21-year-old English major and board game enthusiast Amelia Day has brought the Pacific Northwest music scene down to Nashville, TN. A student at the Blair School of Music and resident…
Last week, Beach Bunny dropped their newest single, “Oxygen” and yet again, they have managed to musically capture exactly what it feels like to have a crush. As cuffing season…
Hip-hop producer Daniel Alan Manam a.k.a The Alchemist has a long and prolific career to his name. Since his start in the late ’90s, The Alchemist has been making beats…
Three things in this life are certain: death, taxes, and the fact that Pitchfork Music Festival will boast the most eclectic, value-packed lineup of the year. In 2019, this proves…
Dropping at this very moment, WRVU has the great pleasure of releasing Lucy DK’s premiere music video, “Drama”! Inspired by the stigma that surrounds women who challenge problematic aspects of relationships, this song encompasses the frustration women experience when labeled as “drama queen,” “crazy ex,” and “psycho bitch.” Especially prevalent for women of color, this stigma reduces the autonomy individuals have over their own relationships and image in society. This song serves as a rejection of toxic individuals from one’s life, and as an acceptance of one’s own emotions, experiences, and identity. The video takes features a dual narrative, encompassing how women who face this stigma are viewed in society. One narrative stars Lucy as an actress in staged production, where she is portrayed as psycho and met with audience disapproval. The second serves as a parallel to the first, but in a completely unstated setting. It stars her trying to navigate her own life and relationships in a completely real and vulnerable fashion.
This past weekend I had the absolute thrill of attending the first ever Breakaway Nashville. Typically held in Ohio, North Carolina, and Michigan, this was the first year the festival headed to Music City. The festival was Friday and Saturday and we were fortunate enough to attend each day, listening to a variety of different artists. And while the festival still has a few kinks it must work out (naturally, as it was the first one), I believe this is such a great step for the live music scene in Nashville. The festival featured one main stage silhouetted by the Nashville skyline, with 18 different artists as well as a Silent Disco tent that raged throughout the day with multiple acts. Here are some of the highlights of the festival.
We caught up with Whitney’s Julien Ehrlich to talk about their upcoming tour kicking off tomorrow in Nashville, pre-show rituals, the next LP, and an exciting collection of demos to be released in November.
You want Lorde tickets. We know. Here’s the first clue: Where are you most likely to find melodrama on campus? Go to that location to find the next clue! Oh, and…
With another month, comes another wave of new singles and album announcements. Explore some of February’s highlights and preview upcoming LPs with this selected list of new songs, courtesy of evolving artistic landscapes.
With BUKU fast approaching, we at WRVU would like to highlight some of our favorite acts performing in New Orleans.
The lineup this year is as strong as it is diverse. It’s a deep lineup, but the headliners are no scrubs.
Alejandro Rose-Garcia, better known by stage name Shakey Graves, has long since been an Austin icon. A self-proclaimed ‘Texas gentleman,’ his prophetic lyrics and unapologetic DIY sound have earned his catalog regard as one of folk-rock’s greats. His signature suitcase kick drum, perfectly homemade and casual, epitomizes the distinctive one-man band style of his past recordings and live performances. Undeniably, Rose-Garcia has come a long way from those early days of Bandcamp releases and solo shows. The 2014 drop of album And the War Came marked the beginning of his transition to a more polished sound and filled out live set, of which he shared his thoughts on while opening for City and Colour in June of 2016. “There’s nothing wrong with needing a little help from your friends,” he explained. Although the recent re-release of The Donor Blues and Nobody’s Fool EPs one summer later seemed to indicate a potential return to his earlier bedroom style, upcoming record Can’t Wake Up suggests the contrary.
There’s no denying that Soundcloud has become the birthing ground for new hiphop artists. Some of the biggest names today, Chance the Rapper and Lil Uzi Vert to name two, began their record-breaking careers on the platform. Soundcloud’s accessibility has made it easier than ever to enter the game, but just as easy to be buried under a million other users (talented or not). How do you set yourself apart? Lil Pump’s Answer:
‘ESSKEETIT’
It took Rolling Loud Festival less than three years to become the largest Hip-Hop festival in the world. After three consecutive sold out festivals in Miami, FL, co-founders Tariq Cherif…
I think it is safe to say that we all had that one band at one point in our lives that really got us into music. The one band that made us go, “Wow, so that’s how listening to music is supposed to feel.” For me, it was Arctic Monkeys. When I was in high school, I used to go to my local library to rent CDs and burn them onto my computer (sorry, iTunes). One of the first albums I obtained was Arctic Monkeys’ first full length debut, “Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not” (among other gems, including “Is This It?” by The Strokes and “The Queen is Dead” by The Smiths). That album, and the subsequent ones that I devoured later, became the soundtrack to my high school experience; my go-to answer to the feared “what’s your favorite band?” question.
Winners of WRVU’s 2014 Album of the Year Contest, rap duo Run the Jewels has been no stranger to critical acclaim since the release of Run the Jewels 2 last year. Killer Mike and El-P have not dropped any new material since then, but are set to release a remix album sometime in September. Meow the Jewels, the idiosyncratic remix of Run the Jewels 2 fans have been waiting months to listen to, will feature the duo rapping their lyrics over cat noises. Just this week, Run the Jewels gave a little sneak-peak into the album with “Oh My Darling Don’t Meow”, a play on “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry”.
Last Sunday I hosted a phone interview with Neat—a lo-fi, punk band from Southern Louisiana. Neat’s unrelenting fuzzy sound and rich guitar harmonies bring us back to a time when…
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.
Beck has been in extended hiatus since 2008’s Modern Guilt. Of course, he hasn’t been entirely dormant; he’s been producing, working on his own label, collaborating with people as diverse as Jack White and Phillip Glass, and releasing new songs in the form of sheet music. Beck is to release his first LP in six years, Morning Phase — a spiritual successor to 2002’s Sea Change recorded with many of the same musicians — this Friday, and has already released two songs from the album: “Blue Moon” and “Waking Light”. Let’s take a look.
Photo courtesy of Neatorama.
Next week is easily the best week of music releases so far this year. While most weeks may have one or two big releases, this next week has so many interesting listens for fans of all genres, a few of which have me giddy in anticipation.
Here’s just a sample of the smaller releases coming this week. For jazz/hip-hop fans, you have pianist Robert Glasper’s Black Radio 2, the sequel to his smooth album Black Radio featuring guest spots from Jill Scott, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Norah Jones, and more. For you Odd Future fans, Mellowhype drops their new album on Halloween. For hip-hop heads who want to look outside the Americas, UK synth-funk hip-hop group band Paper Tiger (not to be confused with the incredible Minneapolis producer/Doomtree affiliate of the same name) has a new album coming. Metal fans can check out new albums from Toxic Holocaust and Skeletonwitch. Garage-rock/soul/funk-rock fans can feast their ears on the new album from White Denim. And those are just the smaller cool releases I wanted to highlight. Here are the top 5 reasons that the 29th of October is going to be a quite exciting day in music.
We already know it’s wrong to friendzone Biz Markie. As the precursor to the post-quake. This blogger offers 5 more reasons why.