After four long years of inactivity, the SputStaff Top 10 is back! The staff at Sputnikmusic put their heads together and tried to come up with the most badass way to reboot the series, and, uh, the best we could muster was T-Swizzle. She knits sweaters, yo! Anyway she might be the biggest pop star in the entire world, and at just 32 years old, she already has quite the extensive catalog. If you’re anything like us, you’ve spent many sleepless nights tossing and turning in bed wondering what the top 10 Taylor Swift songs are. Thanks to our dedicated staff, you can finally put your mind at ease. We’ve done all the legwork, turned over every stone, and split every hair — so without further ado, I present to you the esteemed and irrefutably correct top 10 Taylor Swift tracks of all time.
Mason Maggio is a man of many talents. Currently he is the sole member of Souveneer, an indie-folk/rock project formed in 2016, but you might also know him as the lead singer from The Republic of Wolves and Tigers on Trains. I caught up with him recently on the progress of his new EP, the future of his other projects, and even his successful stint on Jeopardy.
In addition to the interview, Maggio has also granted Sputnikmusic exclusive early access to his upcoming song, “Evelyn”, which will be on his 2022 EP Sleep Study. “Evelyn” drops officially on Thursday, June 9th.
You can stream “Evelyn” below, as well as Sleep Study‘s two other already released tracks as you navigate through the interview.
Enjoy!
It’s been a while since we’ve caught up for an interview (2016, to be precise). A lot in the world has changed since then…how are you doing?
A very tough question to start things off! Overall I’ve been well. Without getting into major worldwide events, some of the main happenings in my life since 2016 have been moving from New York to LA, getting a dog, becoming obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons, winning on Jeopardy, meeting/collaborating with some amazing songwriters, and growing enough as a musician and artist to fully embrace my solo project.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 6th, 2022. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: May 6, 2022 –
!!!: Let It Be Blue
Genre: Indie-Rock/Post-Punk/Funk
Label: Warp
Arcade Fire: WE
Genre: Indie-Rock/Indie-Pop
Label: Columbia
AWOLNATION: My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers, and Me
Genre: Electronic/Indie-Pop
Label: Better Noise Music
Belle and Sebastian: A Bit of Previous
Genre: Indie-Pop/Indie-Folk
Label: Matador
Cosmic Putrefaction: Crepuscular Dirge For The Blessed Ones
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Profound Lore
Halestorm: Back From The Dead
Genre: Hard Rock/Pop Rock
Label: Atlantic
Haunter (USA-TX): Discarnate Ails
Genre: Death/Black Metal
Label: Profound Lore
Ibaraki: Rashomon
Genre: Black Metal/Metalcore/Heavy Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Artist Bio: Nick & Jeff Discover Infinity consists of two friends who met in September 2021 and began making music together with the goal of being adventurous and avoiding confinement to one genre or sound. Sometimes catchy and immediate, other times hypnotic and ethereal, there is always something unexpected around the corner. They are currently writing and recording their second full length album and a punk EP.
I caught up with Deathconscious about his musical project Nick & Jeff Discover Infinity: from the meaning of the band’s name and its origins to where they see their pursuit of infinity taking them.
The name of your band seems to perfectly encapsulate what the music entails. There’s a sense of raw exploration in your songs, and while one can’t always be sure of where they’ll arrive, they typically – at the very least – make for an interesting journey. What inspired your no-limits approach to making music? Was there anything specific (a novel, movie, etc) or are you both just dreamers? Also, are there any musical acts that influence/play a role in shaping your art?
Welcome to the first installment of our 2022 quarterly playlist! Feel free to jam the playlist below while reading what our writers had to say about each selection. Tell us what your favorites are in the comments, as well as any new artists you may have discovered here – or, alternatively, tell us what we missed! Thanks for reading/listening.
Tracklist:
40 Watt Sun – Behind My Eyes
Approaching twelve minutes in length, and devoid of most “exciting” musical elements, “Behind My Eyes” isn’t for the faint of heart. For those of the right bent, though, it’s a gold mine. Hazy slowcore (and a touch of folk) reminiscent of golden age Kozelek imbues the listener with just the right blend of melancholy and warmth. Spin at the required moment, and this listening experience can approach the feeling of a religious epiphany. –Sunnyvale
Astral Tomb – Traversing the Wandering Star
I’ve been searching around for the right album to throw a little more attention at all afternoon, but I couldn’t exactly throw the twelve minute track alongside the bite-sized morsels on this list. Astral Tomb have a small, cult-like following and for good reason.…
Artist Bio: Stray ghost mutt making strange noises. Gameboy music meets your favourite David Lynch film and gives birth to broken dreams. Digital ghost guitar screams. Cute/
I caught up with Johnny about his musical project Nightmare Puppy, from its formation to what he sees in its future.
Hugh Puddles circa 2017. Image has been blurred to protect his identity from Brazilian LDR stans.
I’m looking at the artist pic on your bandcamp page right now. Is that the elusive and ever-sought-after Hugh Puddles? Also, how long did it take you to grow that hair out? Is that a pornstache or just a shadow?
Hello heh, yes that was me five years ago. Can’t confirm how long the hair took because I was a hippy flake and never cut it, like, ever. Times have changed and I look like a moody square now, but it was fun while it lasted. The pornstache was and is real. It comes with a beard and lots of good intentions.
Tell us a little bit about how Nightmare Puppy formed. What sparked your desire to make music? What cumulative influences (artist, video game, or otherwise) led to the sounds that we hear on your latest endeavor, Nara Nara Voltsong For Shower?
Artist Bio: Allelic is a vessel of creation of atmospheric and melodically inclined black/folk metal through fictive yet deeply personal conceptual records for the band’s Principal Investigator. The project was born in 2017 in Montréal and is now based in Sherbrooke.
I caught up with Sputnikmusic member lalchimiste about Allelic, their influences, the latest single, and future plans.
While you’re certainly not the first artist to blend elements of folk and black metal, Allelic still manages to sound very unique/distinguishable compared to bands of a similar ilk. I think user reviewer DungeonBoy expressed it best when he wrote, as part of a review for your 2018 debut EP Reverberations, “To label it ‘black metal’ or ‘folk’ would be misleading as the two elements are more intertwined than fused.” How do you view this balance in your music, and is there a specific focus on your part to ensure that both genres/styles get equal representation?
I have always had a strong connection with acoustic guitar and recurringly used instruments in certain folk music be it flute, violin, percussions used as genuine tools for creating an atmosphere and not as a gimmick. Same goes for BM…
I haven’t had what I’d consider a true nightmare in at least a decade. I still have the occasional dream where something happens that makes me upset – perhaps I forget something important, or my car breaks down on the way to a big meeting – but the sort of haunting images that used to cross my mind when I was younger have entirely dissipated. No more shadowy figures standing at the foot of my bed, no more quiet laughter coming from downstairs, no more sitting straight up in bed after some kind of malformed, upright animal charges me in my own bedroom. Generally speaking, most people outgrow those kinds of fears – monsters and ghosts are replaced by adult stressors, and your dreams grow with you by reflecting those concerns.
“That Cannot Be Dreamed” is the closest I’ve come to experiencing that sort of terror again. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an exhilarating terror – but still quite spooky. I’m admittedly not the most well-versed in Blut aus Nord’s expansive discography, or even black metal for that matter, but I’ve heard enough of them both to know “That Cannot Be Dreamed” is exceptional. It evokes the sort of hellish imagery that other bands strive for with twice the effort and half the affect – resulting in an eerily powerful blend of avant-garde metal and industrialized dissonance. Despite the visceral, primitive fear that the song invites, it also manages to be majestic, beautiful, and meditative –…
At the outset of Weezer’s career, The Blue Album and Pinkerton established them as one of the greatest new rock acts of their time. However, a run of six LPs from 2001-2010 saw their reputation tarnished by music that was occasionally good enough, but all too often disappointing. After a decade of mixed results, it seemed that Weezer had adopted a new identity – not one that wanted to please their loyal fanbase, but rather one that used meme-worthy album art and was obsessed with fame.
On the heels of 2014’s Everything Will Be Alright in the End and 2016’s The White Album, it seemed like Weezer had finally reclaimed control of their destiny. However, as with history, Weezer seems to repeat itself. Just as those two albums rekindled Weezer’s magic, we once again found/find ourselves mired in another excessive run of mediocrity. Pacific Daydream, The Black Album, and Van Weezer were all pretty bad, while The Teal Album gets a bit of a pass because it was a gimmicky covers album. OK Human has really been the band’s only post-2016 saving grace, and even that record – while quite beautiful at times – didn’t quite capture the full essence of Weezer. It was like Weezer does the Beach Boys (not that I’m complaining personally), sans any of the grittier punk/rock elements to keep them grounded.
So where does that leave us in 2022? Well, Weezer is embarking upon an ambitious…
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BACKGROUND
Artist Bio: Methadone Skies is an independent psychedelic rock group from Timisoara, Romania. Active since 2009, the instrumental quartet has released 5 full length records so far. Each LP shares its own musical direction, often leaning into stoner, post-rock and doom metal territories. There were never any boundaries set, so each affair is the sum of various influences and constant sonic exploration. Retrofuture Caveman is the latest album, released in May 2021. The LP mainly blends post-rock with stoner alongside doom metal touches. It is perhaps one of the most calibrated and cohesive efforts so far. Although we are not a heavy touring band, we managed to play over 100 gigs in our country and Central-Eastern Europe over the past decade. We shared the stage with multiple bands in the genre such as Yawning Man, Samsara Blues Experiment, Motorpsycho, My Sleeping Karma, Stoned Jesus, Acid Mothers Temple, Toner Low, Stonebride, 1000MODS and Zaum among others.
Genres: Stoner Rock/Psychedelic/Progressive
Band Lineup: Alexandru Wehry (guitar), Raul Stanciu (guitar, E-Bow), Mihai Guta (bass), Flavius Retea (drums, percussion, keyboards)
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 11, 2022. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: March 11, 2022 –
Alex Cameron: Oxy Music
Genre:Indie-Pop/Rock
Label: Secretly Canadian
Angelmaker: Sanctum
Genre: Death Metal/Metalcore
Label: Angelmaker
Blazemth: The Return Of Lucifer
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Xtreem Music
Bodega (US-NY): Broken Equipment
Genre: Indie-Rock/Punk
Label: What’s Your Rupture?
The Boo Radleys: Keep on with Falling
Genre: Britpop/Shoegaze
Label: Boostr
Bryan Adams: So Happy It Hurts
Genre: Pop/Rock
Label: BMG
Cailleach Calling: Dreams Of Fragmentation
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Debemur Morti P
Chemicide: Common Sense
Genre: Thrash
Label: PRC Music
Cryptivore: Celestial Extinction
Genre: Death Metal/Grind
Label: Bitter Loss
The Districts: Great American Painting
Genre: Indie-Rock/Folk Punk
Label: Fat Possum
Drug Church: Hygiene
Genre: Punk/Post-Hardcore
Label: Pure Noise
I caught up with Sputnikmusic staff member Brett Tharp (Gameofmetal) about blending black metal with spaghetti western, Dark Watcher’s 2 EPs, collaborating with Allelic, and more.
Give us the story behind Dark Watcher. How and when did the project start? What obstacles were encountered? At what point did you know it was definitely something you wanted to pursue?
Dark Watcher came about sometime around the beginning of 2019. I was living in Arkansas and going to college. Music had been on the wayside for a while, it had been difficult to continue practicing regularly within a schedule that busy and my creative focus had been turning towards writing in recent years, still doing some reviews and testing the waters on a few short stories. As silly as it sounds, the renewed interest in music coincided with the release of the game Red Dead Redemption 2, which had a really fantastic and often unorthodox score. I think one day I…
I caught up with Sputnikmusic staff member Dewinged about how his band O’Summer Vacation formed and what touring is like right now, all before receiving some very important nuggets of De-wisdom.
Tell us a little bit about how o’summer vacation formed. Is there a story behind the band name? When did you join the group, and what sparked your interest in making noise/math punk?
o’summer vacation goes way back to that time in 2009 when our band’s dear leader mikiiiiii didn’t have money for a guitar, so he bought a cheap bass instead and started jamming with a couple of friends. He was a big fan of the Touch and Go label bands and early 00s math rock by then. For some reason, probably just laziness, the band never got a guitar player, so they started playing gigs as a trio of bass, drums and vocals. I’ve heard the…
“Why doesn’t it get better with time?”, a forlorn Regina Spektor asks God. The two are sitting down at a bar across from a corner deli, beers in hand. You might not have taken God for the drinking type, but it was actually his idea. After encountering her while she was walking home one night, he suggests that the two grab a beer and relax a bit. That’s about where God’s portion of the dialogue ends, however; he strikes up this fun idea, and then leaves Regina alone with her thoughts. “Let the ones who want it bad get all the things that make them better”, she wishes. Then, as if talking to a wall: “Let the ones who don’t care feel a thrill.” You can sense the desperation in her voice growing with each verse. On the other side of the table, an expressionless face stares onward, refusing to respond. “And I just want to ride, but this whole world — it makes me carsick” Regina continues, at this point probably aware that God has completely tuned her out. “I’m becoming all alone again…stay” she pleads. As the camera pans out, Spektor indeed finds herself completely alone again. By the end of the song, the dialogue is reversed: this time it’s Spektor seeking God out, asking him to join her for a beer while singing “It’s awful late…I know you’re here.” No response is given, and he never shows.…
I caught up with Scott Krasman to discuss his ambient project Kannatama, and his debut LP “Hell Debris”.
You’ve been involved in a number of projects, from Dropped Flyer (Trip Hop) and Consumer Death Proposal (Hardcore/Thrash) now to Kannatama (Ambient). What is it like moving between genres with such widely varying aesthetics, and what ultimately led you to your most current project, Kannatama? Do you see one genre as more “you”, are you still searching for your preferred style, or are you just a musician who enjoys dabbling in as many musical landscapes as possible?
I’ve been officially making music since 2011, when Dropped Flyer grew from the influences of DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing. Those EPs were largely created using Audacity and some simple reversing/editing techniques – looking back now, a lot of it comes off as unpolished but ambitious. Some of the tracks on Lowlife are a glimpse into what Kannatama eventually became, especially the opening…
![folklore [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91PYDrG2ejL._AC_UY218_.jpg)
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