Blogs
Sinkane, "Mean Love" (DFA)
Emotional existential history set to liquid guitars and groovy baselines. Though Sinkane has spent much of his musical career as as session musician with groups like Yeasayer, Caribou, and Born Ruffians, on his sophomore debut record, Mean Love, the man otherwise...
alt-J, "This Is All Yours" (Atlantic/Canvasback)
Sophomore success with silver lining. Riding on the success of their debut album An Awesome Wave, in 2012, alt-J has been pretty busy. During the past two years they produced a song for the film Silver Linings Playbook, earned numerous awards (British Mercury Prize,...
S, "Cool Choices" (Hardly Art)
Self-deprecation at its coolest and most self-deprecating. “This is how losers feel/ I am a loser/ And you're here to remind me” sings Jenn Ghetto (producing not at all ghetto music), originally a member of Carissa's Weird, a Seattle-based band. She departed from...
Museum Mouth, "Alex I Am Nothing" (Self Aware)
Lo-fi punk rock garage romance. Anticipate what you will of an album that opens with “I remember the first time I saw you/ I knew you'd be important” but ends with “you find something you like/ and then you move on with your life.” Coming out of North Carolina to...
Northern Arms, "Northern Arms" (Self-Released)
Music for listening to while you ride your horse through the desert into the sunset. Northern Arms' self-titled debut plays like a soundtrack to a western blockbuster with an indie-rock twist. The album opens up with “Warm Springs Georgia” and “Ninety and NineÛ,...
Avi Buffalo, "At Best Cuckold" (Sub-Pop)
Notable new indie-rock. Shy is the opposite of Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, the 23-year-old lead vocals and guitar of southern California's Avi Buffalo. The lyrics are quirky and verge on uncomfortable, about winning over girls and sneaking into camp sites. But the...
The Raveonettes, "Pe’ahi" (Beat Dies)
“Vast spaces yet a sense of isolation.Û The Raveonettes allowed all of their creative experimentation to surface in their newest release, Pe'ahi. In many cases simplicity becomes preferable, but in this album the use of more in-depth instrumentation has enabled...
Karen O, "Crush Songs" (Cult)
A love crusade worth going on. “When I was 27 I crushed a lot. I wasn’t sure I’d ever fall in love again. These songs were written and recorded in private around this time.” Karen O has been known for her loud and vibrant persona in the Yeah Yeah...
The Drums, "Encyclopedia" (Minor)
Fun outerspace synth-pop and teen angst. The Drums' Encyclopedia is a burst of juvenile bliss and despair. The playful, almost extra-terrestrial tunes on “Magic Mountain,” “Let Me” and “Wild Geese” paired with lyrics like “Somewhere in the back of my mind I crave...
Cold Specks, "Neuroplasticity" (Mute)
Haunting, folksy soul sung beautifully. This second album from Canadian singer-songwriter is ambitious and intricately assembled, yet stays true to the “doom soul” aesthetic of her past work. In fact, if anything, Neuroplasticity magnifies the doom with richer songs...
Whirr, "Sway" (Graveface)
“World's Loudest Band” isn't so loud right now. Significantly mellowed out and more monotonous than their first two albums, charged, melodic guitars take a back seat to more prominent percussion and drier vocals. Without a doubt the San Francisco shoegaze outfit...
Zella Day, "Zella Day" (B3SCI/Pinetop)
Airy pop for flower-crown wearing Coachella goers. Zella Day may not be a name you are familiar with, but her musical style definitely is. On most of her self-titled EP, Arizona-born now LA-based Day draws striking similarities to well-established pop artists we've...
Redinho, "Redinho" (Numbers)
For those of us here in the US, it seems like every time a UK citizen turns on the radio they get an exclusive new track from an exclusive new producer who defies all genre descriptions. In fact the game of trying to label electronic musicians has become so obtuse and...
Minutia: Storm and Stress, "Under Thunder and Fluorescent Light"
Courtesy of Last.fm Storm and Stress's 2000 release, Under Thunder and Florescent Light, is an album totally unlike anything before or after it. One moment it feels like watching the sun break through a gray mist and the next, being sucked into a void of blinding...
Leading Ladies: 3 Australian Artists Who Are Better than Iggy Azalea
Exhibit One: Tkay Maidza from Adelaide, Australia (Courtesy of Grand Stand) Iggy Azalea is racist (among other things) and I cannot support someone who is so absorbed with her own ego that she cannot see the wrong in her words and actions and who will not afford...
Another Kind of Currency: Prodding at Your Emotions
Courtesy of Clash. When I came up with the idea for this column, I had a few specific pieces in mind, including the one I wrote about last week. Another is the subject of today's analysis, “Poke” by Scottish indie-folk band Frightened Rabbit. One of my favorite...
The Tough Crowd: WVAU Alumni Edition
Two great guys. Picture taken by me!! Rafael Smith and Tyler Osborne are postgrad roomies. They also happen to be WVAU alumni, as well as avid vinyl collectors. But these two aren’t your average 2014 record purchasers. Their apartment is home to a wide variety...
Ambition, Style, and Energy: WVAU talks to Rome Fortune
We sat down with Rome Fortune after his performance at the Black Cat to talk to him about his first ever tour, growing up in Atlanta, and his plans for the future.The interview (audio):Find Rome's just-released mixtape, Small VVorld, here:
Feedback: The Great Twerk Debate
Courtesy of Mastodon's Twitter. I've got a new pleasure, and it's not guilty. The metal band Mastodon's music video for their new song, “MotherloadÛ, started a great twerk debate, and I am in love with all of it. Mastodon is a bit of progressive metal staple....
The Looking Glass: Mr Twin Sister
Courtesy of Pitchfork. In Mr Twin Sister, the former band members of Twin Sister introduce a paradoxical shift in redefining and escaping their former work: a movement forward without hesitation, the inexpressible act of mimicry that persists beyond the circuit of...
Pop Exodus: Valley of the Shadow of the Pop Exodus
Courtesy of Gary Grayson. So, why is this column called “Pop ExodusÛ? It should be pretty self-explanatory, right? I'm probably taking a long journey through the war-torn desert of pop music, already dissected over and over again by self-indulgent critics and...
Vibe of the Week: In the Summertime
Hello all! My name is Kristina Kumpel, aka Tina Turnter, and this is Vibe of the Week. Here you can read about whatever music I’ve been groovin' to this week, from new artists to keep an eye out for to old favorites to revisit. With the arrival of fall comes...
The Current: Alt-J and Assault Rifles
American University is known for being extremely politically active. A great part of this awareness stems from making connections to our daily lives. This column seeks to relate two things I am passionate about: music and a comprehension of the world around me. Alt J,...
King Tuff, "Black Moon Spell" (Sub Pop)
It's safe to say King Tuff takes an adventure and visits new territory in Black Moon Spell.This album has long songs (at least in terms of garage rock); a couple of the songs clock in just under five minutes. The drums sound awesome. They have a great amount of...
Steve Arrington, "Way Out" (Tummy Touch)
If you grew up in an African-American household in the early 2000’s, you have some recollection of Michael Baisden, Steve Harvey and a mixture of old school Rap, R&B, Funk and House, otherwise known as WBLS Kiss FM. The bottom line is that Steve...
Gerard Way, "Hesitant Alien" (WBR)
Let's face it, there is a stigma that comes with Gerard Way as the former frontman of My Chemical Romance. Listening to his solo album you'd obviously brace yourself for songs an emo kid would listen to while waiting for his mom to pick him up from Hot Topic in...
Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate), "You Will Eventually Be Forgotten" (Count Your Lucky Stars)
You know those nights where you're lying in bed unable to sleep, and you start remembering specific events from your past that you hadn't thought about in years and get kind of emotional? Fenton, Michigan two-piece Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) has taken...
ODESZA, "In Return" (Self-Released)
ODESZA have been making a name for themselves in the past few years as some of the foremost purveyors of starry eyed, blissful chillwave, a style they stick to with little deviation on their sophomore project, In Return. For fans of this particularly pleasant subgenre...
Ryan Adams, "Ryan Adams" (PAX AM/Blue Note)
Ryan Adams’ newest self-titled album is well-crafted and densely packed with greatness. Album opener “Gimme Something Good” has the melancholy vocals and soulful guitar melodies Ryan Adams has built his discography on. Some of the album is...
Leading Ladies: #POSITIVE
Inspiration: Janelle MonÌÁe being #positive in her music video for “Electric LadyÛ. (Courtesy of Natura) Sometimes a good playlist is all you need to brighten up your day when your inner light is wavering. That's okay! Being genuinely positive all the time is hard....