You might not know a single Modern Lovers song. You might not know who Jonathan Richman it. It's perfectly understandable. History has a maddening tendency to distill things down to the popular and overlook the significant. Richman and the Modern Lovers could have been popular, though. They secured a recording contract with Warner Bros in... Continue Reading →
Hell hath no fury like two clowns in a porta-potty. If you don't believe me, watch for yourself. Clown Core is likely a side project for drummer Louis Cole (also in the band KNOWER) and saxophonist Sam Gendel, who has collaborated with KNOWER in the recent past. The live YouTube version of KNOWER's track "Overtime"... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "It's All Good" "Something for Your M.I.N.D" "Nobody Cares" One email was all it took to launch Superorganism into the limelight. Orono received an instrumental from some musical friends in London. In her boarding school dorm room, she wrote and recorded a vocal track on her "shitty" Macbook Air. She sent it... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "30" "Nip Tuck" "Just Shut the Fuck Up for Once, Please. . . Holy Shit" "I don't even need a pen, just adrenaline," Fukkit declares on his track, "Airplane Mode." It's a fitting way to describe his approach; his quicksilver, staccato delivery sounds spontaneous and full of youth. Despite his strong presence... Continue Reading →
It's got soul. The groove is sleek. The melody is immediate and sensual. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of a woman aching for love she's never felt. The kicker: it all happens in 21 seconds. Detroit beatsmith Joey Pecoraro creates a full song's worth of tension and resolution in a fraction of the time by... Continue Reading →
Some of my most satisfying bouts of laughter came when I heard a bizarre song for the first time. Whether it be an unexpected turn of phrase, an abrupt musical transition, or anything else out of the ordinary, artists don't get enough credit for effectively embedding humor into songs. I think purposeful comedy in music... Continue Reading →
"Must Hear" Tracks: "GUMMO" "CHOCOLATE" In the name of hype, how much are we willing to overlook? For 6ix9ine (Daniel Hernandez), apparently the answer to that question is "quite a bit." The 21 year old Bushwick rapper has a laundry list of reasons to stop listening to him. In 2015, he filmed a 13 year... Continue Reading →
Sometimes I hear a song that makes me want to cry and smile at the same time. Sounds do that to me far, far more often than people do. The tears aren't sad tears; they come from a feeling of connection. Connection to the song, to being alive, to the artist, to anything. The same... Continue Reading →
2017 was a tense year. We saw "fake news" go viral on an unprecedented level. We saw sexual harassment silence breakers become Time Magazine's "Person of the Year." We saw Harvey Weinstein, President Donald Trump, and others accused of sexual misconduct deny their past actions. Those are just two examples; I'm not even going to... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "Little Dark Age" "When You Die" "Hand It Over" MGMT was an accident. At their first show, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser played the Ghostbusters theme for 45 minutes straight. If that doesn't prove they didn't take themselves seriously, I don't know what does. Their most successful songs were music student pranks,... Continue Reading →
The Healthy Alternative 