With all the world-changing events that have occurred in the past few days – the killing of the world’s most wanted terrorist and, the big one, two celebrities getting married on TV – you’d be forgiven for asking “who gives a shit about Miley Cyrus right now?”
Well you’d be forgiven, but you’d also be wrong. See, while a team of Navy SEALs were storming a compound in Pakistan and doing what they do best, media savvy Miley was also hard at work, becoming the single most important musician of all-time. As Nitsuh Abebe’s excellent article in New York magazine explains, Miley’s 2009 hit ‘Party in the USA’ has inadvertently become Osama Bin Laden’s “death song” – the track that everyone flocks to on Youtube to have barely-literate partisan debates pissing contests.
(Incidentally, we ran with Team America’s ‘America, Fuck Yeah,’ thinking we were on solid ground. Clearly we’ve lost touch with the crucial preteen girl demographic that will decide all future world events. If nothing else, it’s heartrending proof that no matter how tight he shuts his eyes and just wishes as hard as his little heart will let him, Jom is just never going to be a little girl again.)
What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, really. Except that, not content with ousting Bruce Springsteen from the top of the “awesome anthems with USA in the title that we can chant in celebration of having vanquished the enemy,” Miley’s also…
We’ll be streaming Sarah Fimm’s upcoming album through the entire week so be sure to check it out here. Also, it appears that Rudy Klapper has completed his coverage of this year’s Coachella festival. Feel free to check into that as well.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 03, 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Karrin Allyson – Round Midnight (Concord Records)
And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs (Richter Collective) Architecture In Helsinki – Moment Bends(Downtown Records) — Davey Boy Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 2(Capitol Records)
Cat’s Eyes – Cat’s Eyes (Downtown Records) Decree – Fateless(Artoffact Records) — Trey Spencer
Donny and Marie – Donny and Marie (MPCA) Dredg – Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy(Superball Music)
Elusive – Beat Placement (Fly Definition) Sarah Fimm – Near Infinite Possibility(Sarah Fimm LLC) — Trey Spencer Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues(Sub Pop) — Tyler Fisher
Foundation – When The Smoke Clears (Bridge Nine Records)
Galactic – The Other Side Of Midnight: Live In New Orleans (Anti/Epitaph)
Have Nots – Proud (Paper and Plastick)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Tell My Sister (Nonesuch)
Leaves’ Eyes – Meredead (Napalm Records)
Jennifer Lopez – Love? (Island)
Midnattsol – The Metamorphosis Melody (Napalm Records)
Musiq Soulchild – MUSIQINTHEMAGIQ (Atlantic)
Neranature –…
Note: The stream for Sarah Fimm’s new album has run its course. Thanks again to Sarah for making this music and allowing us to share it before the official release date. The album is now streaming at theAOL site.
Remember, if you liked what you heard you should seek it out and support independent artists:
This album has really been a decade in the making. Obviously Sarah Fimm hasn’t spent the last ten years writing for Near Infinite Possibility, but every previous release has been building to this. Each album has slowly saw Sarah’s songwriting skills increase and her reliance on electronics and sparse compositions fade. They have been little snapshots in time — displaying her gradual inclusion of additional instruments and guest musicians. This progress seemed to culminate with Red Yellow Sun in 2009, but apparently it was but another stepping stone.
Near Infinite Possibility sounds full and varied as it picks up where Red Yellow Sun left off and leaps forward another ten steps. It is a mixture of 70s psychedelic rock, alt. rock, moments of prog and elements of folk. It is a moody album that is sometimes dark and sometimes strange, but always excellent.
Be sure to check out Rudy Klapper’s Coachella Festival coverage beginning here.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 26, 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
About Group – Start & Complete (Domino Recording Co.)
Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Despise You – And On and On… (Relapse) Augustana – Augustana(Epic) — Jared Ponton
Bootsy Collins – The Funk Capitol of the World (Mascot Records)
Bowling For Soup – Fishin’ For Woos (RED GENERAL CATALOG) Boxcutter – The Dissolve(Planet Mu)
Circle of Silence – The Blackened Halo (Massacre Records)
Dawn Of Disease – Legends Of Brutality (Noise Art Records) Deafheaven – Roads to Judah(Deathwish Inc)
Steve Earle – I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (New West Records)
The Echocentrics – Sunshadows (UBIQUITY RECORDS) Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care(Temporary Residence)
Girl Names – Dead To Me (Slumberland Records)
Emmylou Harris – Hard Bargin (Nonesuch)
Insidead – Chaos Elecdead (Massacre Records) In the Nursery – Blind Sound(ITN Corp) — Trey Spencer
Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down [Deluxe Edition] (Peaceville)
Katatonia – Night is the New Day [Deluxe Edition] (Peaceville) KMFDM – WTF?!(Metropolis Records) — Trey Spencer
Lake Of Tears – Illwill (AFM Records) Laura Stevenson & the Cans – Sit Resist (Don Giovanni Records) — Channing Freeman Lions!Tigers!Bears! – Shallow Waters, Endless Depth (TRAGIC HERO RECORDS)
Julian Lynch – Terra (Underwater…
One of the hardest things to do at Coachella is wake up in time to get to the festival early to catch the first few bands. Usually this isn’t too big of a problem – rarely has a band I’ve loved been set too early. Sunday was an exception, as Phosphorescent took the Mojave tent stage at 12:15. Missing out on the extra sleep was a great decision – Matt Houck and his band played their whiskey-strained alt-country with a steel guitar riffing and piano-pounding passion that enervated the sleepy residents of the tent and woke me up for the day better than any energy drink.
The only thing worse for a band’s Coachella audience than an early start time is extreme heat, and as Sunday afternoon stretched on and temperatures reached the highest they’d been all weekend, it wasn’t all that surprising to see Menomena’s set at the Outdoor stage less than packed as concertgoers scrambled for the tents. Menomena, after all, aren’t the same band as they used to be – with founding member Brent Knopf leaving the band this past January, songs on which he sang lead vocals were nowhere to be found. But what they did play, sticking mostly to songs from 2007’s Friend and Foeand last year’s Mines, was up to the rabid fans’ standards who braved the 100 degree heat. Closer “TAOS” was the obvious favorite.
It wasn’t easy staying at the Outdoor stage, but Sputnik favorites fun. were up next to…
“It’s not like I ran for President and I said something really bad…”
Note: At some point in the last month or so, we may have given the impression that Rebecca Black hasn’t deserved all of the abuse and death threats that have been levelled at her. In light of this interview, we can see that some of the criticism was coming from the right place.
Note 2: She’s only 13. Give her a break. But fuck those are some dumb ass answers.
A rough night meant I didn’t make it to the festival grounds until close to 3, but that was never really a problem: the first act I wanted to see happened to be Sputnik favorite The Tallest Man on Earth at 3 pm in the Gobi tent. Throughout the weekend the Gobi seemed to be getting the least love, but this afternoon it was unusually packed, everyone there just to see one tiny Swedish dude and his guitar. He didn’t disappoint – any fears I had of his occasionally grating voice transferring to a live setting were quickly dispelled: he actually sounded better live! Everything came together on “King of Spain,” the audience lifting Kristian Matsson’s voice to new heights and his acoustic guitar ringing out over the tent grounds quite effectively.
My indie rock embarrassment of riches began shortly afterwards with Americana group Delta Spirit at the Outdoor stage. They may not be the most original band, but as a live performance they put on quite the show. Singer Matthew Vasquez’s long dark locks made him look like Dave Grohl’s lost twin, but he sounded more Walkmen than Foo Fighters, his gravelly voice propelling the band’s dust-and-blood barroom tales further than they could have hoped. For a band with a minimal following at the festival, Delta Spirit, like Titus Andronicus the day before, really delivered it for their fans.
I then caught the latter half of Irish rockers Two Door Cinema Club at the Mojave tent, a…
For all the hype surrounding Coachella 2011 – the six day sellout, the mounting confusion and problems regarding the festival’s new wristband ticket method, the fear of scalpers selling fake tickets and wristbands not shipping out in time, once the festival was under way it was still the same old Coachella. Friendly people slapping hands and exchanging “happy Coachellas!;” temperatures routinely soaring above 100; enough drugs to make Noriega and Kesey blush; and music. Music that was at times brilliant, enthralling, obtusely weird, fist pumping, merely okay and atypically shocking and everything in between, but still the lifeblood of the festival no matter who came . . . and there were a lot. From shirtless fraternity boys to forty-year-old scene veterans, from stoned, bleary-eyed hipsters to day-glo-adorned rave kids, Coachella stuck them all in a boiling polo field of a pot and, for one weekend at least, helped them appreciate everything and everyone else. Coachella may be becoming more of a place to be seen than appreciated nowadays (over the course of the festival I saw Katy Perry, Tara Reid, Paul McCartney and even David Hasselhoff, all almost exclusively in the VIP lounges enjoying the drinks rather than the music), but few festivals can match its uniting experience. And it remains unforgettable.
I didn’t know it at the time, but Friday was going to be the coolest day of the weekend – a “pleasant” 93 degrees, blinding sun interrupted by even the hint of clouds and ice water turned to…
While gamers everywhere explode with frothy, hyper-excitibilty over the release of the second installation in Valve’s Portal series, The National have given the rest of us a reason to be just as happy; hot off the heels of their contribution to the soundtrack of indie flick Win Win, they’ve dropped another new song to go along with the videogame.
“Exile Vilify” is meant to evoke the “same visceral reactions from its listeners that Portal does from its players” and though my gaming knowledge extends as far as Mario Kart and FIFA, if that statement rings true, you can count me in. It’s the sort of somber, slow-moving ballad that the band seems to be able to produce at a whim, suspending Matt Berninger’s croon above a beautiful piano melody and string arrangements, and it’s just as good as we’ve come to expect from a band that rarely ever puts a foot wrong. You can find it below, along with the teaser trailer for Portal 2:
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 19, 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Azymuth – Aurora (Far Out Recordings)
The Belle Brigade – The Belle Brigade (Reprise)
Blackfield – Welcome To My DNA (Kscope)
Blu – Her Favorite Colo(u)r (Nature Sounds)
Kimberly Caldwell – Without Regret (Capitol)
Cam’ron & Vado – Gunz N Butta (Entertainment One) Del The Funky Homosapien – Golden Era (The Council)
Dengue Fever – Cannibal Courtship (Fantasy)
DJ Quik – The Book of David (Mad Science) Duff McKagan’s Loaded – The Taking(Eagle Records) — Joseph Viney
Eliza Doolittle – Eliza Doolittle (Capitol) Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care {UK} (Temporary Residence Limited)
Former Thieves – The Language That We Speak (No Sleep Records)
French Horn Rebellion – The Infinite Music of… [Digital release] (Once Upon A Time Records)
Graveyard – Hisingen Blues (Nuclear Blast America)
The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart (Sub Pop)
I’m From Barcelona – Forever Today (MUTE)
InfinitiRock – Apeirophobia (Base Trip Records)
Lanu – Her 12 Faces (Tru Thoughts Recordings)
Leaves’ Eyes – Meredead {EU} (Napalm Records)
Lenka – Two (Epic)
Mf Doom – Operation Doomsday: Lunchbox [Box set] (Metal Face Records)
Midnattsol – The Metamorphosis Melody {EU} (Napalm Records)
Mike Tramp & Rock N Roll Circuz – Stand Your Ground (Cleopatra)
Tracy Nelson – Victim of the Blues (Delta Groove Productions) Norther – Circle Regenerated(Century Media)
Pendragon – Passion (Snapper Madfish)
Periphery – Icarus Lives!…
It’s been about a month since Rebecca Black’s wonderfully inane ode to the JFK assassination, Friday, hit Youtube and became immediately immortalized as one of the greatest memes of all time. Naturally, it’s spawnedcountlessparodies, some genuinely funny, others interesting novelties. But on this Friday, I wanted to share with you the best of them all: the Hell Version. This incredibly well edited cut of Black’s video, which is kind of like if Aphex Twin’s “Come to Daddy” was directed by Marilyn Manson on the worst day of his life, is genuinely terrifying. Bet you never thought you’d hear Aphex Twin, Marilyn Manson, and Rebecca Black mentioned in the same sentence, did you? Check out the video below:
I’ll admit that my opinion of Korn’s music is pretty low these days. I haven’t even remotely enjoyed one of their albums since Take a Look in the Mirror in 2003. I understand that a band has to expand their sound after a decade of releasing variations of the same idea, but See You on the Other Side and Untitled were terrible. It seems that even the band knew that they were headed down the wrong path because they eventually released a ‘back-to-roots’ album called Korn III: Remember Who You Are. Unfortunately, it seemed to lack actual conviction and appeared to confirm that God stole the only decent songwriter in the band. This takes us to the new song, “Get Up”, that features American electronic artist Skrillex.
When explaining “Get Up” Jonathan Davis had this to say: “I heard a few of Skrillex’s re-mixes and really felt there would be a good chance that he would have the right sensibility to connect us to a new hard sound and direction, but still keeping Korn guitars and our vibe. We were just thinking of trying something new, to be honest, so I had my manager reach out to the Skrillex camp. When we got into the studio the connection was instant!”
The song is apparently due to be released on a new Korn EP in May, and I’m not sure if this is a one-time engagement or if Skrillex will collaborate on…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 12, 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Azam Ali – From Night to the Edge of Day (Six Degrees)
Alison Krauss & Union Station – Paper Airplanes (Rounder) Atmosphere – The Family Sign(Rhymesayers)— John A. Hanson Autechre – EPs 1991-2002 (Warp Records) Believer – Transhuman(Metal Blade Records) — Trey Spencer
Bell X1 – Bloodless Coup (Yep Roc Records)
Between the Buried and Me – The Parallax (Metal Blade Records)
Caustic – The Golden Vagina Of Fame And Profit (Metropolis Records)
Classified – Handshakes+Middle Fingers (Decon)
Clemits – My Secret Garden (MSG Records)
Combichrist – Throat Full of Glass [EP] (Metropolis Records) Crystal Stilts – In Love With Oblivion (Slumberland Records)
Brett Dennen – Loverboy (Dualtone Music Group)
Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys! (Downtown/Cooperative Music)
The Feelies – Here Before (BAR NONE ENT) Foo Fighters – Wasting Light(RCA) — Nick Butler
Fractured – Beneath the Ashes (Metropolis Records)
Dana Fuchs – Love to Beg (RUF RECORDS)
Generationals – Actor-Caster (PARK THE VAN RECORDS)
Guano Apes – Bel Air {EU} (Columbia Europe)
Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost! (DFA) Jessie J – Who You Are(Universal Music Group)
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit – Here We Rest (LIGHTNING ROD REC.)
Joan As Police Woman – The Deep…
Depending on which way you look at it, London indie folk band Mumford & Sons represent either the future of commercial music or its distant past.
In the old, old days (or as recently as the seventies), before the pursuit of massive first-week sales became record industry dogma, it was commonplace for albums to start low and make their way to the top of the charts. With the huge advances in marketing and the windfall profits of the CD era, record industry thinking became totally geared towards the first week, and artists found it virtually impossible to break through commercially without embracing it.
However the incredible success of Mumford & Sons’ 2009/2010 release Sigh No More (it reached #2 on the Billboard Top 100 a year after its release) spells out what many of us have been predicting for years: when people no longer feel compelled to buy music before they’ve heard it, the charts become more representative of what people actually like, rather than what they think they might like. And we have a lot more money in our pockets with which to bail out banks, insurance companies and car manufacturers.
Which is why it seems perfectly normal when an artist like Taylor Swift – a member of the now very exclusive club of artists who still sell millions of records – records a cover of Mumford & Sons’ ‘White Blank Page.’ Notwithstanding the musical similarities (though there is a chasm between Swift’s bluegrass style and Mumford’s…
