Blogs
Homemade: Philadelphia
Courtesy of Baltimore Arts. In a city that's known for its distinctive, tough nature, it's no wonder Philadelphia has such a rich history of punk music. It was in the late 1970s when punk and new wave music had begun to sweep through the city and take it...
Pop Exodus: The Art of the Sad Pop Song
Courtesy of Pop Dust. John Legend's “All of Me” placed third in Billboard's Hot 100 in 2014. “Stay with Me” by Sam Smith was number 10 and A Great Big World's “Say Something” made it into the top 20. Although a huge number of Sad Pop didn't make it...
Porque no los Dos: Julieta Venegas
Courtesy of La Reputada. I first heard Julieta Venegas on the radio when her album, Si, had just come out in 2003. Following widespread success, the album won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Solo Vocal Album. It was rock enough to be in...
The Current: Coyote Ugly Casanova
Courtesy of Pitchfork. Coming off an eight year hiatus, my favorite band, Modest Mouse, are officially putting out a new album. The new album, Strangers to Ourselves, will be released on March 3. So far, two singles have been released, “Lampshades on Fire” and...
Keep Ya Head Up: BestCoast Connection Tour Remembers A$AP Yams
Courtesy of NYT.This past Sunday the hip hop community was shocked by the death of one Steven Rodriguez, better known as A$AP Yams. Yams was one of the original cofounders of the Harlem-based A$AP Mob, a hip hop collective home to, most notably, rappers A$AP...
Another Kind of Currency: Is Visiting the Past Worth the Hassle?
Courtesy of Giant Freakin Robot. Welcome back! It's the spring semester, students are back at college and I'm mourning the loss of my free time, but now it's time for you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the return of Another Kind of Currency. The song that...
Feedback: A Progressive Rock Ghost Story
Courtesy of Progsphere.Progressive rock band the Mars Volta occupy an almost unfillable niche for their fans. For some sweet few years the band's driving forces, guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, created a stream of innovative albums....
The Tough Crowd: The "In The Bin" Challenge
Papa Kelly hangs out at Joe's Record Paradise - Silver Spring.In case you didn't hear, 2014 was a huge year for vinyl. Overall vinyl sales jumped 49%, Jack White sold zillions of copies of his hit record Lazaretto, and the continent's largest pressing plant can't even...
Pop Exodus: The Great Punk Direction Controversy of 2015
Courtesy of Redbubble. The story goes like this: some One Direction fan in some nether region of the Internet decided that they wanted to make bootleg t-shirts of other bands with 1D's name on them. At first, it seemed that everyone was in on the joke: these...
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...