I’ve occasionally come across a particular notion in the music community that the more we listen to the more we build expectations, higher and higher until the bar’s raised unattainably high and we in turn forget what it’s like for that threshold to be met in the first place. I’ve never explicitly agreed with this thought because of how nonsensical it’s always come across – “shouldn’t we come to appreciate art more the more time we take to truly understand it?,” I usually feel, and yet it still can strike me subconsciously, at times. I sometimes catch myself thinking what Theodore, the central character of Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her, once wondered to himself, if I’m “not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I’ve already felt.” And that thought’s a scary one, because I never want to lose that ability to tear up to a song, to get lost in the rhythm of a good screamo song when I feel that desire.
Ultimately I know this fear to be misguided, and don’t worry much about its implications either. I just mostly worry about the fact that this kind of pessimism, cynicism, what-have-you, is such an ingrained thought to me. When I find a new album I love, why am I so quick to worry about when those impressions will fade? I listened to Dream Sequins by Nmesh several nights back, and I was so taken by it – never had I heard an album that seemed to have such…
From an editorial standpoint, the Year-End features are a lot of fun, despite the hectic scheduling and frenetic coordinating necessary to ensure we meet our [perpetually-malleable] deadlines. This is especially true for the Users’ Year-End list, which requires me to rely on the site’s contributing contingent to create the blurbs that complement each album in the feature. Not only are the Contributors tasked with all the writing, but there are occasions where they need to identify and recruit other users to alleviate the burden with similar energy and gusto.
Regardless of your opinion on the Users’ list – yes, we’ve heard plenty of you in regards to the Staff list – it takes an enthusiastic and reliable bunch to pull this off without a hitch. I’d wager that, all things considered, both features turned out rather well.
To say thank-you to the contributing reviewers for their hard work for the 2015 list, I’ve awarded them some additional, one-off “face time” on the blog. I left the theme open-ended and to each individual writer’s own devices. Where one might want to write about his favorite album this year, others might prefer instead to champion for an album that seemed to have gone under-appreciated or unrecognized on the site. Perhaps someone else wanted to write a treatise on why Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz is really 2015’s Album of the Year.
Please enjoy this 10-item featurette, and if you have other ideas that you’d enjoy contributing to or reading, don’t hesitate to keep in touch. –Jom
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found late December/early January to be a dead zone for music. Aside from a few stray finds, it’s typically just a time for me to reflect upon the previous year, look at others’ year-end favorites, and see if I can augment my musical collection with their discoveries. That’s not a bad thing though, as the process often results in some of my most highly-rated records (see: The World is a Beautiful Place’s Harmlessness). So if that’s the route you’re used to taking, then I fully encourage you to continue. However, if you’re a little bored with 2015’s leftovers, it’s often fun to turn the page and peak ahead at what 2016 has in store.
Offering a glimpse into the future is nowhere near as good as what we already know rocked the socks off 2015. I suppose that it goes without saying that hindsight is 20/20, thus it is important not to hold this playlist to the same standard as a “year best” list. Plus, as much as I’d love to know every album that 2016 will bring us, the truth is that I typically play things pretty nonchalantly and just wait to see what comes my way as the months roll by. As a result, the below playlist is merely an appetizer sampler. You’ll probably like a few tracks and hate the rest, but that’s okay because the point is to just see what’s out there. Also, I was kind of limited to…
Welcome back! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since the highly acclaimed SMA’s (Sowing’s Music Awards) made its debut, and – to your certain delight – the feature has returned in 2015 to bring you the best of…well, whatever I say is best. I’m sure you are the most excited you’ve been all year long.
A typical reaction to the announcement that the SMA’s have returned.
Last year we saw the likes of Gates, The Afghan Whigs, St. Vincent, and Low Roar hoist the seriously cool shit trophy [pictured below]. Many worthy artists are considered, but it takes something truly special to garner an SMA. Acclaimed musicians like The War on Drugs,The Antlers, and Sharon Van Etten have all previously been nominated but walked away empty handed. In short, this is a damn prestigious thing – and at the very least, it beats out the Country Music Awards.
There were many personalities that I considered bringing on board to host this year’s installment. Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert, Donald Trump — however, Judio! had dibs [citation: 12/02/14], so I do request that you direct all of your questions and frustration over this list at him. If you’d like to offer praise, my shoutbox is always open. And of course, without further ado, here are the 2015 SMA’s. I hope you find them as riveting as I do. PS: I’ve dedicated a heartfelt 2015 mixtape to all of Sputnik, which…
It isn’t often that I feel compelled to share cover versions of songs. Then again, most covers aren’t so stunning that they stop you in your tracks. Run River North’s take on the famous Killers’ single “Mr. Brightside” is absolutely breathtaking, and if you haven’t already stumbled upon it by accident, then you are about to be in for a real treat. Take my word for it: if you can spare the next four and a half minutes, listening to this may very well be the best decision you make today.
Run River North takes the familiarity of a pop song that many of us grew up with and turns it completely upside down — in the most beautiful way possible, of course. From the pristine acoustic picking that gently opens the track to the towering duet that draws everything to a fittingly epic close, the track has been very creatively re-imagined. For a song that’s been revisited by so many artists, it’s safe to say that nobody has ever done “Mr. Brightside” as well as this group. They even give the Killers a run for their money. But before you begin casting your stones and accusing me of blasphemy, I implore you to give this the attention it deserves. If you’re intrigued, you can check out more by this band here and/or read up on their self-titled LP. Enjoy.
It’s a bit of a busy time this season, but I hope you’re all doing well. As a consequence of the busy season, I couldn’t corral all the staffers to contribute, so some writers and/or genres are going to be underrepresented.
This will hopefully change as we gear up for the Year-End list, and perhaps my Lions will actually decide to win a game by December. To help out you non-sports people, I won’t use specific names.
Star Receiver: “Alright, we need to score two touchdowns in two minutes. What are we going to do?”
Quarterback: “I dunno, hopefully we just march down the field and throw it deep to you twice. Let’s see what our offensive coordinator says.”
Offensive Coordinator: “How many time outs we got?”
Head Coach: “Zero. We have no timeouts.”
Offensive Coordinator: “THREE YARD SCREENS UP THE MIDDLE, I GUESS! BUT FIRST LET’S RUN THE BALL TO REALLY SURPRISE THEM.”
I need to adopt a new team.
Anyway, enjoy these last few weeks as we roll into Q4. –Jom
David Maxim Micic feat. Dan Wieten – “Satellite” (08:36) Eco Listen if you like:Devin Townsend, The Omega Experiment Bandcamp | Facebook
While I absolutely adore ECO, as I adore most of David Maxim Micic’s unreasonably brilliant albums, “Satellite” is undoubtedly its most forward and upbeat rocker. Built around a charming little marimba piece and utilizing the very talented…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 18th 2015. All dates are for physical U.S. releases unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Alabama – Southern Drawl (BMG Recorded Music)
Angel Haze – Back To The Woods (Self released)
Annihilator – Suicide Society (UDR)
Atreyu – Long Live (Spinefarm)
Baio – The Names (Glassnote)
Battles – La Di Da Di (Warp Records)
Blackalicious – Imani, Vol. 1 (Black Mines)
The Black Dahlia Murder – Abysmal (Metal Blade)
Blessthefall – To Those Left Behind (Fearless Records)
Bob Moses – Days Gone By (Domino Recording Co.)
Chris Cornell – Higher Truth (UMe)
CocoRosie – Heartache City (Self released)
Crossfaith – Xeno (Razor & Tie)
Darlene Love – Introducing Darlene Love (Columbia)
Darwin Deez – Double Down (Lucky Number Records)
Dave & Phil Alvin – Lost Time (Yep Roc Records)
Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete (Acony Records)
David Gilmour – Rattle That Lock (Columbia)
Destruction Unit – Negative Feedback Resistor (Sacred Bones Records)
Diät – Positive Energy (Iron Lung Records)
Farao – Till It’s All Forgotten (Arts & Crafts)
The Front Bottoms – Back On Top (Fueled By Ramen)
Glen Hansard – Didn’t He Ramble (Anti/Epitaph) Golden Void – Berkana (Thrill Jockey) – Raul Stanciu
Hecta – The Diet (Merge Records)
Helios – Yume (Unseen Music)
Idjut Boys – Versions (Smalltown Supersound)
Keith Richards – Crosseyed Heart (Republic)
The Kickback – Sorry…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 11th 2015. All dates are for physical U.S. releases unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Beirut – No No No (4AD)
Ben Folds – So There (New West Records)
Better Off – Milk (Equal Vision Records)
Brett Eldredge – Illinois (Atlantic Nashville) Bring Me The Horizon – That’s The Spirit (Columbia)
Craig Finn – Faith In The Future (PTKF)
Duran Duran – Paper Gods (Warner Bros.)
Empress Of – Me (XL Recordings)
Gary Clark Jr. – The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim (Warner Bros.)
Grey Lands – Right Arm (Paper Bag)
Guilty Simpson – Detroit’s Son (Stone’s Throw)
Hollywood Vampires – Hollywood Vampires (UMe)
Jason Heath And The Greedy Souls – A Season Undone (Industrial Amusement)
Jess Glynne – I Cry When I Laugh (Atlantic)
Jewel – Picking Up The Pieces (Sugar Hill)
Leona Lewis – I Am (Def Jam)
The Libertines – Anthems For Doomed Youth (Harvest)
Low – Ones & Sixes (Sub Pop Records)
Michachu & The Shapes – Good Sad Happy Bad (Rough Trade)
Petite Noir – La Vie Est Belle/Life Is Beautiful (Domino Recording Company)
Shannon & The Clams – Gone By The Dawn (Hardly Art)
Slayer – Repentless (Nuclear Blast)
Stereophonics – Keep The Village Alive (Ignition Records)
The View – Ropewalk (Slimstyle)
Because who wouldn't be enticed to click on this playlist by Chad Kroeger's glorious mug?
Ladies, gentlemen, and readers who may not identify by either pole of the gender binary, welcome to Sputnikmusic’s 2nd Quarter Infinite Playlist for 2015. It’s been a long year since the last one of these went up – in the interim, the staffers who typically run the playlists (namely Sowing and myself) have been very busy with various kinds of work, both within and without Sputnik. That said, we figured now is as good a time as any to kick-start the ol’ Infinite Playlist again, and thanks to a healthy crop of user submissions we’re able to present a wide variety of some of the finest music released between April and June of this year. We’ve got a great mix of music for you, from post-hardcore to weird synthesizer explorations to a double dose of Britpoppy alt-rock, and we hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
Most videos and pictures that go viral usually generate nothing more than a shoulder shrug from yours truly. I mean, I really don’t give a flying fire truck what color that dress is. But, occasionally, something will catch my ear that I deem useful… A benefit to society, as such. When I see a video that actually improves two things, then it deserves the two million views it has received in just five days!
Old musical films bore the crap out of me. I think it stems from ‘Gigi’ beating out ‘Vertigo’ for an Oscar, but I digress. Even a Disney musical with some animation thrown in is as dull as ditchwater. Take, for example, that magical nanny ‘Mary Poppins’; with all of it’s “Jolly Holidaying” and “Chim Chim Cher-eeing”. The only thing good about that 50 year old movie is the infamous word that is “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. If only there were a cover version of that song…
Well, now there is… And it’s a death metal version! Thanks to the musical talents of Andy Rehfeldt and the vocal stylings of Sera Hatchett & Thomas Hinds, all of us can actually make it through a two minute scene from the movie without nodding off. And while she isn’t exactly Miss World, I’d probably prefer looking at Julie Andrews circa 1964 than some fat, bald & bearded death metal musician. Enjoy:
Out of respect for him and his family’s privacy, I ask that you don’t try to delve into the cause or why it happened. This is a time for grieving, and a chance for us to remember the life of one of our community members. Pmmets07 was a genuinely nice guy with a stand-up personality, and even if you only interacted with him on a limited basis, that was plain to see. I don’t know what I could possibly say to do him justice, and given that I didn’t know him very well, I don’t think it would be appropriate to try. So what I’d like to do is start something of a memorial thread for pmmets07. Comment with your favorite memory, something you liked or admired about him, a song/album that reminds you of him, or just to send your best wishes.
Also, if you haven’t already, take a moment to show his profile some love.
When I first heard Illinois, I found it to be bloated and annoyingly festive, even for my rich taste. I didn’t bother to follow up much after that, conceding that he was “talented, but not for me.” I did give a passing listen to The Age of Adz – mostly out of a desire to see what all the fuss was about – but then too, the man’s compositions felt insane and I just couldn’t relate to any of it. Perhaps I was simply lacking context. Or maybe I’ve just lost my mind over the years.
Either way, Sufjan gradually (even begrudgingly) became a mainstay within my musical collection.
It all started on a boring, hot summer afternoon in 2010. The air conditioner blasting on high, I sat in my bedroom idly staring out the window. I had just finished up school, and with no friends around me the world just felt colorless and I couldn’t shake this sensation that it was slipping away from me. I had Facebook chat open in the corner of my monitor, pathetically awaiting social interaction, but nobody obliged. Cooped up in my parents’ house, it seemed like I was squandering the best years of my life. So yeah, it was depressing times and all that shit. Anyway, I specifically recall b
Seriously, the world has gone fucking mad! If it wasn’t enough that Tenacious D just won a Grammy award for ‘Best Metal Performance’, it has just been announced that Australia has been allowed to enter the Eurovision Song Contest this year. That’s right, the EUROvision Song Contest. Never mind the 16 hour flight it takes to get there. Upon first hearing the news, I immediately thought that the organizers of the event had done a Jim Carrey:
I guess that we shouldn’t be surprised, since the reigning winner of this cheesy contest is Conchita Wurst / Thomas Neuwirth; a bearded, umm, person from (ironically) Austria. Talk about opening the proverbial can of worms; while supposedly a “one-off initiative to mark the contest’s 60th anniversary”, we could one day have a Eurovision Song Contest without a European nation taking part! Of course, the only reason why the participating countries are relevant anyway, is for them to vote along political lines to the point of predictability. And the best thing about the contest itself is the hilariously demeaning voice-over commentary.
So the next step is for Australia to choose an entrant, and the mainstream media are all over it in asking for possibilities. Sadly, it’s the usual dross that’s put up for discussion; which basically amounts to Kylie Minogue or any one of a number of young female reality show contestants. Some bright spark, however, has taken it upon themselves to think outside of the box and put…
Late night talk shows have always been good for a casual watch. They’re usually entertaining for the most part, even if the topics of discussion are no deeper than drunk guys arguing the Jordan vs LeBron debate. With guests from all walks of life (sport, movies, television, music, politics, etc…) conversations are at least varied enough to not bore viewers to sleep.
However, if the musical act is not sufficiently well-known, they can occasionally feel like a time-filling hindrance; Simply there to fulfil some kind of structural obligation.
Of late, however, that seems to have changed to some extent… And thankfully for the music industry, it’s for the better. I’m no expert – or religious viewer – but it may have been ever since Sauturday Night Live alumni Jimmy Fallon joined the talk show host ranks, and happened to bring along with him a genuine musical act in The Roots as his studio band. Furthermore, Fallon has deftly integrated comedy and entertainment into the music which appears on his show, whether via impersonation, surprise guests or otherwise. I’ve already blogged about his fantastic Neil Young impression in the past.
Well, it seems that Conan O’Brien is now (literally) getting in on the…
As the curtain closes on 2014, it’s difficult to fathom just how amazing of a year it was musically. This is a statement that seems to ring true for a lot of people almost every year, as we look back at the music we’ve acquiesced since January and marvel at the strength and diversity of the collective whole. Maybe we’re all too simple to please. Perhaps we just know what we like and pursue it with reckless abandon. Either way, I personally think that 2014 is one of the best years for music in a long time. So instead of drawing up a plain looking top 25 list (which I almost did), I’ve decided to do something unnecessarily over-the-top and showy to commemorate how I feel about 2014. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first annual Sowing’s Music Awards (SMA). Only the worthy have been nominated, and only the best out of those will receive the somewhat coveted (but not really) SMA trophy, which I can only imagine would look something like this:
Only the most brilliant artists will get to line their trophy cases with these! But without further ado, I present to you the first category. Thank you for reading on – if you choose to do so – and I hope you enjoy the 2014 SMA’s.
