This past weekend, Nashville had the pleasure of hosting BJ The Chicago Kid on his 1123 tour at Exit/In. On his tour, BJ was accompanied by Bryant Taylorr, KAMAUU, and…
Jon Bellion, a New York singer-songwriter and rapper, has steadily been gaining fame and success with each successive album that he releases. His five albums have been released over the…
In 1959, an iconoclast guitar player named John Aloysius Fahey released his first album, Blind Joe Death. He released the album independently on his own label, Takoma Records. Over the next…
In an unfiltered 18-minute live video Chi-town rapper Cupcakke announced her retirement from the music industry, citing compulsive gambling and corruptive influence as primary reasons for her emotional decision. Wrapped…
The collaboration “I Need a Forest Fire” by James Blake and Bon Iver opens calmly, with a sustained note that plays quietly in the background as wispy melody fluctuates around…
By the end of 2017, Claire Cottrill had gone viral with her lo-fi bedroom pop single “Pretty Girl” under the moniker Clairo. Her growing success quickly drew criticism from people…
Listen to WRVU Thursday and Friday afternoon and keep up with our social media for a chance to win tickets to SALES on March 30th at Basement East. Check out…
The band’s snappy drumwork and wild synths were complemented perfectly by their visuals, which included an impressive light array and three tireless dancers who roboted, wriggled, and rocked their way through much of the show in full space suits.
The worlds of folk and Americana music are, at best, in constant struggle between the future and the past. While some folk bands cling to what is familiar, the finest artists see the past as a springboard into fresh new sounds. This was the case with Bob Dylan’s iconic Newport Folk Festival controversy, as it was the case with Fleet Foxes’s breathtaking 2017 album, Crack-Up. Goes West by William Tyler joins this pantheon by continuing not only to push the envelope, but also to open it and slide a letter of his own inside.
Raw, emotional, expansive, monumental, dynamic: all words to describe an era of classic rock that has seemingly come and gone. Although recent musical acts have channeled the soulful ten-minute-long guitar jams of the classic rock movement, none have transcended and embraced the purity of the music heard decades before.
About a year ago, we saw the virality of the #MeToo movement, which led to the dismantling of many abusive and hugely powerful men. The movement felt cathartic; a beacon of hope for a…
Called “SXSW’s grungy little sister” by Entertainment Weekly, Savannah Stopover is a hidden gem for festival-goers. In fact, EW perfectly describes this small city fest, as it was conceptualized eight years ago to attract touring artists who were on their way to the colossal South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX. Savannah Stopover brings in a large spectrum of artists, from the local bands to the Grammy-winners, but gives them all the same southern welcome.
In regards to emo and pop-punk, 2018 has not been off to a particularly bangin’ start. I imagine you’re probably thinking something along the lines of: that’s because those genres died, like, ten years ago. But that’s where you’re wrong. Whatever wave of emo is currently happening is still sputtering on, asphyxiating slowly resultant of its cultural irrelevancy. Despite the poor state of the scene at present, however, there are still a few upcoming releases everyone can look forward to, both in and out of the genre.
Here are a few of my favorite tracks this year with a bit of info on each of them. Enjoy! “King Cobra” – Yung Lean ft. Thaiboy Digital Prod. Hurtboyag,…
Recently, I’ve been trying to open my eyes to the way we interact with, and are influenced by, the man-made environment. Whether it’s a public park, a door handle, or an album cover, I believe every detail of objects and spaces can act as an important tool for shaping our perception, whether or not it was the intention of the creator of that object to do so.
When one considers the implications of art as an interaction, we can see the power of this tool. The real beauty of art, in my opinion, is that the artist only has so much control over how the work is perceived, while the viewer/user/audience must do much of the heavy lifting. I believe modern art provides many great examples of this interaction.
Simply put: the Snarky Puppy show was very sold out. With a packed venue, I thought I was facing a rowdy night, and every trip to the bathroom would be like a salmon swimming upstream. But instead of parting the waves, walking around was like crossing a pond—the fans were so enthralled with the musicians on stage that they didn’t move. Normally there are a good number of people walking back and forth in the pass-through to several of the bars surrounding the periphery of the floor, but the bars were nearly empty. Every patron was squeezed as close to the front as possible, eyes glued to the stage.
Southern Florida may not have much going for it, but its local music scene is nearly unparalleled. Breeding some of the most quintessential emo/pop punk/hardcore bands of all time (read: New Found Glory, Yellowcard, Underoath, Mayday Parade, Anberlin, A Day to Remember, and the like), no one really feels ~the pain~ as much as this slowly sinking state. Sarasota-based emo/punk band Worst Party Ever is no different. Worst Party Ever have been progressively banging out some exceptionally depressing tunes since 2014. In 2016, they put out Anthology, a compilation (or, dare I say, an anthology) of all 21 of their recorded songs. And they’re all amazing.
The hype around the Marvel movie Black Panther has been ridiculous. So, it’s no surprise that when the undisputed king of rap, Kendrick Lamar, dropped a collaborative album with various artists with tracks from and inspired by the movie, almost everyone with an inkling of interest in contemporary hip hop lost it. But, amidst all the big names and music stars, from SZA to The Weeknd, there was one song, “Paramedic!” by an artist not nearly as well known, SOB x RBE.
Today we’ve got the spotlight on Youtube series COLORS- a series of live performances recorded at a Berlin studio with new videos uploaded weekly. COLORS first grabbed my attention during my semester abroad last spring in Chile. Inspired to understand the novel beats and lyrics of Spanish speaking artists, I found myself in different nooks and crannies of Youtube than ever before. Already a lover of music videos produced by the likes of Young Thug or the US Soundcloud rap scene, I enjoyed getting to know the rappers and trappers out of Spain who credit these US artists as their inspiration. Two brothers from Barcelona, Pimp Flaco and Kinder Malo, performed their song “Chemtrails” in the first COLORS video I ever saw, bopping Spanish verses back and forth over an antagonistic and droning chorus. This is currently the most viewed session on the COLORS channel, sitting at about 21 and a half million views.
As we continue the cold, cold march into February, let us sit back and take stock of some of the best releases of this young (and cold) year.
It’s been twenty-seven years since the formation of the seminal Massachusetts metalcore outfit Converge, and twenty-three years since their first album. When bands this heavy and aggressive stay around for…