“I’ve never seen you so happy in my life,” said a young woman to her friend as they exited Marathon Music Works on Monday night after the Two Door Cinema Club show. That night the warehouse was packed with millennials who cut class to get there early and had clearly been excited about this show for a long time. Fans above kept the fans below cool as they scrambled to the stage front.
While on a music-deletion rampage sometime last week, I realized that a lot of the albums I downloaded legally purchased ages ago only had roughly 2 or 3 songs on them that I recognized/ever listened to. I gave some of these albums that I originally didn’t like more of a chance to woo me, and on most accounts I was pleasantly surprised.
Roosevelt is a one man project by producer/DJ Marius Lauber of Cologne, Germany. He’s been making music for over 3 years, and recently French powerhouse label Greco Roman, picked him up. His debut album, Roosevelt, was released this August.
(Image courtesy of Consequence of Sound)
Since 2011, Teen Suicide, with Maryland singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sam Ray at the helm, has been fairly consistently lobbing explosive blasts of genre-scattered lo-fi emo/indie pop onto the internet via Bandcamp. Even with all the activity though, and a decent following, the group (mostly the outlet for Ray’s own songs more than a traditional band) “disbanded” in January of 2013, but returned to performing in various capacities by the end of the same year.
A summer album released in the middle of winter, the bright tones and short song constructions present the band’s most accessible album to date. Animal Collective’s tenth studio album, Painting With, is the ‘punchy’ pop album my girlfriend still wouldn’t listen to.
Whether it be the unnaturally warm February weather or the surprisingly (or should I say unsurprisingly) sold out show for a relatively new and developing band, everyone in the jam-packed Mercy Lounge sensed that something big was happening. Chatter was made up of conversation on who is who in the Nashville music scene and the next show people would be attending. Not lost in the conversations was an overwhelming sense of confidence that Kaleo was about to blow up, summed up by a Kentucky native to the right of me who said it was worth the drive and she didn’t think she would see the quartet in such a small, intimate venue ever again. With such a buzz preceding them, the band definitely delivered. Starting with “No Good,” a song picked up for the new HBO original series, Vinyl, the crowd was immediately moving to the blues/rock riffs and grungy vocals.
When I was in high school, a close friend of mine introduced me to the hilarious and often ridiculous wonder that is Ezra Koenig’s twitter. I initially dismissed his posted jokes as self-indulgent banter with a worshipping fan base. But, admittedly, I was intrigued, and started listening to Vampire Weekend. I got almost immediately hooked, and rapidly transformed into a person who listened to their self-titled album and Contra every day after school.
If you’re like me, you routinely neglect responsibilities in favor of going to concerts (or maybe you go to concerts as a reason to neglect responsibilities… um, also guilty). Whether that’s the case or you just need a study break (#treatyoself), definitely check out these concerts that are coming up in the next week.
I feel like I seem to always go to concerts when I’ve gotten minimal to no sleep the night before. This past Tuesday, was no different; when I had finally wrapped up my (incredibly poorly written) lab report at 6 AM after working through the night, I was pretty hesitant about seeing Scottish band CHVRCHES at Marathon Music Works that rainy evening. After a brief hour and a half nap and more cups of coffee than I would like to admit, I decided to forego another couple hours of sleep and make my way to Marathon around 9 PM.
In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that Wavves loves the letter “V”. If Wavves loves the letter “V” so much, why don’t they just marry it? They probably can’t marry it as I imagine it would be pretty difficult to marry a letter. Just think of all the paperwork and legal issues. However, they can still name their latest studio album after the letter.
Although I had heard of Best Coast prior to coming to college, ironically, it wasn’t until I left the west coast that I started to listen to them. Whether it was an actual appreciation for their music or just the nostalgia I felt about my Southern California hometown that piqued my interest, I do not know. Best Coast is technically a duo between lead singer/guitarist Bethany Cosentino and guitarist Bobb Bruno with a few other band members brought in seemingly just for touring. Formed in Los Angeles in 2009, almost every other song they make is an ode to the stereotypical Southern California lifestyle.
At 3pm yesterday, I turned in the final assignment of my college career. Partially to celebrate and partially to distract myself from the terror of facing the adult world, I headed over to Exit/In with my friend Sparling to see Smallpools rock the joint. My sister loves the band and had turned me on to their music, so making her jealous was another great reason to go to the show.
We arrived at 7:30 to find the half-full floor dominated by people without the over-21 hand stamps. Any illusion I had of being able to escape feeling old vanished immediately. Pitying the venue for what promised to be a slow night of alcohol sales, I grabbed a Shiner Bock and snagged a spot in the crowd just behind a couple of girls taking selfies. Naturally, Sparling and I photobombed as many as we could.
If there are two things that we at WRVU care about more than music, they’re chicken wings and tortilla soup. Luckily, the guys in Portugal. The Man feel the same…
Courtney Barnett names her songs things like “Avant Gardener” and calls her backing band “The Courtney Barnetts.” She’s a clever girl. In 2013, her silly word play succeeded in accelerating…
Father John Misty. Probably a fitting moniker for a man who claims to have “discovered” himself while sitting naked, atop an oak tree. Josh Tillman is the real name of the shroomed-out, van-driving, gentleman we came to love in 2012 when he released his hilarious, honky-tonkish debut, Fear Fun.
With his first album as Father John Misty, Tillman came out unadulterated and charmingly honest, a man free of any obligation to take himself seriously. Before that, he was only known as the unenthusiastic drummer of Fleet Foxes, who opened his own shows as folk singer, J. Tillman playing morbidly depressing songs that, frankly, weren’t very good. But Fear Fun marked a transformation for the man. He cast himself as a comedian doing standup at a rock n’ roll concert, and somehow he fit the role. It seemed as if he had finally found what would make his music brilliant: his sense of humor. Something he could surely stick to.
The Decemberists are nothing less than the band that got me into indie rock, albeit in a very non-indie way: back in January of 2009, I was watching a rerun of one of my favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother, “Ted Mosby, Architect”. During the episode’s denouement, as Ted Mosby walks the streets of New York and muses on his relationship woes, the seminal Decemberists’ track “Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect” plays. I’d seen the episode before, but something inside me told me to look up the song this time — and just a month later I had purchased all five of the Decemberists’ LPs (including the newly released The Hazards of Love) and was at the beginning of a relationship that I still find myself in. They’ve provided the soundtrack of my past 6 years, good and bad, and with their new album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World there’s no better time to fall in love with them again — or for the very first time.
Over the past month, Modest Mouse has released two singles off of their highly anticipated upcoming album, Strangers to Ourselves. It has been nearly eight years since the release of their last album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, which was either Modest Mouse’s best album or worse album depending on who you ask. Naturally, there was a lot of excitement and anxiety over the direction Modest Mouse would take with this next album, which warrants us to take a closer look at the releases.
Before the out-of-nowhere snowstorm that caused Interpol to be stranded for 50 hours, I had the pleasure of seeing Interpol at Marathon Music Works on the unusually chilly night of November 11. I went over to the venue and was immediately greeted by a large, excited crowd. What came after definitely did not disappoint and made my Tuesday night go from ordinary to extraordinary.
When you think “punk” it is likely that images of garage bands, spiked hair, and lyrics about anarchy and disestablishment come to mind. However, when you think “reggae” you may conjure up images of the beach, slow beats, and lyrics about peace and love. After taking a closer look, the two seemingly opposite genres are in fact not all that dissimilar. While the two originated in different times and in different ways, they have since been brought together to make some groundbreaking tunes that we now usually refer to as “ska.”
Noah Lennox, who goes by the stage name Panda Bear, has recently released an EP titled Mr. Noah. However, the good news does not stop here. The release of Mr. Noah comes shortly before the anticipated “Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper” album that is due to come out on January 13, 2015. With Panda Bear’s renewed activity in the music industry, I wanted to take time to recount the many accomplishments and upcoming developments of an admirable musician.
November 9th, 2013. Winter was upon us as potential students scurried around campus knocking leafs around the greek row sidewalks with their weathered, leather boots as they toured a campus and a city that might one day become a home to them. Pretending the brisk Nashville temperatures were still fall conditions, I dressed in a thin long sleeve shirt and prepared for the night ahead of me. We had been looking forward to this day for months. American Authors at one of Nashville’s most unique, bursting of character and quite frankly small venues, The End. Thrilled to leave the lonesome cave I’d created of post break-up tears and cheesy rom coms, otherwise known as my room, my friends and I arrived at the venue minutes before the show facing a crowd of no more than 30 people. Lost in chatter and introductions a voice suddenly broke through the noise and stopped me in my tracks. Who was this girl with the powerhouse vocals strong enough to shatter the thoughts of everyone in the room and draw every eye in this small dive club to her luscious hair, small frame and impeccable style? The voice belonged to Mandy Lee, one third of the trio Misterwives hailing from New York City.