Author Archive
By staff
Monday May 12, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 13, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Agalloch – The Serpent & The Sphere (Profound Lore) – Kyle Ward
Bane – Don’t Wait Up (Equal Vision Records)
The Black Keys – Turn Blue (Nonesuch)
Blondie – Ghosts Of Download (Noble ID)
Blondie – Blondie: 40 (Noble ID)
Brantley Gilbert – Just As I Am (Valory)
Chromeo – White Women (Big Beat/WEA)
Coldplay – Ghost Stories (Parlophone/Atlantic)
Cursed Sails – Rotten Society (Rise Records)
Dolly Parton – Blue Smoke (Sony Masterworks)
Dylan Gardner – Adventures In Real Time (Bingo Masters)
Front Line Assembly – Echoes (Metropolis Records)
Gruff Rhys – American Interior (Caroline International) – Raul Stanciu
Guided By Voices – Cool Planet (Guided By Voices)
Hiss Tracts – Shortwave Nights (Constellation)
The Howlin’ Brothers – Trouble (Readymade Records)
Kenny Wayne Shepherd – Goin’ Home (Concord)
Killer Be Killed – Killer Be Killed (Nuclear Blast America)
Kishi Bashi – Lighght (Joyful Noise Records)
La Sera – Hour Of The Dawn (Hardly Art)
Levi Weaver – Your Ghosts Keep Finding Me (Rock Ridge Music)
Little Dragon – Nabuma Rubberband (Loma Vista/Republic)
Malka Spigel – Gliding (Swim)
Michael Jackson – Xscape (Epic)
Midnight Faces – The Fire Is Gone (Broken Factory)
Mirah – Changing Light (K)
Mushroomhead – The Righteous & The Butterfly (Megaforce)
Only Crime – Pursuance (Rise Records)
The Pains Of Being Pure At…
By staff
Tuesday May 6, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 6, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Atmosphere – Southsiders (Rhymesayers)
BADBADNOTGOOD – III (Innovative Leisure)
Barrows – Red Giant (Barrows)
Baths – Ocean Death (Anticon)
Ben & Ellen Harper – Childhood Home (Prestige Folklore)
Black Stone Cherry – Magic Mountain (Roadrunner)
Crash – Hardly Criminal (Community Music)
Current Swell – Ulysses (Nettwerk Records)
Elephant – Sky Swimming (Memphis Industries)
Eno & Hyde – Someday World (Warp Records)
Epica – The Quantum Enigma (Nuclear Blast America)
Fujiya & Miyagi – Artificial Sweeteners (Yep Roc Records)
The Horrors – Luminous (XL Recordings)
Hunter Hayes – Storyline (Atlantic)
Kina Grannis – Elements (One Haven Music)
King Dude – Fear (Not Just Religious Music)
Leisure Cruise – Leisure Cruise (Last Gang Records)
Liam Finn – The Nihilist (Yep Roc Records)
Lily Allen – Sheezus (Warner Bros.)
Lykke Li – I Never Learn (Atlantic)
Matrimony – Montibello Memories (Sony)
Money – The Shadow Of Heaven (Bella Union)
Morning Parade – Pure Adulterated Joy (So Recordings)
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – Spooky Tricks (SleazeBox) – Raul Stanciu
Natalie Merchant – Natalie Merchant (Nonesuch)
Naughty Boy – Hotel Cabana (Capitol Records)
Nikki Lane – All Or Nothin’ (New West Records)
Papercuts – Life Among The Savages (Easy Sound Recording Company)
Paws – Youth Culture Forever (FatCat Records)
Rachel Taylor Brown – Family (Rachel Taylor Brown/Bandcamp)
Rodrigo…
By staff
Monday May 5, 2014
“Chill out. What you yelling for?” Avril Lavigne seemed to implore critics after her “Hello Kitty” video incited a massive internet outcry. Detractors accused Avril of tasteless, tacky cultural appropriation at the very least and racism at worst, a claim she slammed on Twitter with “RACIST? HOW? I LOVE JAPAN!” Defenders were quick to point out that “It’s all been done before,” “it” being the type of pop Japanophilia Gwen Stefani rode hard a decade ago with her Love. Angel. Music. Baby. album. “If you could only let it be, then you would see,” they seemed to counter. If only we could just view the “Hello Kitty” video as the hyper affectionate, albeit naïve and bizarre love letter to Japanese culture Avril intended it to be, perhaps we’d see its real beauty. Unfortunately for everyone, Avril Lavigne included, things are a little more complicated than that.
Seeing Avril acting like somebody else gets me frustrated. Her early persona was one of an every-girl, a people’s pop star less interested in selling sex than she was talking one-on-one to a generation of disenfranchised Hot Topic shoppers. Now, a tanking career and a marriage to the man who is arguably Music’s Most Hated Canadian, she looks like she’s constantly watching her back, like she can’t relax. Though she looks fine in pictures with Kroeger, a gruesomely awkward set of fan photos that some poor souls spent an obscene amount of money for confirm that she becomes somebody else around everyone else.…
By staff
Wednesday April 30, 2014
For the last two months I’ve been trying to enjoy the new Andrew Jackson Jihad record, and at 4:30 this morning while standing in a parking lot somewhere in the decaying outskirts of Long Beach, California it finally hit me why I don’t. It’s because I’m selfish. I don’t want to empathize with Sean Bonnette, I want him to empathize with me. I’ve spent years inflecting myself into his own insecurities. It’s not that I can relate to his exact sarcasm and nervousness, but I can find myself in between his prose and then take it for my own. It’s sort of like what Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack sang almost a decade ago in “L.G. FUAD.” – “…the only way I have learned to express myself through other peoples’ descriptions of life…” It’s such a shitty thing to say, but I participate on emotional appropriation on a grand scale. I live vicariously through the grooves in my record collection, only I take what I need and move on. I completely discard its context and heart like trash pulled to the curb after a house party, feeding only off of the emotion behind the stories and taking them for my own. It’s cheap and absurd but that’s why music is such a personal thing. We build connections to lyrics and sounds based off of how they coincide with our own lives. We’re all guilty of musical colonialism and emotional conquest. Luckily art resonates differently in everyone, helping…
By staff
Monday April 28, 2014
Just Mario from CHON and I chilling after the show, that's all.
When I heard instrumental progressive group CHON was touring across the United States- and alongside the unforgettable Animals As Leaders, no less- I felt that if I missed the Atlanta show, I’d never quite forgive myself. And I believe that to be true- even though this show happened two months ago, and I’ve been buried in work and studenthood ever since, I’ve thought about the show for awhile.
There were many great things about the show. For starters, I got to meet some fellow Sputnikers- contributor Matt Harrison (YourDarkAffected) and user Daniel Davis (Paradox1216.) We went out for drinks afterwards, and had a fantastic time just talking about music. And the show itself, for which there was plenty to discuss.
The concert headliners, Animals as Leaders, introduced many of their newer tunes with an energy I didn’t quite expect of them live. After all, you hear the stories of their live performances being a little messy and/or lethargic, but I certainly didn’t witness any of that. Tosin and company were having a blast throughout the occasion, and even played jammer “Physical Education” live for the first time. Even if the band’s music gets a bit tedious after about ten songs live, it was still a spectacle to see them perform their instrumentally taxing songs with such agility onstage.
You know who else killed it? CHON themselves. These kids aren’t…
By staff
Monday April 28, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 29, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Andre Obin – Ways Of Escape (Sky Council)
Ben Watt – Hendra (Unmade Road)
Brody Dalle – Diploid Love (Caroline)
Broken Twin – May (Anti Records)
Chad VanGaalen – Shrink Dust (Sub Pop)
Chris Robinson – Phosphorescent Harvest (Silver Arrow Records)
Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots (Warner Bros.)
Devil You Know – The Beauty Of Destruction (Nuclear Blast America)
Edguy – Space Police: Defenders Of The Crown (Nuclear Blast America)
Floor – Oblation (Season Of Mist)
Fennesz – Becs (Editions Mego) – Raul Stanciu
Helstar – This Wicked Nest (AFM Records)
Howlin Rain – Live Rain (Agitated Records)
Lindsey Stirling – Shatter Me (Lindseystomp Music)
Maria Minerva – Histrionic (Not Not Fun)
Nels Cline – Macroscope (Mack Avenue)
Old 97’s – Most Messed Up (ATO Records)
Olga Bell – Krai (New Amsterdam Records)
Ought – More Than Any Other Day (Constellation)
Pattern Is Movement – Pattern Is Movement (Hometapes)
Pink Mountaintops – Get Back (Jagjaguwar)
Pixies – Indie Cindy (Pias America)
Ramona Lisa – Arcadia (Red Distribution)
The Revere – Behold, The Sea Itself! (Rock Ridge Music)
Rodrigo y Gabriela – 9 Dead Alive (ATO Records)
The String Cheese Incident – Song In My Head (Loud & Proud Records)
Whitechapel – Our Endless War (Metal Blade)
Wye Oak – Shriek (Merge Records)
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By staff
Tuesday April 22, 2014
“Shallow house. It’s not quite deep.”
It’s easy to write off something with a name as silly as “shallow house” as a stupid idea. And, in many respects, it is. The term was created “as a joke” a few days ago on the nigh-omnipotent hydra-like centralized collection of websites that is Reddit, intending to poke fun at the current comment war between people calling artists like Tchami and Oliver Heldens “deep house” and people for whom “deep house” means more than just groovy, bass-centric 4×4 music. Both sides have an understandable position, of course. Most of those in the former camp are dissidents from the big-room house movement which is currently exerting significant control over the global dance scene, disenchanted with the uncreative, poorly-produced slop they’ve heard for too long. They’re enchanted with the infective, funky bass and shocked at the relative sparsity of the compositions, and seeing Beatport and various ill-informed music blogs refer to the music as “deep house” (a phenomenon which I don’t entirely understand) they take it to be the correct term. In the latter group, of course, are the veteran house-heads. They’ve seen the primarily gay and black house sound of the Chicago and New York days appropriated and desecrated for profit by major-label execs eager to promote the easy-to-swallow house of everyone associated with labels like Spinnin’ and Revealed (including Heldens and Tchami), and having their soulful, colorful deep house reinterpreted by a bunch of young white guys (and yes, most of the new…
By staff
Monday April 21, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 22, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Archie Powell & The Exports – Back In Black (Team Cool Records)
Asher Roth – RetroHash (Pale Fire)
Augustana – Life Imitating Life (Razor & Tie)
Death – Death III (Drag City)
Eels – The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett (Pias America)
Francesca Battistelli – If We’re Honest (Warner Nashville)
Hot Victory – Hot Victory (Eolian Empire)
Iggy Azalea – The New Classic (Island/Def-Jam)
Jerry Leger – Early Riser (Latent Recordings)
Justin Rutledge – Daredevil (Outside Music)
Keb Mo – Bluesamericana (Kind Of Blue Music)
Kelis – Food (Ninja Tune)
The Menzingers – Rented World (Epitaph) – Channing Freeman
Modern Rivals – Cemetery Dares (Modern Rivals)
More Than Life – What’s Left Of Me (Holy Roar) – Jom
Neon Trees – Pop Psychology (Island/Mercury)
Sebastian Bach – Give Em’ Hell (Frontiers Records)
TEEN – The Way And Color (Carpark Records)
To Kill A King – Cannibals With Cutlery (Xtra Mile)
Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (Monotreme Records)
The Whigs – Modern Creation (New West)
Wumpscut – Bulwark Bazooka (Metropolis Records)
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Album Streams:
Death – Death III
Eels – The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett
Jerry Leger – Early Riser
Kelis – Food
The Menzingers – Rented World
TEEN – The Way And Color
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SputnikMusic’s Most Played Artists of the…
By staff
Monday April 14, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 15, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
The Afghan Whigs – Do To The Beast (Sub Pop)
Amps For Christ – Canyons Cars And Crows (Shrimper Records)
August Alsina – Testimony (Island/Def-Jam)
Banner Pilot – Souvenir (Fat Wreck Chords)
Big Sugar – Yardstyle (Bread & Butter Productions)
The Birds Of Satan – The Birds Of Satan (+180 Records)
The Both – The Both (SuperEgo Records)
Brandon Michael Williams – The Pride Of Titanic (Brandon Michael Williams)
Breathe Carolina – Savages (Fearless Records)
Chet Faker – Built On Glass (Downtown)
Chuck E. Weiss – Red Beans And Weiss (Anti Records)
Cult Leader – Nothing For Us Here (Deathwish Inc.)
Dan Wilson – Love Without Fear (+180 Records)
Deleted Scenes – Lithium Burn (Park The Van)
Emmure – Eternal Enemies (Victory Records)
Heartsrevolution – Ride Or Die (OWSLA)
Ian Anderson – Homo Erraticus (Kscope)
Ingrid Michaelson – Lights Out (Cabin 24 Records/Mom + Pop Music)
Jack Bruce – Silver Rails (Esoteric)
Jamie O’Neal – Eternal (Shanachie)
Jason Derulo – Talk Dirty (Warner Bros.)
Jim Byrnes – St. Louis Times (Black Hen Music)
Megafauna – Maximalist (Danimal Kingdom)
NEEDTOBREATHE – Rivers In The Wasteland (Atlantic)
Odonis Odonis – Hard Boiled Soft Boiled (Buzz Records)
Pharmakos – Nude (Pharmakos/Bandcamp)
Plague Vendor – Free To Eat (Epitaph)
A Pony Named Olga – The Land Of Milk And Pony (Saustex Media)
Rodney…
By staff
Monday April 7, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 8, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks – Enter The Slasher House (Domino Recording Company)
Black Label Society – Catacombs Of The Black Vatican (Entertainment One)
Chuck Inglish – Convertibles (Federal Prism)
Consider Me Dead – Young At Heart (Standby Records)
EMA – The Future’s Void (Matador Records)
The Faint – Doom Abuse (SQE Music)
Flutronix – 2.0 (Flutronix Records)
For The Fallen Dreams – Heavy Hearts (Rise Records)
Highasakite – Silent Treatment (Inkind Music)
Incan Abraham – Tolerance (White Iris)
Ital Tek – Mega City Industry (Civil Music)
Joan Osborne – Love And Hate (Entertainment One)
John Frusciante – Enclosure (+180 Records)
King Dude – Fear (Dais)
L’Orange – The Orchid Days (L’Orange/Bandcamp)
Martina McBride – Everlasting (Alliance)
The Mary Onettes – Portico (Labrador/Universal)
MercyMe – Welcome To The New (Fair Trade Services)
OFF! – Wasted Years (Vice Music)
Ratking – So It Goes (XL)
School Of Language – Old Fears (Memphis Industries)
Sleepmakeswaves – In Today Already Walks Tomorrow (Monotreme Records)
SOHN – Tremors (4AD)
SoftSpot – MASS (SoftSpot)
Split Single – Fragmented World (Inside Outside Records)
Squarepusher – Music For Robots (Warp Records) – Hyperion
SZA – Z (Top Dawg Entertainment)
Teebs – E S T A R A (Brainfeeder)
Thus Owls – Turning Rocks (Secret City Records/Universal)
Todd Terje – It’s Album Time…
By staff
Tuesday April 1, 2014
It’s been a busy year for Comeback Kid. The Toronto-by-way-of-Winnipeg based hardcore act have released their fifth LP Die Knowing and are currently in the opening months of a year of touring that will carry them around the world. Before their set at Rock City Studios in Camarillo, California, I had that chance to talk to vocalist Andrew Neufeld about their new record, the band as a whole, and keeping things fresh after over a decade of being one of hardcore’s premiere bands.
I’ve been listening to Die Knowing for a couple months now, and I’ve noticed that you have incorporated everything that falls under the guise of “hardcore” over the last twenty or so years into the sound of that record. You cover everything from crew pit parts, to big Ignite hooks, to just pummeling the listener on the heavier end of it all. How do you go into writing a record like that? Is that something where you say you’re gonna cover all this ground, or does it come out naturally?
It just kind of… we just write a bunch of songs, really. Actually with this record it wasn’t until we had a whole mess of them written we sorta sat back and said. “wow,” because there’s a lot of heavy songs on the record. In my head the record is kind of split, a little bit, because it starts off with “hard” hardcore, ya know — well, maybe not the opening track, but the song is going…
By staff
Monday March 31, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 1, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Austrian Death Machine – Triple Brutal (Artery Recordings)
Band Of Skulls – Himalayan (+180 Records)
The Body – I Shall Die Here (Revenge International)
Chevelle – La Gargola (Epic)
Chiodos – Devil (Razor & Tie)
Christina Perri – Head Or Heart (Atlantic)
Cloud Nothings – Here And Nowhere (Carpark Records)
Combichrist – We Love You (Out Of Line)
Dan Croll – Sweet Disarray (Capitol)
Fartbarf – Dirty Power (Space Jumbles Music)
Hank Williams III – Ramblin’ Man (Curb Records)
Inventions – Inventions (Temporary Residence)
Jamaica – Ventura (Pias America)
Jon Langford & Skull Orchard – Here Be Monsters (In De Goot Recordings)
Kaiser Chiefs – Education, Education & War (ATO Records)
Lacuna Coil – Broken Crown Halo (Century Media)
Leon Russell – Life Journey (UMe)
Lost Society – Terror Hungry (Nuclear Blast America)
Mac DeMarco – Salad Days (Captured Tracks)
Manchester Orchestra – Cope (Loma Vista/Republic)
Matt Andersen – Weightless (True North)
Mike Oldfield – Man On The Rocks (Mercury)
Millie & Andrea – Drop The Vowels (Modern Love)
Mobb Deep – The Infamous Mobb Deep (Infamous Records)
Nickel Creek – A Dotted Line (Nonesuch)
S. Carey – Range Of Light (Jagjaguwar)
Saintseneca – Dark Arc (Anti Records)
Smoke DZA – Dream.ZONE.Achieve (Cinemtaic Music Group/Surf School Recordings/Priority Records)
Sonata Arctica – Pariah’s Child (Nuclear Blast America) –…
By staff
Monday March 24, 2014
With a little more than a month left until Finnish melodic death metal giants Insomnium release their highly anticipated, sixth full-length offering to the world, Sputnikmusic got an exclusive chance to peak behind the covers a bit, as Ville Friman, the band’s guitarist, sat down with me to discuss all things Insomnium. The following interview took place on March 19th and gives insight into the current state of the band, as well as what to expect from their upcoming album Shadows of the Dying Sun. Among other things, Mr. Friman also discussed the current state of the music industry, how nature affects him, and what he himself is excited to hear in 2014.
Good evening! How are you doing on this 19th of March?
I’m doing fine, it has been a busy day at work and I just came back home to do interviews, but it’s going well and it’s very nice to talk with you guys and see that you’re interested in our new album. So, I’m really good.
Has it been very hectic lately in the Insomnium camp? Have you guys been able to take a breather or two before your new stuff is released?
I thought that we would have a bit more spare time in our hands, but it has been quite hectic. When we got out of the studio, we started to mix the album right away, and after that we started with the (album) covers and all kinds of promotion. And last weekend…
By staff
Monday March 24, 2014
The first time I saw GWAR I was 18 years old. It was the summer of 2005 and the band were slotted for an hour long, 5 o’clock spot at the Sounds of the Underground festival. I had no idea what I was in for. All I knew was the lore that surrounded their live show. It was supposed to be an event. It was. It was the dead center of the Bush years, a new pope who spent part of his childhood in the Hitler Youth was now sitting atop Christendom, and all that and more would serve as kindling for GWAR’s 60 minute performance piece.
For as much as I remember that show, it is not what happened on stage that resounds the loudest of my memories of GWAR on that July afternoon. An hour before their set, I got the chance to meet Dave Brockie. He was in his full Oderus Urungus regalia, four foot sculpted rubber phallus and all, standing in the back of a makeshift tow cart that was hitched to a boxy looking ATV. As he was being carted though the crowd in his makeshift Kawasaki chariot, for some reason or other it stopped for a few minutes, and as the driver was trying to coordinate his new plans via walkie-talkie, I nervously made my way to say hello. I can vividly remember his bare ass hanging out of the back end of his get up. It was a humorous bright spot in…
By staff
Monday March 24, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 25, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Animals As Leaders – The Joy Of Motion (Sumerian) – Thompson D. Gerhart
Asia – Gravitas (Frontiers Records/Universal)
The Bad Plus – The Rite Of Spring (Sony Masterworks)
Barry Manilow – Night Songs (Stiletto Entertainment)
The Baseball Project – 3rd (Yep Roc Records)
Big Scary – Not Art (Barsuk)
Boy George – This Is What I Do (Very Me Records)
Chimurenga Renaissance – Rize Vadzimu Rize (Brick Lane Records)
Chuck Ragan – Till Midnight (Side One Dummy)
Circa Zero – Circus Hero (429 Records)
The Colourist – The Colourist (Republic)
Future Islands – Singles (4AD)
Glenn Kotche – Adventureland (Cantaloupe Music)
Grieves – Winter & The Wolves (Rhymesayers)
The Hold Steady – Teeth Dreams (Razor & Tie)
Howler – World Of Joy (Rough Trade US)
Jimi Goodwin – Odludek (Pias America)
Johnny Cash – Out Among The Stars (Legacy)
Karmin – Pulses (Epic)
Kylie Minogue – Kiss Me Once (Warner Bros)
Liars – Mess (Mute)
London Grammar – If You Wait (US Release) (Columbia)
Memphis May Fire – Unconditional (Rise Records)
Mr Little Jeans – Pocketknife (Harvest)
Of Sinking Ships – The Amaranthine Sea (Broken Circles)
Owls – Two (Polyvinyl Records)
Seahaven – Reverie Lagoon: Music For Escapism Only (Run For Cover Records)
Shakira – Shakira (RCA)
Thou – Heathen (Gilead Media)
THYX – Super Vision (Metropolis Records)
Tokyo…
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