Blogs

Dev Hynes has been on the scene for many years and his first release with the dance-punk band, Test Icicles, in 2005 sounds quite different than Blood Orange in 2013. Devont̩ Hynes, aka Blood Orange, has cultivated a distinct style and is now an established musical...

In their newest release, Doom Loop, Mansions embrace the simple pleasures of distortion. The duo, Christopher Browder and Robin Dove, recorded the album in Browder‰'s Seattle apartment resulting in a house-show sort of vibe. Nonetheless, the band‰'s decision to enlist...

Excited for Mac? So are we! So is pretty much everybody! SWEET. To demonstrate just how excited Music Staff is, we‰'re making this the week of the MacSpin; ergo, playing songs from Mac‰'s little old discography can get you up to two rackspins! If you‰'re still not...

Weezer‰'s 1994 Blue Album contained enough inspiration for decades of slackers to mess around with shoddy tech, crude lyrics and the mundane themes of sober life. Mac DeMarco, then living somewhere in Canada, would listen to these same songs that united dungeon...

Admittedly, I was mildly excited when I heard Lily Allen had a new song out. åÊThough I’m not her biggest fan, I do appreciate her songwriting and cheeky lyrics even if her musicality isn’t the most original or riveting. The video starts with Allen on an operating...

Some of the best jazz, and music in general, came from lesser-known artists who never achieved the full-blown fame of their musical counterparts. This, however, makes their music special and unique, for it is not overshadowed by the glamour of musical stardom or...

  Before I delve into this album, let me make two acknowledgements: 1) This album didn‰'t have nearly the influential impact on music of the usual albums that I feature. 2) This album is my favorite of all time and I‰'m gonna write about what it means to me. The...

If you missed them last Sunday, (I know I did) the livestreamed YouTube Music Awards were quite the party. Featuring performances by everyone from Tyler the Creator to the Arcade Fire, it was clearly not an event to be missed. Thank goodness it‰'s all on the internet....

What is the best way to listen to an album? Alone? With friends? How about at a listening party? I attended my first listening party at U Street Music Hall this past Monday for M.I.A.‘s new album, Matangi. The listening party was free for ages 21 and over, but $5 for...

Chances are, if you have been bumping Chance the Rapper‰'s sophomore mixtape Acid Rap for the last few months, you are already familiar with Vic Mensa‰'s seductively-crackly tenor tone which tied together that album‰'s sensual “Cocoa Butter Kisses.‰” At the end of...

If you don‰'t already know who British girl group Little Mix are then take note. After winning The X Factor U.K. in 2011 and releasing a debut album that has been certified platinum in the U.K., they‰'re ready to make a bigger impression in the U.S. Statistically...

Hey guys! Remember those staff picks we told you about last week? Well they‰'re a weekly thing! We hope they‰'ll help you stay on top of the best shiznit on the rack, especially now that we‰'re removing some popular things. Out with the old, in with the new, as they...

I‰'m currently a 21-year-old boy. At one point in my life, I was a frustrated kid in a suburban high school and Violent Femmes was my Bible. There was something about the way that Brian Ritchie‰'s bass lines bounced around Gordon Gano‰'s simplistic acoustic guitar...

This weekend, a select few of you readers will be tasked with making a party playlist. You control the sound of a setting that will lead to misguided make-out sessions and fast friendships. If you are a college radio DJ, you are accustomed to compiling a two-hour set....

Deltron 3030 follows up his eponymous debut with a new studio album released early this October called Event 2 that launches its listeners back into a familiar sonic future-scape. Recently, genre has emerged as a major issue in music journalism, as writers invent...

Sup DJs? Ever wanted an insider perspective on what’s on our rack? Well, a brand new weekly feature, Music Staff Picks, will give you just that! Our music staff members will pick favorite songs from albums they review every week and create a playlist just for you....

On Saturday, November 16, WVAU, in collaboration with SUB, will be hosting its Capitol Punishment concert of the semester with Mac DeMarco and Shark Week. The show is free with your AU Student ID. Join us at 8pm in the SIS Founders Room for the show of the semester!...

Big Black was a noise rock band that brought back the sense of danger and confrontation that rock and roll hadn‰'t seen since the Sid Vicious died. Where the Sex Pistols pissed people off largely with their image of unashamed anti-conformity, Big Black only needed...

While “The Monster Mash‰” and “Thriller‰” undoubtedly top the charts for most popular Halloween-themed music, Halloween-themed jazz surprisingly raises the bar for intense and dark tunes that are sure to make your Halloween as frightening and fun as possible. “I Put a...

Need something awesome to project on your walls during a Halloween party? Look no further than this list of the spookiest and coolest looking music videos. They‰'ll be sure to bring any party back from the dead.   The Pretty Reckless, “Going to Hell‰Û In her new...

Ryan Hemsworth is a DJ/Producer from Halifax, Nova Scotia and he is definitely “coming up.‰” His sound combines bangin‰' rap tracks, indie electronic songs and his own beats. Hemsworth released his first physical album Guilt Trips this past Tuesday. He has remarkable...

While Banks is by no means the first to produce vocally-driven pop music with electronic backing, she successfully manages to make her music unique. In her London EP, Banks delivers lyrics about the cognitive dissonance brought by feelings of love through a...

Little was known about British singer FKA twigs (formerly known as just twigs) when she released her debut EP, EP, last December. And nearly a year later with a second EP out since September, she’s still a mysterious, press-shy artist. Signed to London label, Young...

When you hear about the history of rock music in the transition from the 80s into the 90s, it‰'s almost impossible to avoid someone saying how Nirvana was the final nail in the casket of glam and hair metal. If Nirvana‰'s success finally buried that horrid trend of...

Music is constantly undergoing change. Rather than growing linearly, musical trends and styles are influenced by the events and news of the time period. Herbie Hancock, a famous jazz pianist and composer, undoubtedly demonstrates the relationship between music and...

By now, you‰'ve probably heard about the new video from the creators of the ear-splittingly autotuned “Friday,‰” “Chinese Food.‰” In it, a tweenage girl sings vaguely racist assumptions about cultures that aren‰'t her own and about how hungry she is after a late night...

Ask any fan of music from the Midwest and they‰'ve probably spent a fair amount of their life worshipping the Kinsella brothers. Through each chapter of a new band, the two brothers essentially wrote the book on emo. Although an unfortunate fact, I must stop here to...

In about two weeks, Nocturnal,åÊthe highly anticipatedåÊsophomore album fromåÊKuala Lumpur native, Yuna, will be released following her acclaimed 2012 self-titled debut album. Earlier this spring, she had also released an EP,åÊSixth Street, only garnering more...

After the recent censorship of Rihanna‰'s video for “Pour It Up” the rampant censorship of the music video industry is a hot topic. Within ten minutes of being on popular YouTube channel Vevo, the video was censored for featuring female nudity. The video uses...

Mount Kimbie is a London-based electronic duo comprised of Kai Campos and Dom Maker. They debuted their first full-length album, Crooks and Lovers, in July 2010. The album was revered by NME, Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound and BBC Music. This past May, the two released...