Blogs
Overlooked by WVAU 2014: Prince – ART OFFICIAL AGE
Courtesy of HipHop-n-more. Let me take you back to Tuesday, September 30, 2014. I woke up from a tumultuous dream and realized the date was one that signified an important birth that will be remembered and celebrated in musical history. You may be...
Overlooked by WVAU 2014: Naomi Punk – Television Man
Courtesy of Captured Tracks. Naomi Punk's sound can be metaphorically compared to Woody Allen's favorite font, Windsor: “Windsor is an unusual design cut by Stephenson Blake in 1905. Windsor is a bold face with heavy rounded serifs and strong diagonal stress”...
Overlooked by WVAU 2014: The War on Drugs – "Under the Pressure"
Courtesy of Stereogum."I hate that beer commercial lead-guitar shit. This next song is called The War on Drugs Can Suck My Fucking Dick.'Û-Mark KozelekFor the rest of us that love lead-guitar shit, groovy '80s drums, echoey keys, and Bruce Springsteen, “Under...
Overlooked by WVAU 2014: Swans – To Be Kind
Courtesy of Young God Records.It seems that many of the year's most memorable stories in the musical world had near-nothing to do with music. From celebrity romances to meme-ready remixes, the experience of sitting down and listening to an album in its entirety seems...
Overlooked by WVAU 2014: Communions – Cobblestones EP
Courtesy of Posh Isolation. The referent post-industrialism' defines a situation within music that has disavowed all contingencies of the past, while facilitating a condition of the present, as necessarily confrontational to the present culture. This style is...
Overlooked by WVAU 2014: Quarterbacks – Quarterboy
Courtesy of Quarterbacks' Bandcamp. Quarterbacks, one of New York's most underrated indie rock bands, released a very overlooked record in 2014. Granted, the Quarterboy cassette was quietly released on Double Double Whammy at the end of July, with little of the...
Overlooked by WVAU 2014: BADBADNOTGOOD – III
Courtesy of Innovative Leisure. In 2010 three students at Humber College in Toronto decided to forsake degrees and education to pursue fusion jazz. Matthew Tavares, Chester Hansen and Alexander Sowinski met in the university's jazz program, bonding...
WVAU 2014: A Review
Thanks to the Miami Herald for this image. Happy New Year, Pitbull! Hello, people of 2015! If you're too pressed for time to open thirty different pages to see how our 2014 year-end lists turned out, here's a quick, compact reference for you! We've included...
WVAU’s #1 Album of 2014: FKA twigs – LP1
Courtesy of Pitchfork. British singer FKA twigs astounded music critics and lovers with her debut album LP1, a true tour de force that topped nearly every year-end “best albums of 2014” list. On WVAU's various year-end lists, twigs won spots for #7 song of...
WVAU’s #1 Song of 2014: Pile – "Special Snowflakes"
Courtesy of Pile's Bandcamp. “Special Snowflakes” is, in many ways, the sound of potential being reached. It feels sort of ridiculous to say so, being that Pile have an incredible back catalog, and are one of the most beloved cult bands on the East Coast. But on...
WVAU’s #2 Album of 2014: Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Courtesy of Angel Olsen. For me, 2014 will be remembered as the year of Angel Olsen. Her masterpiece, Burn Your Fire For No Witness, stands as a landmark record that expresses sentiments about loneliness, honesty, and vulnerability in a such a way that you can't...
WVAU’s #2 Song of 2014: Sun Kil Moon – "I Watched the Film the Song Remains the Same"
Courtesy of Stereogum. Benji's success story seems to be inscribed in the songs themselves. Mark Kozelek is far from an emerging artist and he's definitely not returning from any type of break. To even claim that Benji was a reinvention for Kozelek would...
WVAU’s #3 Album of 2014: Iceage – Plowing Into the Field of Love
Courtesy of Matador Records. Iceage is by far the best-dressed boy band I'll ever see. After delivering two flawless LPs that made the world see why they possess the title of “coolest Danish post-punk band,” hot babe Elias Bender RÌünnenfelt and his friends...
WVAU’s #3 Song of 2014: Real Estate – "Crime"
Courtesy of Domino Records. "Crime” was first released on Youtube, ahead of Real Estate's third LP Atlas, as a how-to-play guitar tab music video. Both lead and rhythm guitar parts are tabbed out in a sing-along style video, appealing to their masses of guitar...
WVAU’s #4 Album of 2014: Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 2
Courtesy of RTJ. On their first record, Run The Jewels proclaimed that they were "the new Avengers,” a statement which was only half true. They're gonna save the world, no doubt about it, but this isn't a PG-13 summer funtime adventure. RTJ are the sonic...
WVAU’s #4 Song of 2014: Sia – "Chandelier"
Courtesy of Popjustice.Yes, I went to one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country for high school and I attend one of the best universities in the country, but I just learned what the word “chandelier” meant about fifteen minutes ago. Seriously? Yes....
WVAU’s #5 Album of 2014: Alex G – DSU
Courtesy of Orchid Tapes. DSU is poison in disguise. In chemistry courses, you are taught the dose is what matters. So after listening to this record more times than any other album in my entire life, the concern is not that I don't know what to feel about it,...
WVAU’s #5 Song of 2014: Radiator Hospital – "Fireworks"/"Fireworks (Reprise)"
Courtesy of Radiator Hospital's Bandcamp. Radiator Hospital's sophomore album, Torch Song, reminds us of all of those times in high school when we wanted to lay in bed because we believed it would mend a broken heart, and reassures us that...
WVAU’s #6 Album of 2014: St. Vincent – St. Vincent
Courtesy of I Love St. Vincent. The last time we saw St. Vincent's Annie Clark on her own, she was behind a sheet of white latex screaming on 2011's Out of Reach-referencing Strange Mercy. Now, having taken the chicken bone our of her mouth, St. Vincent...
WVAU’s #6 Song of 2014: Alex G – "Harvey"
Courtesy of Orchid Tapes.In all honesty, “Harvey” is not actually my favorite song from Alex G's debut full-length album DSU. I'm drawn more to the disorienting, maze-like melodies found in “Icehead” and “Hollow.” But because I have an unwavering...
Live in the Hive: Future Punx
Brooklyn-based Future Punx stopped by the WVAU studio to play a few songs off their latest EP, I'm So Inspired. Get an earful of the rich post-wave sounds and be sure to download their complete discography on Bandcamp. Here's their EP on Bandcamp. I'm So...
WVAU’s #7 Album of 2014: Mac DeMarco – Salad Days
Courtesy of Captured Tracks. While an album called Salad Days may seem like it'd leave you hungry, in reality it fills you up like you just ate a three course meal. Between Mac DeMarco's soft vocals, chill rhythms, and gentle guitar-laced beats, Salad Days has a...
WVAU’s #7 Song of 2014: FKA twigs – "Lights On"
Courtesy of Complex.Sex is weird. It is full of awkwardness, anticipation, and - sometimes - ecstasy. The first full song on FKA twigs' LP1 establishes all of these things and more. It builds gradually, from bizarre background patterns of...
WVAU’s #8 Album of 2014: Perfume Genius – Too Bright
Courtesy of Matador Records. The cliche line about Too Bright is that after two albums of the saddest, most beautifully gut-wrenching music ever made, Mike Hadreas finally let his anger out. While it's true that Too Bright is angrier than anything Hadreas has ever...
WVAU’s #8 Song of 2014: Banks – "Alibi"
Courtesy of BANKS' Soundcloud. “Alibi” is the perfect build-up song for a crowd; it's the beat-driven first minute, produced by SOHN, where BANKS' blurred words become a mysterious tale we yearn to know more of. This dark-haired valley girl has a...
WVAU’s #9 Album of 2014: Caribou – Our Love
Courtesy of Merge Records. 2014 was, undoubtedly, the year of the “feels.” Suffice it to say, the "feels" encompasses being emotionally connected, engaging in meaningful interpersonal interactions and absorbing one's environment. These days, it's a...
WVAU’s #9 song of 2014: Cloud Nothings – "I’m Not Part of Me"
Courtesy of Stereogum. A refrain that repeats “I'm not telling you all I'm going through” sounds like something you might find in a Papa Roach song, an unpolished, unambitious exercise in wallowing in one's own misery. But in “I'm Not Part of Me,Û ...
WVAU’s #10 Album of 2014: Caddywhompus – Feathering A Nest
Courtesy of Community Records. Despite their makeup of mere guitar, drums, and vocals, New Orleans duo Caddywhompus covers a jaw-dropping amount of sonic and structural ground in six songs. The pair can sustain musical movements such as...
WVAU’s #10 song of 2014: Ty Segall – "Feel"
Courtesy of Stereogum. Ty Segall's last full length, 2013's Sleeper, was an acoustic album, a departure from his usual heavily distorted guitars. Well for those out there who missed the electric guitar, it returned on "Feel," but keeping some...
Live in the Hive: Strand of Oaks
Rock musician Strand of Oaks, otherwise known as Timothy Showalter, stopped by WVAU on his way to DC9 during his tour with Christopher Denny back in September. He played songs from his latest album, Heal, and a track from his debut album. Listen to his in-studio...