November 2011
8 posts
9 tags
New Grass - Bjork: Biohpilia [2011]
Biophilia is immersive, conceptual, and appealingly distinct — words which aptly characterize all of her albums. But unlike previous efforts, it strives for (and reaches) a concert-hall artistry that holds up as well to academic analysis as it does to pop performance. This could be the first legitimate 360° multimedia record, but the apps, the artwork, the costumes, the...
15 tags
Podcast - On The Road
There’s something inscrutable about traveling music. Its myriad forms are as varied as the scope of music itself, yet paradoxically distinct. Whether you’re on the road as a lone wolf, or as part of a gang of merry pranksters, the right music has the power to solidify a memory forever (so choose wisely).
Fortunately, this blurb is as cheesy as we get. There’s no “On...
7 tags
New Grass - Trash Talk: Awake EP [2011]
I don’t know what it is that makes certain hardcore sound great to me, nor can I even begin to speak to its tangled network of subgenres (power violence? youth crew?), but when something works, it sticks. Trash Talk’s recent EP Awake is like that for me: a ten minute explosion that triggers the primal impulse toward unmitigated chaos.
The record is bookended with its strongest...
7 tags
One Sentence - Lil B: I Got Aids [2011]
With all due respect to the Based God, “full-blown AIDS” is not a clinical term.
-Patrick Shipp
11 tags
Podcast - Women Folk of the 1970s
In Episode 13, we take a look at some of the women folk of the 70s. (See what we did there?) In examining some of the most sophisticated composers of the era, we discuss a couple icons (Joni Mitchell, Mary Travers, Joan Baez) and a few women who don’t always get the credit they deserve (Laura Nyro, Karen Dalton, The McGarrigles).
[stream/download/share.]
13. Women Folk:1970s by...
6 tags
One Sentence - Drake: Take Care
The new Drake album leaked and it sounds like a Drake album.
-Patrick Shipp
9 tags
New Grass - Battles: Gloss Drop [2011]
For today’s Cliché of the Day, we look at every cloud has a silver lining, as applied to Gloss Drop, the most recent record by math-rock megalodons Battles.
In late 2010, the band was midway through the writing process for the followup to 2007’s (immaculate) Mirrored, when lead singer/vocal looper Tyondai Braxton decided to leave the group in order to concentrate on his solo...
8 tags
New Grass - Tom Waits: Bad As Me [2011]
It’s something we think we’ve all heard before: rough but comforting, comical but cynical, playful but serious. But Tom Waits’ new release, Bad as Me, is possibly one of his most diverse albums to date. The way that Waits controls his voice in these particular tracks makes me know I will never tire of his wailing ways.
Bad As Me starts off at a robust pace with...
