Kendrick Lamar's third album, 'To Pimp a Butterfly', is monumental

March 22, 2015

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is a confrontational affair, and the initial response from the general public reflected that. As one of the most commercially successful and critically lauded rappers of the 21st century, looking to follow up 2012’s classic-in-its-own-right Good Kid M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar bravely ensured that To Pimp a Butterfly was too dense to take in with just a listen or two. Infinite tweets, reviews, and “thinkpieces” have attempted to pick this piece of art to the bone, but not a single one will do this labyrinth of cultural and personal meditation justice.

Kendrick Lamar's third album, To Pimp a Butterfly, is monumental
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ had a surprise early release last week

Houndmouth Delivers With Second Album

March 22, 2015

If you were to travel back in time to the year 1968 and cryogenically freeze the guys of The Band, only to wake them up in the year 2015, you’d probably find them hanging out with the members of Houndmouth. Both groups are harmony heavy, folk-funk powerhouses. While The Band spent a whole bunch of years touring with legends like Bob Dylan, and recording a massive repertoire of legendary jams, Houndmouth is just now coming up out of Indiana with their second album, Little Neon Limelight, dropping on Rough Trade earlier this week.

Houndmouth-Sedona

Twin Shadow Shifts Closer Towards Pop Immediacy

March 20, 2015

In retrospect, Twin Shadow/George Lewis Jr. always belonged on a major label, though this wasn’t obvious at the time of his 2010 new-wave-revival debut, Forget. On Forget, retro guitars and a lo-fi drum machine kept Twin Shadow grounded in New Order’s more restrained brand of new wave instead of something flashier. Also like a New Order single, nearly every song on Forget reached for lasting vocal melodies. Songs like “At My Heels” and “Slow” were slick ‘80s style exercises in part, but the striking vocalist and memorable choruses left the lasting impression. Twin Shadow’s next album Confess (2012) honed in on these features and jettisoned potential distractions. While some missed the relative subtlety of Forget, this kind of pop music can benefit from directness. The intoxicating “This isn’t loooooove” on “Run My Heart”, “Five Seconds” with its “can’t get to your heart…”, “Golden Light”: Confess blew relationship feelings into massive proportion. If Forget is the Breakfast Club kids developing meaningful ‘80s connections, Confess is John Cusack in your yard with a boombox.

Twin Shadow's third album is his first on a major label
Twin Shadow’s third album, Eclipse, is his first on a major label

We are all Modular’s People

March 20, 2015

Upon finding out that Tame Impala had released a new single for their upcoming album (whose name remains unknown), I just had to jump at the chance to see them (again) on their new tour. A friend asked me, how did you know about Tame Impala so early on? I thought about it for a little bit until the light bulb went off on my head. My answer was: Modular People.

Hozier Takes Nashville to Church

March 18, 2015

 hozier

This past week, Hozier literally took thousands of fans to the Mother Church of Country Music, also known as Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. I was lucky enough to attend one of his three sold out shows at the Ryman, and as I’m sure anyone else who was in attendance will agree, it was an incredible show. After a great set by opening act George Ezra, Hozier opened with a few of his more upbeat songs – “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene,” “From Eden,” and “Jackie and Wilson.” Each of these songs generated an even stronger and louder reaction from the audience. His next song, “Someone New,” received even more excitement than the songs preceding it, likely because of its recently released music video featuring Natalie Dormer from Game of Thrones (the video, released in early March, already has over 4 million views).

“Blurred Lines” in Copyright Verdict?

March 15, 2015

As many of you may already be aware, a landmark decision was made this past Tuesday when artists Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams lost a lawsuit to the estate of Marvin Gaye regarding copyright infringement. According to the verdict of the case, the hit song “Blurred Lines” was too similar to Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give it Up”. Thicke and Williams have been told to pay $7.3 million dollars in damages to Gaye’s estate. Right now, their lawyers have gone on the record to say that they are appealing this decision. Their appeal will be predominately based on the fact that jurors were instructed by the judge to only compare the sheet music between the two songs, a comparison that Thicke and William’s legal team believes does not encompass the true feel of both songs.

Here’s a mashup of the two songs in case you need some reference for comparison:

Modest Mouse Returns with the Satisfying Strangers to Ourselves

March 14, 2015

In the first seven years of the new millennium, Modest Mouse released their most critically acclaimed album The Moon and Antarctica (2000), their most popular song “Float On” (2004), and an album that reached #1 on the Billboard 200, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007). In the seven years since that impressive run, the band has been relatively silent, with only sporadic festival appearances, a b-side EP, and promises of collaborations with Outkast’s Big Boi to remind us Modest Mouse was still a thing. After years of tantalizing rumors and false alarms, Modest Mouse is back for real with Strangers to Ourselves.

Cover art for upcoming Modest Mouse album
Strangers to Ourselves is Modest Mouse’s first album in eight years.

Better With Age: 4 Albums to Consider

March 14, 2015

Like a fine wine or high-quality bourbon, some albums just seem to get better and better–some get better with multiple listens, some get better because they were too ahead of their time, and some get better because they exist completely outside of time. Here are a few albums that, if you haven’t heard them in a while, should be given another few listens.

Years & Years is Electrifying Britain. Next Stop, America.

March 12, 2015

 

Years & Years plays at London club Heaven, 3/6/15.
Years & Years plays at London club Heaven, 3/6/15.

Like my colleague Brandon Bout, I made sure to catch a live show over Spring Break.  For me, the destination was London and the band was electro-pop trio Years & Years.

I had heard of the group from a fellow Lightning 100 intern in December.  She had spent time working in Britain and assured me that they were on the verge of blowing up across the pond.  Her promise was confirmed when I learned that Years & Years had won the BBC’s prestigious Sound of 2015 poll–an award won in previous years by such acts as Sam Smith, Adele, and Ellie Goulding.  So when I saw that the band would be playing in the British capital during my stay there, I convinced my traveling companions that we needed to go to the concert.

Spending Spring Break with Viet Cong at The Echoplex

March 10, 2015

Recently, a friend of mine has gotten me into Viet Cong, the Canadian post-punk band that just released their self-titled debut album in January.  So when I stayed with that same friend in Los Angeles over Spring Break, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see the band while they were in town at one of LA’s fine venues, The Echoplex, last Friday night.  And what a show it was.  I decided to spontaneously purchase my ticket the same day as the show, and I couldn’t have made a better decision on how to spend my last night in LA.

Trust fund / No one’s coming for us

March 9, 2015

Hey if you’re feeling sad, or maybe only a little sad, or going through some relationship problems, or maybe feeling that life is thwarting your every attempt at happiness or you lost your dog and you can’t find them or you know your dog’s whereabouts and you’re currently playing with them then you need to get on over to Trust fund’s bandcamp page and listen to their new album at least 4 times. Think of it as self-help that actually helps the self. Plus it’s really fun.

Trust fund is from Bristol and is headed by Ellis Jones, a young man who I can only assume is also from Bristol and also seems to be a first-rate lover of dogs, cats, and writing sugary indie pop riffs and melodies. Trust fund also seems to be less of a “band-band” or “solo project” in the traditional sense, and more of a way for Jones to write and perform music with a shifting group of friends. Jones’ songwriting is truly great here, and this is an album where the lyric sheet comes in very handy for two reasons, the first being that Jones’ words are sometimes drowned in noise and the other being that you really want to know what this man is singing. His distinctive, highly pitched voice matches the fast-paced indie pop jams very nicely, and on the slower moments it delivers an extra emotional punch.

(Biased and Preemptive) Top 10 Rap Albums of 2015

February 28, 2015

Real Riff

We live in a world where Riff Raff can make this claim. Does it matter whether he follows through on his Panther Album Series? I personally would download any Riff Raff album or mixtape immediately post-drop, regardless of panther-color and regardless of when it happens. This is what truly matters in hip-hop nowadays: Internet buzz.

Britpop is Barely Breathing

February 27, 2015

A recent article on Pitchfork was published with the bold title “Britpop is Dead: Why Blur’s Comeback Isn’t One.” Blur was once a popular Britpop band, from, you guessed it, Great Britain. As Britpop raged on in the early 1990s, it has steadily declined, but apparently is making a comeback. Using the article as a reference, I intend to examine what the state, or lack thereof, of Britpop really is.

New Digs: Discovering Music in the Internet Age

February 24, 2015

Music hunting is something we all do. Though you might not actively pursue it (but you probably do since you read this blog), you had to find your favorite music somewhere. Whether it came from your friends or from the depths of the internet, your music taste is something you’ve crafted from years of exposure to different sounds and styles.

In the digital age, hunting for music is barely a hunt at all. Whether you turn on the radio, open up your favorite Spotify playlist or Shazam what’s playing on the speakers of your local Starbucks, discovering new music is something everyone can do with ease. With wider exposure to new artists than ever before, anyone has the ability to find songs they love but may not have otherwise found. In recent years, accessibility to new artists and genres is at an all-time high; most of the time, we are inundated with so many new names it’s hard to keep them straight.

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