Monthly Archives: April 2012

★★★★

Listening to Doug Hoyer’s full-length debut album, I found myself curious about Canada for the first time in my life. Hoyer, the Alberta native, has created a love story of sorts in Walks with the Tender and Growing Night, part ode to his beloved country, part celebration of all that is young and carefree. I do not think I have ever felt more of an urge to visit Canadia, land of elk and maple syrup, since his album mesmerized me into thinking the trip might just be worth it. Walks reminds me a lot of childhood: a wide-eyed, unabashed outlook on life suffuses Hoyer’s songs. Frankly, the tunes are fun, easy listening, and best of all, the charming quirkiness of his lyrics will make you want to play the album over and over. I promise you won’t get bored. Read More »

Last Friday night, Dahlgren Quad was full of couples in tuxes and gowns snapping photos on their way to Dip Ball. And they were lucky that we dragged DC’s own Lightfoot outside to set up shop on top of the fountain for some impromptu serenading. Led by the strong voice of singer-songwriter Jessica Louise Dye, Lightfoot pared down its numbers to a folky, earnest sound with just a couple of guitars and a trumpet–accompanied also at points by the bells from Healy’s clock tower and many, many planes en route to Reagan. Take a listen to four originals as well as a killer cover of Hall and Oates’ “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” after the jump!

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Every Sunday at 10 AM, WGTB’s very own Angus Sutherland explains the specialist of special relationships – the one between the UK and the US. We couldn’t resist featuring The Special Relationship as SotW  because it is just that special. And by special, we mean awesome.

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★★★1/2

If Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Devandra Banhart, and Lavender Diamond came together to create a musical baby (album), out would come the Bowerbirds’ third album, The Clearing. The trio’s latest album packs a much greater punch than their first two in terms of instrumentation and lyrical quality. The Clearing, however, sounds much more like an album produced by an indie-rock band rather than a freaky-folk band, like Bowerbirds. Read More »

Canadian musician Afie Jurvanen, going by the stage name Bahamas, makes the sort of breezy music his moniker suggests. His second album, Barchords, is a lot like a vacation to the Bahamas; there are some highlights of the trip, but for the most part the memories are a pleasant blur. Read More »

I’ve rarely felt so many different ways about a single album. Swedish indie pop band Miike Snow’s sophomore release on Downtown Records, Happy to You, leaves a different impression each time you hear it, and I still can’t decide if that’s good or bad, or why it’s even so.

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The magic of The Lumineers’s self-titled full-length debut is not that it is foot-stomping, smile-inducing, heart-swelling music. It is all of those things, but the magic of it is that they manage to accomplish this with such earnest simplicity. This folk trio, comprised of Wesley Schultz, Jeremiah Fraites and Neyla Pekarek quite simply makes good music.

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