the lovely story Dave Portner’s lyrics tell, only adding elements to make it more joyous, lighthearted, and ecstatic. Particularly over the “Just you, just you, just you, just you” at the end, the waves of sound and drums ease the song off into the ether like the wind’s blowing it away.

Listen to a radio-rip from BBC radio 1. Continue reading →

← Older Entries