y = mx + beat: Etymology
A bi-weekly attempt to organize everything we could possibly know [about music] into image form. Because that’s just easier than figuring out words sometimes. Read More »
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Monthly Archives: April 2011
Video: RA the MC and Mercies at WGTB’s Block Party
RA the MC helped us all forget that it was actually only like 3PM. Dimmed lights, sharp lines, and the percussive help of fellow Hoya Ezra Finney all caught on camera for your viewing pleasure. Click through for some footage from Mercies’s energetic set.
The Very Odd Future of Hip-Hop: Tate Tucker, Blue Dreams
Most Georgetown freshman spend their time worrying about the next accounting test (or econ or human bio), making merry at Leo’s and thinking of innovative ways to play drinking games in dorm rooms. I don’t know to what extent Tate Tucker does any of these things, but I’m profoundly impressed that he found the time to put together Blue Dreams, his debut mixtape that dropped Monday. It spent most of the day shooting up the charts on the download site Datpiff, and deservedly so. Replete with fun samples, hooky beats, diverse rhyme schemes and thoughtful lyrics, Blue Dreams appears to be the beginning of something special. Its not as if this tape is just “pretty good for a freshman rapper from Georgetown,” its just really good.
♫ Listen to “Blue Dreams” by Tate Tucker Read More »
Album Review: Cold Cave – Cherish The Light Years
After 2009′s Love Comes Close, Cold Cave returns with stronger vocals, bigger beats and better riffs on its second album, Cherish The Light Years. These songs show a transition has taken place and turned Cold Cave into something greater. This album is intense, exhilarating, ambitious, and pretty damn fantastic. All nine tracks are memorable, well-crafted songs that mark the band’s growth.
Album Review: Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s newest album, Belong, comes out tomorrow (March 29, 2011), their second album after their self-titled debut album in 2009. The sugary ten-track record is definitely a coherent, listen-through-the-whole-thing ordeal, which differs from their last album, peppered with hits. Overall, the album has a London-rock flavor to it, though a little more poppy and a little less leather jackets and Ramones-mullets.
WGTB’s Block Party: It’s Not Over Til It’s Over! Photos And One Last Rescued Video
Well, it is over. But it was fantastic! Thanks to all who made it out to Bulldog Alley, even in the rain, on Saturday for our first ever Block Party concert featuring killers sets from Reptar, RA the MC, Mercies and Get A Tan. We didn’t have sunshine and burgers, but we did have Sunshine and pizza, as well as face painting from GU Art Aficionados, giveaways from The Body Shop, snazzy new WGTB cups, and lots and lots of dancing. Thanks to all who helped make it a success, and to the bands for putting on such rocking sets. WGTB <3s you. Read More »
Road Test: Jeff Tweedy Plays Two for the Road
When frontmen go on solo tours as rumors of new albums swirl, there is a good chance they’ll road-test some possible material on you. These performances used to be intimate moments: an artist sharing something that was, at that point in time, reserved only for those lucky enough to be in the audience. But now that anyone can whip out their phone, press record, and have it uploaded to YouTube by the time the next song begins, these moments have become a little less confidential. And now we’re in on it, too.
Wilco tours almost constantly, and it feels like when they aren’t on the road, frontman Jeff Tweedy is. While the Chicago-based band takes some time out to record its eighth studio album to be released later this summer on its own label, dBpm, Tweedy took a short tour around the Great White North and surrounding states with two new cuts in tow that may or may not give us any sense of the shape LP8 will take. Read More »
Concert Review: LCD Soundsystem and The Strokes
The weekend started on Thursday night, stepping out of a taxi at Union Station and dropping my new iPhone directly under the wheels of a passing bus, which miraculously left it unscathed. Perhaps this is some omen whose meaning I have yet to unravel, or maybe just a testament to Steve Jobs’ brilliance. Regardless, I was on my way up to New York City to spend the weekend seeing two concerts and sustain some well-deserved permanent hearing damage.
I arrived at the Strokes show Friday night in the middle of the opening act, a group of unrecognizable and unremarkable hipsters wearing vintage hats. Minutes after they exited the stage, yet another group of hat-wearing guitar-slingers ran on, saluted the crowd a Happy April fool’s day, and proceeded to play what, to me, sounded like 80’s cover songs. This, as I learned the next day, was Elvis Costello making a surprise appearance to play three songs to a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd. Another 30 minutes and lead singer Julian Casablancas ran to center stage, the crowd erupted with approval, and the show began. Read More »
