We can argue about the musical and cultural value of the Doors, but it would be straight-up inaccurate to classify them as anything less than one of America’s truly legendary rock groups. And I think it’s fair to say, too, that Ray Manzarek was as essential to the Doors’ success as Jim Morrison, maybe more [...]
Following up his 2011 EP Gabriel, Joe Goddard of Hot Chip is slated to put out a follow-up called Taking Over some time this year. Its first offering is “She Burns” featuring English singer Mara Carlyle. Their union is an interesting one, as Carlyle is famous for her use of ukelele and a musical saw, [...]
Last June, we published a feature called the Top 20 Albums We’ve Been Waiting For Forever, counting down a bunch of our favorite artists from whom a new full-length was: (A) long overdue; and (B) not totally unrealistic. Coming in at No. 19 on that list was Queens Of The Stone Age. As we wrote [...]
The London production duo Mount Kimbie came up making evocative post-dubstep dance music around the same time as James Blake, and there seems to be a pretty good chance that their long-awaited new album Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, their first for a bigger label, could push them into Blake’s cultural circles. Whether or not [...]
The former Double Dagger drummer Denny Bowen now leads Roomrunner, a Baltimore band whose fuzz-drenched attack brings back the moment before Gap commercial directors figured out what grunge was. Ideal Cities, their debut album, is a big, messy, joyous guitar-assault. If your faith in effects pedals needs reaffirming, this should do the trick. We posted [...]
Well, this is pretty dope. Rookie has commissioned a theme song for the month of May, and it’s badass both in theory and in execution. Waxahatchee leader Katie Crutchfield and her twin sister, Swearin’ leader Allison have recorded a punked-up cover of a song that never exactly screamed for a punked-up cover: Grimes’ ethereal burble [...]
The great Queens rap redbeard Action Bronson is working on a full-length mixtape with the New York producer Harry Fraud, and the pair let one go earlier this year when they posted “Strictly 4 My Jeeps” online. In the track’s brand-new video, from director Jason Goldwatch, Bronson takes us to a cartoonish Queens universe and [...]
Young Wonder is an electro-pop duo from Cork, Ireland who have a mastery for crafting lush, skittering soundscapes. “Electrified” combines big, bright synths and features lead singer Rachel Koeman’s hitting the hook’s high notes while harmonizing with monster-sound vocal distortion. Its video was directed by fellow Irishmen, Brendan Canty and Conal Thomson of the art [...]
Last month, Cassie, the queen of breathy-robot electro-R&B, released her insanely great RockaByeBaby mixtape, which would still be the year’s best mixtape if Chance The Rapper’s Acid Rap hadn’t come along. The tape ended with the twinkly, luxurious “All My Love.” And now the Brooklyn dance producer Kingdom has reworked the track, though he didn’t [...]
Bennio Qwerty is a new project with its foundation in the foundation of one of my favorite bars on the South Side of Williamsburg, Bar Donna. And “its foundation in the foundation” is not a typo: guitarist/singer Mike Barron and bassist Nathan Delffs met onsite-constructing the bar’s elegant woodwork, discovering a shared love for the [...]
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