1 OF MONTREAL Lousy With Sylvianbriar
2 DR. DOG B-Room
3 DEER TICK Negativity
4 YUCK Glow And Behold
5 KING KRULE 6 Feet Beneath The Moon
6 PARQUET COURTS Tally All The Things That You Broke [EP]
7 KEVIN DEVINE Bubblegum
8 BELLE AND SEBASTIAN The Third Eye Centre
9 THOSE DARLINS Blur The Line
10 FUZZ Fuzz
11 SLEIGH BELLS Bitter Rivals
12 POLICA Shulamith
13 DALE EARNHARDT JR. JR. The Speed Of Things
14 HAIM Days Are Gone
15 MAN MAN On Oni Pond
16 FRANKIE ROSE Herein Wild
17 PHANTOGRAM Phantogram [EP]
18 THE BLOW The Blow
19 BEST COAST Fade Away
20 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Blue Record [EP]
21 CHVRCHES The Bones Of What You Believe
22 HEAD AND THE HEART Let’s Be Still
23 RUBBLEBUCKET Save Charlie [EP]
24 OBITS Bed And Bugs
25 MAZZY STAR Seasons Of Your Day
26 CHELSEA WOLFE Pain Is Beauty
27 DISMEMBERMENT PLAN Uncanney Valley
28 COURTNEY BARNETT The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas
29 ALBERT HAMMOND JR. AHJ
30 VOLCANO CHOIR Repave
Dance Sounds From The Underground – Part 1
By Chris Burrell
Untz, untz, untz, untz…
It’s been nearly impossible to ignore the proliferation of dance music in America over the past few years.
For better or worse, the massive commercial success of EDM has elevated the DJ to rock star status and spawned quite a polarizing dialogue about the state of dance music in the US. While some of this success has given America a bad rap in the dance community (re: Paris Hilton, Pauly D, Molly), let us not forget that before EDM was a ubiquitous acronym, Chicago and Detroit birthed house and techno music respectively.
Regardless of your stance on the uptick of neon-clad sunglasses at night fist pumpers, it’s hard to argue that the bright spotlight on dance music has afforded some highly talented artists an avenue to reach a much wider audience than ever before. With now household names such as Fool’s Gold, Mad Decent, Brainfeeder, DFA, and Ghostly having been major innovators in a variety of dance scenes for years, this blog-o-series serves to give a little shine to some lesser-known ‘Merican labels that are seriously holding it down.
From Brooklyn to LA and Detroit to Miami, stay tuned to this space for the 411 on the American dance music underground through the lens of its most excellent labels. The first post in this series highlights two fantastic and extremely diverse vinyl focused labels from the left and right coasts.
Also, check out the Rhythm Method on Thursday nights from 9-11 PM EST to hear some of these releases being spun on the airwaves by yours truly, @CrispyChrisX.
Continue reading “Dance Sounds From The Underground – Part 1”
Concert Review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor (October 16, 2013)
By Jonathan Plotkin
Let’s just get this out of the way now: I don’t listen to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. My friends have told me all about them and I’ve seen that scene in 28 Days Later that uses one of their songs to show the utter hopelessness of waking up in a post-apocalyptic world. But save for the one time I heard Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven while driving my friend back from New York, I’ve heard more about them then I’ve actually heard them. So when I saw them on on Wednesday I really had no idea what to expect.
Post rock, much like prog rock, is a genre I’ve always wanted to get into but never got around to doing so, mainly because the songs are so long and dense. That doesn’t stop me from reading about post rock while I should be doing homework though so I have a good idea about what the genre means. I always hear it described as “music for the Apocalypse” or “the soundtrack to the end of the world.” This has colored my opinion of the genre, but it’s more like looking through a foggy window instead of just walking outside and climbing some trees.
Continue reading “Concert Review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor (October 16, 2013)”
Top Played Artists 10/22 – 10/28
1 OF MONTREAL Lousy With Sylvianbriar
2 DEER TICK Negativity
3 YUCK Glow And Behold
4 DR. DOG B-Room
5 KING KRULE 6 Feet Beneath The Moon
6 PARQUET COURTS Tally All The Things That You Broke [EP]
7 SLEIGH BELLS Bitter Rivals
8 FRANKIE ROSE Herein Wild
9 THOSE DARLINS Blur The Line
10 KEVIN DEVINE Bubblegum
11 MAN MAN On Oni Pond
12 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Blue Record [EP]
13 OBITS Bed And Bugs
14 FLATLINERS Dead Language
15 BELLE AND SEBASTIAN The Third Eye Centre
16 BEST COAST Fade Away
17 CHVRCHES The Bones Of What You Believe
18 THE BLOW The Blow
19 RUBBLEBUCKET Save Charlie [EP]
20 CHELSEA WOLFE Pain Is Beauty
21 ELF POWER Sunlight On The Moon
22 NO AGE An Object
23 RJD2 More Is Than Isn’t
24 ST. LUCIA When The Night
25 MGMT MGMT
26 CRYSTAL STILTS Nature Noir
27 SUPERCHUNK I Hate Music
28 TIM KASHER Adult Film
29 TOUCHE AMORE Is Survived By
30 WASHED OUT Paracosm
Surfer Blood talk Halloween costumes, flax crackers, and haunted practice spaces.
We spoke with Surfer Blood members John Paul Pitts, Thomas Fekte, Tyler Schwarz, and Kevin Williams before their midnight show at the TLA on October 4th. Read below to find out about new obstacles they encountered moving onto a major label, their favorite horror movie, and what they’re thinking of dressing up as for Halloween.
Shannen: How did you guys all meet?
JP: Well, we’re all from the same town; we all grew up there at least. We went to high school there, and we were all playing in bands that were a little bit left of center. We all were sort of aware of each other and what we were doing, and yeah, I mean one day we started recording demos of some of the Surfer Blood songs. It wasn’t really serious and I guess Tom heard it and brought it up to me that he’d like to play guitar.
Shannen: Do you remember what some of those first songs were?
JP: A lot of the songs ended up on Astro Coast, our first record. I don’t think it was ever really supposed to be a proper record or anything, it was just something that we started and I felt really, really compelled to finish. So yeah, some of those songs ended up on the record later.
TF: I think the first song that I had heard was “Fast Jabroni”. That was a really early one that you guys had written.
TS: There are some demos that we’ve never even put out that I have on my computer. Well my laptop was stolen, so I must have lost some of them, but we had some kind of pirate-sounding songs.
Shannen: I think you guys tweeted the other day that you recorded on a Dell. Was that the laptop that got stolen?
TF: Yeah, I tweeted a really ridiculous run-on sentence that was ranting about Macintosh, even though I have nothing against Mac. I was just basically saying you don’t have to have a Mac, and we made a record on a Dell.
JP: There is so much digital noise on that record, though. If you listen closely there are so many parts where it’s just like (makes noise).
Continue reading “Surfer Blood talk Halloween costumes, flax crackers, and haunted practice spaces.”
Top Played Artists 10/14 – 10/22
1 DR. DOG B-Room
2 DEER TICK Negativity
3 OF MONTREAL Lousy With Sylvianbriar
4 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Blue Record [EP]
5 FLATLINERS Dead Language
6 YUCK Glow And Behold
7 MAN MAN On Oni Pond
8 HAIM Days Are Gone
9 THOSE DARLINS Blur The Line
10 BELLE AND SEBASTIAN The Third Eye Centre
11 NO AGE An Object
12 CHVRCHES The Bones Of What You Believe
13 SLEIGH BELLS Bitter Rivals
14 KING KRULE 6 Feet Beneath The Moon
15 RJD2 More Is Than Isn’t
16 OBITS Bed And Bugs
17 SUPERCHUNK I Hate Music
18 SEBADOH Defend Yourself
19 RUBBLEBUCKET Save Charlie [EP]
20 HUNX AND HIS PUNX Street Punk
21 DIARRHEA PLANET I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dream
22 FOOTBALL, ETC. Audible
23 WASHED OUT Paracosm
24 MODERAT II Mute
25 VOLCANO CHOIR Repave
26 ISLANDS Ski Mask
27 PORCELAIN RAFT Permanent Signal
28 CROCODILES Crimes Of Passion
29 BEST COAST Fade Away
30 JAGWAR MA Howlin’
Top Played Artists 10/2/2013 – 10/9/2013
1 DEER TICK Negativity (Partisan)
2 MAN MAN On Oni Pond (Anti)
3 DR. DOG B-Room (Anti)
4 NO AGE An Object (SUB POP)
5 BELLE AND SEBASTIAN The Third Eye Centre (Matador)
6 SUPERCHUNK I Hate Music (Merge)
7 CROCODILES Crimes Of Passion (Frenchkiss)
8 PORCELAIN RAFT Permanent Signal (Secretly Canadian)
9 FLATLINERS Dead Language (Fat Wreck Chords)
10 PAPER KITES States (Nettwerk)
11 HUNX AND HIS PUNX Street Punk (Hardly Art)
12 FOOTBALL, ETC. Audible (Count Your Lucky Stars)
13 TY SEGALL Sleeper (Drag City)
14 YUCK Glow And Behold (Fat Possum)
15 DIARRHEA PLANET I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams (Infinity Cat)
16 OBITS Bed And Bugs (SUB POP)
17 ALUNAGEORGE Body Music (Vagrant)
18 WASHED OUT Paracosm (SUB POP)
19 VOLCANO CHOIR Repave (Jagjaguwar)
20 DIANA Perpetual Surrender (Jagjaguwar)
21 MGMT MGMT (Columbia)
22 NIGHTMARES ON WAX Feelin’ Good (Warp)
23 LEMURIA The Distance Is So Big (Bridge Nine)
24 WEEKEND Jinx (Slumberland)
25 ISLANDS Ski Mask (Manque)
26 RUBBLEBUCKET Save Charlie [EP] (Communion)
27 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Blue Record [EP] (Jagjaguwar)
28 JAGWAR MA Howlin’ (Mom And Pop)
29 MINKS Tides End (Captured Tracks)
30 ELF POWER Sunlight On The Moon (Orange Twin)