Blogs

Keep Ya Head Up: Do You Know the Drill?

Courtesy of Hot New Hip Hop. It‰'s pretty much impossible to separate Chicago from drill music. Drill is Chicago and Chicago is drill, at least when talking about the Southside neighborhoods of Chicago nicknamed Chiraq. It was in these gang ridden parts of the city...

Live in the Hive: Ace Cosgrove

Maryland rapper Ace Cosgrove is no stranger to the come-up-- We sat down with the rapper to talk about his sophomore album Us vs. Robots which is available for download now via Soundcloud (check it below). Here's a couple of videos of the performance: And the audio...

Another Kind of Currency: Do We Paint Our Own Propaganda?

Hi! So, judging by the facts that a.) You‰'ve never seen my face or name before, b.) This column is new to WVAU, and c.) I‰'m currently working on facial hair cultivation, you may have gathered that I am a freshman. You wouldn‰'t be wrong! But enough about that....

The Tough Crowd: Travelin’ Blues

This week’s interviewee. Courtesy of Refinery 29 This week for The Tough Crowd, I talked to AU alumna Carolyn Becker about her show going history. Carolyn graduated last year with a Masters of Science in Marketing after also attending AU for undergrad....

Homemade: District of Columbia

Despite its Etsy-esque sounding title, “Homemade‰” is not ‰ÛÓ as one might think ‰ÛÓ a DIY crafts column. Instead, each posting explores the developing music scenes of a city, and features its up-and-coming local bands. Each week will be a different city, and will...

Under The Tide: Calvin Harris, "Ready for the Weekend"

Courtesy of EDM South Florida. Before the advent of popular music programs like Spotify and Pandora I had to discover new music through blogs, MTV, the odd song on certain movies that would pique my interest, or through friends‰' recommendations. It was through the...

Moi Non Plus: Sebastien Tellier

Courtesy of Tumblr. In France, people call one who falls in love very easily or is in love with many people at the same time a “CÒur d‰'artichaut‰” (which literally translates to artichoke heart). No one can be blamed of having a cÒur d‰'artichaut when it comes to...

Porque no los Dos: The Cupid Carla Morrison

Courtesy of Songkick Sometime last year I decided I needed more Latin vibes in my Spotify, so I created a playlist titled “Feelin Ethnic‰Û, which is a stupid name because we are all ethnic one way or another, but clearly I was thinking more along the lines of “wow...

Coo-Coo Ca-Choo: Paul Simon Honors George Harrison

Homies. Courtesy of When You Awake Anyone who knows me well knows that I love Paul Simon‰ÛÓhence choosing my column’s name from a phrase in the song “Mrs. Robinson‰Û. In fact, Paul Simon resembles a sort of religious figure for me. Maybe it‰'s because I grew up...

The Tough Crowd: Alpha Phi Omega Edition

For this week‰'s edition of the Tough Crowd interview series, I sat down with APO member and best roommate ever Rebecca Pittore to talk about her musical firsts through playing an instrument. Being the talented woman that she is, Rebecca plays both the guitar and...

The Looking Glass: Lemonade, "Minus Tide"

Courtesy of Consequence of Sound. With the release of Lemonade‰'s Minus Tide, what we encounter is a certain rebirth of Lemonade as a sophisticated pop act. With a broad reduction of the experimental and inexpressible qualities present on Diver (2012), Lemonade has...

Feedback: Four Bands from the Land of the Rising Sun

Courtesy of BABYMETAL. Did you hear about what Japan just did? The country‰'s most recent oddity was BABYMETAL, the fusion of cheery, upbeat J-Pop and Metal. Baby Metal works to fuse the genres in appearance ‰ÛÒ the band consists of three pretty girls in frilly, jet...

We’ve Been Nominated for a CMJ Award!

Hey all you people, hey all you people, hey all you people won’t you listen to me??? In case you haven’t heard the news, we’re honored to announce that WVAU has officially been nominated for a CMJ College Radio Award this year, for the first time...

Coo-Coo Ca-choo: All Acoustic with Portugal. The Man

A friend of mine sent me the link to this video the other day. As soon as I saw it, I was hooked. Portugal. The Man (PTM) have always been on my radar. I‰'ve been aware of their presence through Spotify recommendations, Pitchfork reviews and various radio shows. To my...

The Tough Crowd: First Basement Show

For punks, your first basement show is a right of passage. It‰'s your first adventure into the real world of punk and for most, it‰'s a life changing experience. This week I sat in on WVAU‰'s own Punk Is The Worst Form of Music (except all others) online radio show to...

Under the Tide: You+Me

Courtesy of Tumblr. My initial reaction to this dry, uninspiring choice of a group name immediately set my gears running into overdrive. Was it going to be a musical duo whose songs play off romantically, albeit with a cheesy yet truthful tinge to it, or would it be a...

Moi Non Plus: Serge Gainsbourg

Courtesy of Tumblr “If I had to choose between a woman and a final cigarette, I would choose the cigarette. You can throw it away easier!‰Û If there was someone that could say that phrase with class, meanwhile holding a cigarette and laughing about how true it is, it...

Porque no los Dos: Secreto de Amor

Porque no los Dos: Secreto de Amor

Let me start off with a disclaimer: I am here to bring you the best of the best in terms of Spanish music. You can use this as an excuse to seem cultured and cool. Let‰'s be real, you probably only listen to songs in English, rightfully so, it IS your language. But...

Coo Coo Ca-choo: Introductions and Arctic Monkeys

A blurb about Coo Coo Ca-choo: Post-concert depression: it‰'s a real thing. We all know what it is, how it feels, and how it manifests itself. But why does it happen so frequently? Live music is addictive, and for good reason. It transforms audio into a visual...

Leading Ladies: Wake Up to Aaradhna‰’s Music

Courtesy of The Vinyl Bridge One of the great musical discoveries that happened this summer was unearthing the gem that is Treble & Reverb, the 2012 album from New Zealand artist Aaradhna. The album made a big impact in its home country, winning several 2013 New...

Minutia: Why Grimes is Better Than the Velvet Underground

Courtesy of Stereogum. First, let‰'s look at some accolades. Who likes the Velvet Underground? Rolling Stone and Andy Warhol, both of whom are mouthpieces that no one cares about except for dead white people and your dad. Who likes Grimes? Grimes is the future, as she...

Vote for Us at CMJ!

Hello everybody! It’s an exciting time here at WVAU at American University – new faces on campus, wonderful new music coming to us and award season is just around the corner. WVAU has been on the air since 1947 but this is the very first year (that we know...

The Tough Crowd: Fall Children

The Tough Crowd this semester will be an exclusive inside look into the musical beginnings of your fellow American University peers. As music lovers, we all experience the same “firsts” during our foray into becoming music aficionados. So, this semesters...

Feedback: The Importance of Being Metal

A friend and I started to talk on music. We talked on the beauty behind new genres we found. Talks of new music led to old. We came back to a common heritage, a genre we loved and never forgot: Metal. What was the reward in the furious grapple of gravelly voice burned...

The Looking Glass: Simian Mobile Disco‰’s "Whorl"

Courtesy of DJ Mag Italia If the writing and recording of an album is really an ongoing process, then, it is an event that takes place everywhere. This means that both the moments when the artist writes the lyrical forms and expresses these forms in the confines of...

Leading Ladies: Summer Music Recap

A great big welcome back to the school year! I‰'m super stoked to continue writing “Leading Ladies‰” and I hope there are some of you out there that are excited to continue reading it! This week, I just wanted to do a quick recap of some of the music that kept me...