Must Hear Tracks: "Czech One" "Vidual" "Half Man Half Shark" King Krule (Archy Marshall) is a remarkably transparent artist. He leaves his listeners all the clues they need to determine where exactly his bizarre blend of alt-rock, hip hop, soul, and jazz comes from. In his Amoeba Records "Whats in My Bag" episode, he selected... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "Nikes" "Ivy" "Nights" "Self Control" "Pink + White" I exit the library and head south. It’s early evening. In the fresh darkness, lightning ripples across a facade of distant clouds. With this stunning view, I cue up Blonde, the newest release from R&B auteur Frank Ocean. “Nikes,” begins and immediately fills the... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "Dang!" (Feat. Anderson .Paak) " "Skin" "Congratulations" (Feat. Bilal) Mac Miller has come a long way since the 2011 album Blue Slide Park. Although that album reached No. 1 on Billboard’s albums chart, it received an abysmal 1.0 out of 10 from Pitchfork. Following his commercial peak, Mac Miller used his popularity... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "Tessellation" "Homage" "Skiptracing" This is the age of the bedroom rock star. Anyone with some ambitious compositions and an eight-track recorder can engineer a demo tape that the masses will stream. Interestingly enough, the artists that gain prominence this way generally have a certain look about them. The longhaired, dirty looking, quiet,... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "Still Here" "Feel No Ways" "One Dance" (feat. Wizkid and Kyla) "Controlla" . . . On April 29th, 2016, Drake said “let there be Views,” and there was Views. The world rejoiced. . . Religious allusions aside, Drake is a larger-than-life pop culture figure. Some proof lies in the hype surrounding the... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "10,000 Emerald Pools" "Electric Love" "Past Lives" I'm not sure whether Marc Bolan would be proud or not, but Garrett Borns (known onstage as BØRNS) certainly did his part to keep glam rock alive in 2015. Borns looks the part, too. With long, wavy brown hair and a thin figure, he admits... Continue Reading →
Tis the season for an endless torrent of top ten lists! I know Pitchfork and Rolling Stone are the heavy hitters and my list is by no means definitive, but I figured it'd be proper for me to be part of the stream. Before we get into this, though, a disclaimer: I haven't listened to... Continue Reading →
Am I allowed to coin a new subgenre? . . . That was rhetorical. I'm doing it either way. It will be called Can-Pop, which is an abbreviation for "Canada Pop," and it will serve as the umbrella term for the delightful pop-leaning slacker rock concocted by Mac Demarco and anyone in his extended musical... Continue Reading →
The last spotlight was made for very specific occasions. Endless White by Flying Lotus is a meditation song, an enveloping sonic experiment. With no structure, melody, or vocals, the song is more of a commodity than a tried and true favorite. This time, I decided to go the other way and choose a song with... Continue Reading →
Do you like Christmas music but hate the garbage radio commercials and the cheesy "timeless classics" that you don't particularly like? What about your collection of 50 Christmas CD's, on which there's only 20 songs you actually want to hear? Boy, do I have news for you: you don't have to deal with it! Spend... Continue Reading →
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