When I say talking, I also mean writing, sharing, seeing shows, really anything you can do in the company of others with music. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the art as much as ever, but the culture surrounding it is largely counterproductive bullshit. I'm sick...
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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...