Blogs
Another Kind of Currency: Lyrical Themes and Staying Home
It is a common trope in music, especially in music popular with many Millennials, to include lyrics about wishing to get away from home, and those lyrics seem to resonate very well with many people who live in towns like where I grew up: Johnstown, Pennsylvania (Where...
The Tough Crowd: Transfer Edition
Moving to a new place is hard. Moving to a new music scene is even harder. This is especially so in punk. Punk kids like to hide, keep things DIY and typically lurk in the underbelly of big cities. Finding your first few shows with no connections can certainly be a...
Iceage, "Plowing Into the Field of Love"
Courtesy of Tumblr. Iceage's new Plowing Into the Field of Love is sure to distance many fans, angered by a discontinuity of the gothic aggression and nihilist ambitions of earlier You're Nothing and New Brigade. Idle spectators will, wrongly, reject Plowing for...
Tomorrows Tulips, "When" (Burger)
Slow music that sounds like the Velvet Underground in they were Californian. California-band Tomorrows Tulips’ 3rd full length album, When, seems to ally with such New York sounds such as The Velvet Underground and The Sonic Youth than perhaps some of their...
Kevin Morby, "Still Life" (Woodist)
Stripped down indie rock. Something about Kevin Morby's Still Life feels like home. It's comfortable. He's your standard mopey guy with good tunes, and does a great job at it. Morby gives his own take on the classic rock n' roll narrative in “The Ballad of Arlo...
Thom Yorke, "Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes" (Self-Released)
Baby’s back. It's been eight years since Thom Yorke released his debut solo album, The Eraser. In that time, he has released two LPs with Radiohead, and an album with side project Atoms For Peace in 2013 featuring Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and longtime...
Pissed Jeans, "Shallow" (Sub Pop)
Furious punk that everyone needs. The music of Pissed Jeans is angry, to be sure, but it's a particular kind of angry, the kind that comes after years of relentless cynicism, sexual frustration, and dead end day job existence, and then realizing that you've only got...
Dads, "I’ll Be the Tornado" (6131)
Heavier and grungier emo that remembers its twinkly roots. I'll Be The Tornado marks Dads' full emergence from their cocoon of the traditional “twinkly” sound of the emo revival, and development into something bigger and better than ever. Although the New Jersey...
Eliot Lipp, "Watch The Shadows" (Pretty Lights Music)
If Disclosure was a little less House and a little more electronic-funk, this is what it would sound like. If you are over emotional with a love for rap, pop or R&B, you’ve probably been following the growth of Drake’s OVO collective, which includes...
We Were Promised Jetpacks, "Unravelling" (Fat Cat)
Complex, epic, and experimental indie. Unravelling is the highly anticipated new album from favorite indie rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks, and it delivers. Airy crooning over simple and mellow melodies build into something much bigger on multiple tracks throughout...
Animal Hours, "Do Over" (Self-Released)
Staying at your aunt's farm house and leaning out the bedroom to the rising sun and smell of fresh dew. In weird way, all I can think about when I listen to Orion Letizi, lead singer and songwriter of Animal Hours sing “Yellow Roses,” is a signifier of friendship,...
Pompeii, "Loom" (Red Eye Transit)
Expansive, sparkly atmosphere album. Loom by Pompeii is a vast wasteland of twinkly mood music from start to finish. Most songs are soft rhythmic tunes that lead up to big, big endings, but the album also maintains balance with the slightly rougher, fast, tight...
Feedback: Multimedia Era – League of Legends and the Great Gatsby
Courtesy of Tumblr. The World Finals of League of Legends (LoL) just concluded in Seoul, South Korea. Over the past few years LoL's popularity ballooned beyond any expectations. E-sports, this strange phenomenon where teams of twenty somethings square off over...
Pop Exodus: Happy All American Weekend! (A Pop Playlist for You and Your Parents)
Courtesy of Atlanta Black Star. Happy Monday, babes! In honor of parent's weekend, I decided to make up a little playlist chock full of songs for the rents, but also for you. I think there's a debate within the pop community about whether or not we should be paying...
The Looking Glass: Caribou, "Our Love"
Interest in Caribou ÛÒ who, over the years, has been known in various forms and styles ÛÒ has recently been reawakened with the release of the new album Our Love. It is no accident that this release seems to further clarify many of Snaith's vague and idealic...
Vibe of the Week: Post-Midterm Healing
Courtesy of Wakarusa. Alright, I don't know about you all but this past week or so can only be described as stress on stress on stress. But, midterm hell is finally behind us and that definitely calls for celebration. After the physical and mental drain of papers and...
Coo-Coo Ca-Choo: New Discoveries – Eva Stone
Courtesy of Cargo Collective. If you haven't checked out Amazing Radio on YouTube, set aside an afternoon or two to check out some of the amazing upcoming artists in the music world. You won't regret it. As technology increases, so does the amount of electronic,...
The Current: Smoke The Vote – Marijuana and Music
On November 4th, Washington, DC is voting on recreational marijuana. As the nation's capital, this is a very influential decision since laws made for the District of Columbia also have to go through Congress and therefore can set the stage for federal laws in the...
Minutia: Classical Music – Stagnant or Outgrown?
Courtesy of Slate. The past week or so, I've been pondering the prosperity and subsequent decline of trends in music. Without exception, it seems, today's hot trend will be tomorrow's object of mocking nostalgia. Think of tunes like the “Macarena” or...
Leading Ladies: Favorite Live Shows
Courtesy of Independent Music Promotions. I love concerts. They're one of the best ways to experience music because it's a full body experience. You can feel the music physically course through your body and you can feel everyone's energies manifest into something...
Keep Ya Head Up: Why Iggy Can’t Hang
Courtesy of Urban Splatter. Whether you'd admit it or not, at some point this summer you were probably singing along to Iggy Azalea's chart topping single “Fancy.” The song was pretty much unescapable, every time you turned on the radio you ran the risk...
Another Kind of Currency: Lyrical Dissonance as a Warning
Courtesy of WKDU. Jukebox The Ghost has the distinction of being the first DC-area band I was a fan of before knowing that I was going to college in the District, and are still one of my now-local favorites to this day (although they have close competition with Kill...
Under The Tide: Music Festival Interludes, Penguins and Prisons
Courtesy of Hypetrak. Tunes played during interludes at music festivals are hit or miss. You just want the show to get on without any interruptions so you can keel over to your favorite headliner. Because of this, no one really gives credit to the DJs who carefully...
Pop Exodus: God Only Knows the BBC Likes Their Pop Stars
Courtesy of The Telegraph. The BBC did a thing last week, and I think we should talk about it. The thing in question is a song, specifically a cover of The Beach Boys' hit “God Only Knows” with an accompanying music video decked out in spiritual, garden of eden-type...
Live in the Hive: Ex Hex
On September 20th, Ex Hex graced the WVAU studio for a wonderful session filled with riffs, harmonies, and appetizers. It's astonishing how much has changed for the band in the mere 3 weeks since the session. They've embarked on a countrywide tour with Speedy Ortiz...
Vibe of the Week: In the Flowers
Courtesy of Pitchfork. When I first heard Animal Collective, I was completely not on board. In fact, for a lot of people they're hit or miss. “Trippy as hell, man” as a friend of mine always says. But once you get past the initial impression that they're just a...
Coo-Coo Ca-Choo: A Brief History of Paul Simon’s Graceland
Courtesy of American Songwriter. While I wrote about a Paul Simon cover last week, I decided to stick to what I know best and write another piece about him for a second week in a row. I figured I should write about my favorite album at some point in the semester. Why...
The Current: A Dogg and the Pigskin
Courtesy of Snoop Dogg’s Instagram. In this age of technology, crowdfunding has become increasingly popular. The uses of it range from promoting the creation of potato salad to indie films, like Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here. Over the weekend, rap/reggae icon...
Guster, "Simple Machine" (Nettwerk/Ocho Mule)
A twist on their classic style, but still basically the same. Guster has been around awhile. They have formed a pretty solid career within the indie-pop, bordering on indie-rock, scene. They've become notorious for creating catchy tracks that can, at times, make an...
Ausmuteants, "Order Of Operation" (Goner)
Slightly nerdy punk rock. Order Of Operation is certainly a punk album. Fuzzy powerchords, fast drums, yelling vocals, and minute-and-a-half songs. But something that is prevalent on every track that gives the songs a “nerdy” feel to them are the synths. Instead of...