Per recommendation from a friend, I recently decided to check out Black Mountain and, more specifically, the band’s fourth studio album, aptly titled IV. Released on Jagjaguwar, the Canadian band’s fourth album truly reminds me why I fell in love with space rock back in high school. The album is jam-filled, spaced-out, and altogether trippy at times, but it also has some really great in-your-face guitar riffs worth mentioning.
“I’m twenty, washed up already,” Frankie Cosmos proclaims in the aptly-named “I’m 20,” the eighth track off her newest release, Next Thing. With poignantly simple lyrics that paint her persona as one fearful of being a corporate sellout, “I’m 20” most notably marks a transition point in both Greta Kline’s latest album and in her career as Frankie Cosmos—marking a kind of profound recognition as she fears it’s happening, rather than after the fact. With words that touch on the flirtatiousness of being playfully young and also scared of not being young, Frankie Cosmos’ Next Thing is a monument of youth and its fading, and adds tremendously to her body of work, showcasing both consistency and novelty.
Rap’s vitality has always been a condition of it being dynamic; rappers come up, styles are birthed, stolen, recycled and then tossed aside. The new stuff rises to the top while remaining indebted to the old at the same time. The resultant mixture is perfect, in a sense, as both listeners and rappers are constantly kept on their toes, and new sounds are abundant. If only someone would come around ever once in awhile and offer some perspective and observation on rap’s current sounds, lyrical trends, and subject matter though.
Last Tuesday marked Yo La Tengo’s triumphant return to Nashville at Exit/In with a concert that was likely one of the biggest genre-rollercoasters of a set I’ve ever seen. Through the band’s decades of genre-bending with their largely varied discography, I couldn’t expect the show to be any different, and it didn’t disappoint.
Omar Moctar, aka Bombino and his band are men of action. No introduction. No witty banter. The band just played, brilliantly.
By Sammy Spencer and Bo Kennedy
This year’s Okeechobee Music Festival, held on Lake Okeechobee in Southern Florida, exceeded all of my expectations for a first year music festival. I arrived late on Friday night due to exams, and set up camp that night already feeling a strong positive energy throughout the site. The next day was a whirlwind of amazing experiences, enhanced by the unbelievable art and music that Okeechobee had to offer.
British indie singer Birdy released her third album last week. Beautiful Lies features her January single “Keeping Your Head Up,” and follows The Fire Within and her self-titled debut album Birdy.
April Fools’ Day is only two days off now. Most people I know think it’s a pretty underwhelming holiday, really, unless you’re my parents, who decided to get married on April Fools’ Day. For a holiday that’s at least 800 years old and was mentioned in The Canterbury Tales, the day is typically only a series of annoyances — failed pranks, jokes that are simply mean, and friends who tell you horrifically tragic news before undercutting it with an exuberant “April fools!”
Lake Street has deservedly skyrocketed in worldwide fame ever since their live, stripped-down cover of the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” filmed on a Boston street corner went viral. Mixing old-school pop with jazz, blues, and soul influences, the group caters to the indie pop-rock loving fan who loves a taste of nostalgia in their ears.
Quilt, the band, not the blanket, released their third studio album Plaza last month. Along with their new album, this quirky trio released a commentary album, which you can find on Spotify. Bandmembers Anna Fox Rochinski, Shane Butler and John Andrews talk about the meaning/influences of each song on Plaza, giving a rare insight into their creative processes. So far, “Roller” is my favorite track of the album. The music video (see above), like Quilt’s music, is both fascinating and puzzling.
(Image Credit: BrooklynVegan)
Within a minute of Lost Time’s opener “Dana Katherine Scully,” it’s clear that Seattle-based candy-coated punk/pop/surf feminists Tacocat are doubling down on the most infectious elements of their sound. On their last full-length, 2014’s NVM, Tacocat developed their compelling craft of tackling often-unaddressed and/or feminist topics with sugary pop melodies and distorted surf guitars on cuts like the phenomenally period-positive surf rock party of “Crimson Wave.”
It’s finally spring here at Vanderbilt. The air is brimming with pollen, day parties have commenced, and everyone’s excited for Vanderbilt’s annual spring music festival. This year’s lineup is incredibly diverse: from electronic beat-maker Porter Robinson to comedic rapper Lil Dicky, there’s bound to be an artist for everyone’s tastes this year. With Rites of Spring just around the corner, it’s always a good idea to get to know the artists a bit in advance. So, check out the synopsis of this year’s lineup below.
When Sufjan Stevens sings with raw vulnerability about “Death with Dignity,” or Alex G warbles about “Thorns,” or Frankie Cosmos draws you in with “Sad 2,” or King Krule weeps with deep-voiced, buttery droning through “Bleak Bake,” you are being sold an emotion just as much as a song. Naturally, a degree of sadness can be a fuel for inspiration, pushing artists into more creative realms, donating their hurting to public consumption—offering a source of relatability for the general populace, giving us solace in melancholy solidarity. Sad songs, then, are incredibly important: sobbing in the depths of the saddest song you can find on your Spotify playlist is often an unmatched catharsis. Sadness sells, and often is mutually beneficial for consumer and producer alike.
It would appear that vinyls are not nearly as old fashioned as my grandfather would have me believe. Earlier this week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) released the statistics from the past year and the sale of vinyls for 2015 was the highest it has been since 1988. The sales brought in a total of $416 million, a small fraction of the $7 billion the entire industry brings in. However, what’s notable is that vinyls, the old men of the music world, surpassed free streaming, which only made $385.1 million last year.
Last year in December, Ratking member Wiki blessed us with Lil Me, a free album that ran 17 tracks deep and featured some glorious rapping over excellent production from the likes of Sporting Life, Black Mack, KAYTRANADA, and more.
I spent a lot of time this past weekend stalking the Instagram accounts of several of my favorite bands that happened to be playing at SXSW. It was a bit of a depressing experience, both because I was at the time stuck in Featheringill trying to study for a test and because I currently do not have the money to spend on a large music festival experience. That being said, there are a ton of music festivals that are driving distance from Nashville that are cheaper and still offer great lineups. So if you’re bummed about missing Coachella or Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza, check out these awesome festivals coming up this summer.
I just got back from a spring break road trip from Nashville to the Grand Canyon, which included way too much sitting in my friend’s car. Whether it was driving for hours and hours on endless country roads or sitting in the passenger seat while traveling across the entirety of Kansas, road trip songs definitely kept me sane. The following playlist was one of the many I made for the 48 hour drive there and back, and I used songs by ODESZA only.
Before I even start reviewing Mac Sabbath’s appearance at Exit/In, let me just say this – there are some things that you can’t just make up. This entire show was one of those things. For those not familiar with Mac Sabbath, the parody metal band was formed in 2014 in Los Angeles by people whom I can only imagine are really interesting underneath their costumes. Formed as a way to protest a certain fast food chain (and fast food in general), the band takes Black Sabbath songs and changes the lyrics to center around this certain chain’s food and imagery. According to the band, they are from a “delicate part of the space time continuum,” and the group consists of Ronald Osbourne (vocals), Slayer McCheeze (guitar), Grimalice (bass), and the Catburglar (drums). Again, I just can’t make this stuff up.
On Sunday March 13th, Ra Ra Riot graced Nashville with an lively performance at Exit/In. The crowd cheered the band into a two song encore, causing the show to end well after midnight. I can honestly say it was the most fun I’ve had on a Sunday night in quite a while. Opening for the band was PWR BTTM, a queer punk duo (their words, not mine) and Sun Club, a psychedelic indie band which describes themselves as “a group of buddies playing happy music.” Both were great, but I particularly enjoyed PWR BTTM (I suggest you look up their single “I Wanna Boi.”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh3s0Bl5k4Q
Note: This interview took place just prior to the anonymous accusation of sexual misconduct against Evan Stephens Hall, the details of which are murky as of this time. We do not at all endorse or condone any inappropriate or coercive behavior on the part of bands we’ve interviewed. Read our full statement here.
Café Coco isn’t normally the go-to venue for bands as suddenly popular as Pinegrove. Though they easily could have filled Exit/In next door—where their friends, the edgy punk duo PWR BTTM, were coincidentally playing tonight—they instead packed Coco, where eager fans filled the space with anticipatory energy.
As a composer, people often ask what my favorite piece of music is – the one that affected me the most, the one that made me feel things I hadn’t before, the one that when I heard it I knew what I had to do with my life. I remember one day last fall that question was posed in my Intro to Composition class, to a room of mostly composition majors. Everyone in the room called to mind immediately their first exposure to Mahler, or their first bout with Bach or Beethoven or Brahms. As a composer I know I “should” love these great composers and be deeply affected by their expertise and power – and I do, and I am. But the piece that has most deeply affected me, the one that makes me sure of exactly why I chose to study to be an artist, and the one with which I responded in class was “Life On Mars?” by David Bowie. This song is, without hesitation, my Mahler Five, my Beethoven Nine, my Rite of Spring. But its impact on me (as well as Bowie’s impact) stretches back years before I ever decided to compose.