Blogs

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...

Since Dominican-Brazilian singer, Jarina De Marco, debuted last spring on Wyclef Jean‰'s mixtape, April Showers, intrigue has grown considerably over her bright, hypnotic style. Born in the Dominican Republic, De Marco was raised in a musical family; her mother is the...

Last week, I wrote about The Velvet Underground‰'s groundbreaking debut and mentioned that it was the foundation for a myriad of new genres. One of the most obvious offspring is The Jesus And Mary Chain‰'s Psychocandy. Psychocandy is an experiment in aesthetic and...

Last Tuesday evening, fellow WVAU Assistant Events Coordinator Joey and I had the opportunity to interview The Dodos before their show at The Black Cat. We caught up with the band an hour before the show started and learned what the band is all about. Our talk with...

At just sixteen Lorde has accomplished the impressive feat of topping the UK, US and NZ alternative charts, with the video for her single “Royals” being exactly what you would expect from a 16-year-old. Vapid and self-obsessed, Lorde‰'s video does little to engage its...

Hot Sugar released his third EP, Made Man, this past Tuesday. I downloaded Made Man last night and it blew my mind. It is addicting, unrelenting and resembles an all-star rap mixtape. You can download the EP for free from his Bandcamp. For those of you who don‰'t...

Everything about British pop singer Natalia Kills is bold: from her eyebrows and style to her lyrics, she‰'s not one to fade into the background. Designer Jeremy Scott is a huge fan of the regular front-row fixture. A darling in the fashion industry, Kills is also...

Danny Brown has developed into something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde character; the persona that receives the attention nowadays is the maniacally-laughing party monster whose GIFs already span far across the internet. On the other side of the coin is the “old‰” Danny Brown:...

In the midst of midterm mania, it seems as though relaxation and calmness cease to exist. The stress of studying and not having enough time in the day to complete homework often destroy our sense of motivation (or sanity) and can leave us in a state of discouragement...

When Brian Eno proclaimed, “I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies [of The Velvet Underground & Nico] started a band. So I console myself thinking that some things generate their rewards in a second-hand way,‰” it would become one of the most...