Monthly Archives: March 2011

Having officially released their first album just one day before, Middle Brother could not rely on a dedicated fan base to pack the house at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday night. But, even though most people may not have known every word to every song, the buzz generated by the side-project of Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez, Deer Tick’ s John McCauley, and Dawes’s Taylor Goldsmith was plenty to draw a crowd in the middle of the week. McCauley and Goldsmith both pulled double duty opening with their own bands, but it didn’t take long for the band-name barriers to break down into a Last Waltz-esque indie folk free for all.

Read More »

Even though no one likes that guy who always has to be ahead of the proverbial curve of new music, who always liked that new band before they were big, I hope you all seize the opportunity to be up on OFWGKTA—(Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), commonly referred to as Odd Future—before they blow up. If you wait a day or two to read this blog, though I don’t know why you would, you might miss it. Led by their fearless de facto leader, Tyler, The Creator, Odd Future is the biggest new thing in west coast underground hip hop and will soon be the biggest thing in hip hop. Period. Read More »

For the past couple of weeks, the sun has been our enemy. When speed-reading through a half-semester’s worth of articles, valiantly stretching out every sentence to reach that ten-page mark in your paper, and holding your eyes open while downing your fifth cup of coffee, there is nothing more disheartening than watching the sunrise from the prime midterm real-estate of the fourth floor of Lau. Nothing. Except perhaps being stirred awake by the sun’s rays to find yourself face-down in a text book in the Pierce Reading Room hours before your exam. But if you survived midterms, it’s time to make nice with the sunshine. So here are some tunes in honor of this next week of Spring Break: to natural light, to balmy beach getaways, to surfside sojourns, to (if nothing else) sitting at home amongst the snow banks daydreaming of tropical destinations with the heat turned up and a cool drink in hand. Click through to listen!

Read More »

Colin Stetson is your average musician. He’s been playing saxophone for twenty-five years since the age of ten. He grew up in Michigan. He has his own website. He tours and lays down tracks for artists like Bon Iver, Feist, Tom Waits, TV on the Radio, LCD Soundsystem, and most recently the National. Okay, maybe he’s not so average. With his second solo album, New History Warfare Vol. 2, he proves that despite his indie pedigree, he’s out to break the mold. Read More »

Friends, I believe that it’s about that time of year to slow down and experience the cold winter melt away to make way for the coming of the spring’s bright blue skies. Our Canadian indie folk trio, The Rural Alberta Advantage, sing to these same skies about the transience of the moment, and all those things that haunt the soul of folk musicians; falling in and out of love, finding yourself reaching out to those whom you’ve lost over time. Read More »

New York City rapper Beans has long been aptly described as experimental. Both in his role as a founding member of Antipop Consortium and throughout his solo career, he has been known for his unusual, electronica-infused beats and complex, stream-of-consciousness rhyming style. On his fifth solo LP, he is clearly not done experimenting. The intricacy of his beats occupy the full spectrum, from the straightforward “Gluetraps,” which literally consists of a drum machine and two alternating synth tones, to “Blue Movie,” which appears almost randomly thrown together on the first listen because it incorporates more digital instruments than I care to count and can’t seem to decide on a tempo. Read More »