The Pleasures of Saudade
A year in Lisbon teaches you more than how to select a decent vinho verde. An ode to the uniquely hopeful, desperate music that’s missing from the usual American fare.
Listening
A collection of 333 issues
No Take Backs
Four Tet is actually Kieran Hebden, a post-rock/electronic musician from London. Dubstep producer Burial, after a great deal of speculation, finally owned up to being William Bevan. Hebden and Bevan are mates, as they say across the pond, which is why they collaborated for the two tracks on a
Waiting for the Right Move
Less than a month has passed since up-and-coming Austin act VEGA, who were pretty well-received at SXSW earlier this year, allegedly stole Crystal Castles's guitar pedal, and yet we're all just barely getting over the conflict. Two full weeks later, the questions that remain are still
For a Bigger City
The Dirty Projectors sound weird. Not weird like never letting your children celebrate their birthday, or like an extensive collection of Beanie Babies. The Dirty Projectors are weird like people who refold their napkins when getting up from the table, if only for a bathroom break, or like a bunch
Free Music Archive
For those of you with a guilty conscience looking to sit out the battle between the record labels and the maniacally shortsighted (though preciously so) "everything should be free" people, look no further than the new Free Music Archive. Brought to you in large part by the guys
Thinking This Is Fun
Winning is hard, really for two main reasons: first, you have to win. The best winners make this look easy, but it never is. The second reason concerns what happens after you win. All the striving and dedication to your craft has paid off, but it puts you in a
Buke and Gass
It's always a special thrill to see a band that forces itself to do more with less. Not only do they end up finding all sorts of ingenious backroad ways to arrive at their music, but their shows seem to radiate with this funny, inspirational charm. It'
One of the Beautiful
"Regarding our absence, sometimes one needs to disappear in order to regroup; situations change and human beings are swept here and there by the marvelous ebb and flow of culture." Such is the explanation--noticeably void of definitives, of real cause and effect--posted on the Voxtrot website. This is
Dance Til You're Dead
Under most circumstances, a tonal shift in a band's entire sound is a signal of desperation. Perhaps they are past their prime, perhaps they aren't selling out the same venues they used to. But sometimes it's the sign of a truly restless creativity, one
Xylopholks
Last week, amid a crush of evening commuters, I stood slackjawed on the L train platform and witnessed what I could only assume were two grown men, one in a blue Cookie Monster-ish costume, the other a pink gorilla [turns out it was Jon Singer and Bridget Kearney--ed.], playing rollicking
We Are All Made of Stars
You don't realize how far you've come, how insignificant you are, until you look up and remember--oh yeah! There are things called stars! Two hundred stars are born every second, filling me with the sort of hope too big to be printed across a nation. Stars
Ram On
As anyone who's been to the movies recently, or listened to a radio, or watched another stale episode of supposedly edgy satire (SNL? Family Guy? Fill in the blank?) has surely noticed, our cultural arts could now persist for eons untold in a state of half-wakefulness, cannibalizing the
Empire for Ashes
A thousand American Idol winners singing through a thousand autotune modulators will never make a Voice, a singer to be reckoned with, instinctually appreciated, and surrendered to. Very few of our musicians could just as easily go by the title of singer alone, which is what makes Neko Case and
Hauntology
Two musicians, elegant and focused modern powers, continue in guise, obscuring their true form, for their respective new releases. Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Bat For Lashes sooth us, flowing through our guts with a folk inspired hauntology and electric flourish. Will Oldham, in character as Bonnie "Prince&
Melting the Mind, Washing the Soul
It was sad to hear Silver Jews call it quits, but heartbreaking to hear founder David Berman reveal, a few hours later, that his father is the high-profile corporate lobbyist Richard Berman. David Berman Such comparisons bring souls crashing to earth. We must remember that music's power is
The Bloomed Hill Impasse
Remember how it was all supposed to be? And how the distance between that supposed and that of your here and now is the breadth of the America you inhabit? Imagine all that distance and the places in between which are passed through--once, twice at most--but never lived. Have you
Entertainment Hierarchy
The dimensional hierarchy of artistic mediums usually goes like this: Written Word < Music < Video < Music Video < Opera < Virtual Reality. Too often this is mistaken for a hierachy of quality, where movies are always better than books, music videos are always better than novelizations of music
What's Your Face
Apparently this band, Fight Like Apes from Dublin, has been around, recording, and touring Ireland and the UK for a couple years now. As much as we rely on the internet to fill us in on these things, we've only recently heard them and that was largely due
Carla Bley & Charlie Haden
How I became a literary omnivore remains as much a mystery to me as having the same predilections in the musical realm—I have always gravitated to music and musicians whose influences were an ever-expansive wellspring of sounds and composers: Charles Mingus, early Frank Zappa, Harry Partch, Tom Zé, and
Up Anchor!
If you've misplaced the Knife in all the mist, turn back and find their best half in a new guise as Fever Ray. Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson nurtures her solo beats and breaths with great care, giving cavern ghosts a black-hole heartbeat, a beat and pace that LCD
Out With the Old
For so long we've seen decline, dissolution, and departure. From our vantage here in the middle of winter we've seen Nature itself stripped of life and leaf, but memory serves to remind that these are merely cycles within a greater cycle. The days' arcing sunlight
SXSW 2K9
The Academy of Indie Rocks and Cultural Science People has released its official list of candidates for consideration during the Academy's annual Spring bacchanal in Austin, TX. Among these nominees, one winner will be chosen to win the grueling South by Southwest Showcase competition, thus earning the title
Wish in One Hand
This Friday past, peeps over at the Hype Machine finished up their year-end Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008, which uses data compiled by the search results and bookmarked favorites of registered users to determine what were the most popular artists, albums, and songs (in those three catergories) of the past year.
We Will Fall
It would be remiss not to mention the recent passing of Ron Asheton, guitarist for Ann Arbor's most acerbic contribution to the late 60s garage rock scene, The Stooges. As reported first in the Ann Arbor News on Tuesday, Asheton's body was found by police in
Animal Collective
Animal Collective have a new album and we have a new year. It'll take a while to get to grips with both, so I'm jumping in, spread-eagle, and soaking it up; hesitation and caution are bad resolutions. "My Girls" is all purple lightening, Koyaaniqatsi
Diamonds From the Trough, Part 3
Enguarde! Ole! Here here! In the second part of our end-of-year mini-series searching for forgotten gems in the best-of-list, Erik got down dirty with year-end lists and caught some tasty morsels that almost slipped through our nets. Let's continue wrestling with the lists--there's a lot of
Diamonds From the Trough, Part 2
In every effort to outdo Mike's first entry in this ad hoc series, I've gone about collecting those lapidary listens from the past year's releases which, though somehow managing to miss my attention, became firmly lodged in the collective consciousness of list makers the
Diamonds From the Trough, Part 1
Heaving in another year's haul, diamonds gradually reveal themselves as I trawl through lists and lists of the year's best music--people distilling a year of high energy and much distraction. It's being summed up with usual swish, swash, and style by Said the Gramophone
Blood Bank
Man goes to the woods, builds fire, thinks, records album, wins huge, deserved praise in end-of-year list gatherings. Justin Vernon, Bon Iver, will soon be back with Blood Bank EP. Less snow, presumably less contemplation--he had all winter to record his previous work--though the layers continue to pile on as
They All Got It Wrong
The supposed end of the world, the last amplifier. No great crescendo, just the open air, desert breeze, a bright white light. Or is this the end for us all? Like the Titanic's unflappable violinists, the end of the world isn't all post-rock--it can be dipping
Music Blogovision
Every once in a great while, a thing comes along which is more or less some things you've already been using diligently for that same while, and suddenly you're experiencing those things in a new form and wondering how this new composite thing couldn't
Feeling for Iceland
I feel for Iceland. They've got supermarket flags flying over their parliament, they've spent way too much money. It's economic meltdown for real. You wouldn't blame them hibernating til spring, emerging with hope that the glacial movements of recession have retreated back
Larkin Grimm
Before, Larkin Grimm sung folk for the forests--see her myspace for country chanting, etc. Now, she rides out of the trees on great magical horses--like a Tolkienian spaghetti western. Years back, Larkin Grimm persuaded a crowd and I to lie on the floor and engage in some astro-traveling. She walked
What the Kids Don't Stand
It's become difficult to remember the hazy epoch that was last year, when the musical contents of a simple CD-R became an epidemic. The songs of Vampire Weekend were everywhere, which made the official "release" of their "debut album" in January of this year
Message to Mitch
Early Wednesday morning, Mitch Mitchell was found dead in a Portland, Ore., hotel room. Most notably, he was the last surviving member of the ridiculously beloved Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix's most famous and prolific trio, responsible for such incredibly favored songs as "Hey Joe," "Purple
Make of That What You Will
Just as a cat meows or a man who graduates with a Psych or Liberal Arts degree will most likely keep working at whatever service industry position he was holding prior to graduation, not only because he doesn't really have any great prospects at the moment but because
When a Stunt Pair Is Not
Stunt pairings come in all forms, be it award presenters, buddy/actionflicks, or commercial endorsements. And who can forget those irascible "maverick" twins of way back before the election? I know, it seems like ages ago now. When it comes to music collaboration, however, the question must be
We're All In
Last week saw the U.S. debut album release, titled Na Na Ni, of yet another group of almost disgustingly talented and natural-sounding Swedish indie poppers. According to their MySpace page, the members of Fredrik carry on the traditional first-name-use-only rule as set forth by their brilliant predecessors and countrymen
Beach House Take a Break
Beach House's spooky and warm lo-fi pop music continues to breeze past. Beach House pause for thought and take a literal, not musical, break from woozy synths and a steady heartbeat drum-machine pace. I'm inclined to sit, drift and reconsider their dark and spiritual sounds. I
Motel De Moka
When I get stuck, when I'm uninspired and want surprise I check in with a music blog like no other. Motel De Moka wakes you up from your mid-afternoon daze, throws water on your face, then tells you their thoughts on back porch blues or the philosophical dance
Calling It a Day
Bands break up. It's a fact of life. Sometimes it's a blessing (ahem, Creed); sometimes it's an unfortunate loss that everyone chooses to blame on Yoko. In the case of the Long Blondes, it was a tragic necessity. In June of this year, lead
Fucked Up!
Herein lies hardcore rock. The flutes that open Fucked Up!'s latest album loosen up all the muscles you'll need to react swiftly to an unexpected delivery of sweaty new heroes. Fucked Up! recently played a 12 hour show where even Moby was involved--not so punk rock.
Songs of the Sacred Harp
Folk music isn't all bearded backwoodsmen and bohemian activists. Traditionally, American folk music has been a joyous and mesmerizing thing--beatniks and '60s folk revivalists take note. Sacred Harp is a type of Southern spiritual music in the folk tradition, named after the sole sacred instrument used in
No Censorship Age
Election years tend to put a strain on the relationship between the media establishment (at least its old-school incarnations) and entertainers/artists (to say nothing of the strain between the media and the candidates, or between entertainers/artists and the candidates). The executives for the major television networks, especially, may
Attracting Strange Midnight Snowflakes
Buffalo's own Mercury Rev is the latest band to jump on the increasingly popular trend of making recording industry executives cry by giving away great material absolutely free. On September 29, while simultaneously releasing Snowflake Midnight--a proggy, shimmery, mostly electronic album--the band also released Strange Attractor, an instrumental,
From Our Own Correspondent
I do not enjoy unarmed combat with the irrepressible background noise machine that the media starts up at every opportunity; nine pundits on one screen, immediate and inevitably colorless analysis, instant positive/negative approval graphs. That's why "From Our Own Correspondent," a BBC podcast and radio
Quoi de Neuf
Beautiful pianist, singer, and New England Conservatory drop-out Casey Dienel is only 23 and she's making better music than you or I probably ever will. She's also not trying to make a big deal about it. She recorded her first album on a lark in a
Smile Down Upon Us
Listening to Bjork's entire back catalog early this year, I met five hours of pop music, experimental sounds, lots of magic. After years of shallow appreciation, immersion provided the best, most proper introduction. This summer I've been giving Smile Down Upon Us a lot of my
The Sons of No One
Last week Rhino Records, proud purveyors of our pop cultural history, released CD reissues of the Replacements' four Sire/Reprise releases spanning 1985 to 1990. Those years sadly saw the decline of the group, and while the music becomes increasingly uneven toward the end of their time together, the
Rusted, Golden, Aged
TV on the Radio's first two efforts were rough and sharp: There was a lot of spirit but a lot of weight in those works. Though, to call them "efforts" is unnecessary as they were always cruising, doing something very special between shoegaze and rock music
Story Songs
I was looking over a recent copy of The Believer (the annual music issue) and was much pleased to see there was an article on singer/poet/songwriter Gil Scott-Heron, once of the long-ago Last Poets, who were known for their anthemic “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” About this
A Stern Mouth- and Earful
Shortly after the release of her first album early last year, Marnie Stern was featured alongside Kaki King in a New York Times article for, essentially, being a woman who plays guitar really well. It's hard to estimate how accurate the Times's assumption is that virtuosic
Another Word for Fiddlesticks
Nearly every day another part of my adolescent self is beaten into further submission. Where vitriol and bombast once reigned, now softness and grace are slipping in. This has been hastened by the recent resurgence in the popularity of folk music, now called "indie folk," so we don&
Re-Appropriating Appropriation
In the past week, two major music blogs (Stereogum and Gorilla vs. Bear) have featured Malawi's Esau Mwamwaya along with leaked tracks from his highly anticipated debut release produced by Radioclit, the British DJ/production duo with a naughty name. Mwamwaya was also featured on the cover of
Ambient Religious Jam
The words "folk," "pastoral," and "Tropicalia" ensure I read the whole piece and listen to whatever music is being pushed my way--"Tropicalia" references the hazy, Brazilian psychedelica to which Deerhunter side-project Atlas Sound are often compared. "Jam session," in
And We All Drone On
The music of James Blackshaw, 12-string guitar virtuoso, elegantly drones and is perfect for drifting--in and out of the room, in and out of concentration, between the city, silent trains, and the ocean. "Infinite Circle" is really about these sorts of grand and complete movements. Derek Walmsey of
King's Lead Hat
Fresh off of a tear of high-concept and highly touted publicart projects, David Byrne has also been busy finishing up Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, his first collaboration with Brian Eno since 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Where music on its predecessor was dissociative and
SoCal Decay
Southern California is a dark and foreboding place. People commonly associate it with the Beach Boys and Gidget, but that was from a long time past when you could still swim in the ocean without having to bathe in disinfectant afterwards. Now it’s better known as the home of
Krautrocker Glory
Brighton's own Fujiya & Miyagi will release their third album, Lightbulbs, in early September. The band has been cited as owing a debt not only to electronic music of the early ’90s, but to the so-called “Krautrock” acts that made that music possible, specifically Neu! and Can. These
Engaging the Fans
One of the chief concerns of the digital age is the problem of getting people to pay for music. Of Montreal, the super-popular psychedelic funk freaks of our time, have devised a new marketing strategy to entice fans into buying digital downloads of their upcoming album, Skeletal Lamping: offering specially
Field-Tested Dub
It took a visit to New York and the combination of disorientation and fatigue to allow me to really enjoy the recently unmasked British musician Burial. I think you really have to listen to his music in the right place, in the right frame of mind, to enjoy it properly.
Is a Revolution
Dan Deacon has garnered notoriety in some circles for his particular brand of electrostatic beepcore (coinage mine), and for, if nothing else, proving that Baltimore can produce relevant artists in our time (an honor he shares with Wham City and David Simon). So proud is Deacon of his Baltimore colleagues
Joyous Descent!
The only words I can make out are “all day holiday” and “parachute”—Shugo Tokumaru sings the rest in Japanese at great speed. Tokumaru’s “Parachute” offers neither serene floating nor salvation; it is a fast-thinking, multi-instrumental, standing-to-attention kind of song. Bells, guitar, glockenspiel are all played quickly and causes
Still Here
Talking about Girl Talk, The New York Times feels it's necessary to explain that hip-hop uses sample loops, but then throws down “At times the album sounds like a cleverly programmed K-tel compilation.” Aren’t more readers familiar with how rap works than the TV compilation album parent
Monkey: Journey to the West
For those of us practically dying of anticipation for whatever Damon Albarn releases next, our desperate longing since The Good, the Bad & the Queen (less than two years, really) is nearing its end as Monkey: Journey to the West will be made available for digital download on Aug. 18.
Danny Callahan
It used to be easy to write off Bright Eyes and, by extension, all things Conor Oberst several years ago. Not only were his music and lyrics very cloying in that way that terribly cloying, sophomoric, “serious,” music tries to be, but he was being championed by the most annoying
A Crutch or a Cradle
Pony Up is an all-girl group from Montreal that released its first album, Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes, in late 2006. Though the band hasn’t released anything since, it did put a new song-in-progress on its MySpace page, which suggests there may be a new album
Medications
Let’s just get this part over with quickly: Bad Brains, Fugazi, Dischord, harDCore. There, much better. It’s best to purge those words as soon as possible rather than continually dwelling on their importance in perpetual, middling adolescence. I wish I could say the same for a large portion
In the New Year
A new album from the Walkmen, called You & Me, will officially be released on Aug. 19. However, the entire album is currently available from the band’s online music store for just five bucks. All sales of the album will go to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where a
The Geeks Were Right
“I like the Faint.” That was my introduction to the Nebraskan New Wave five-piece, a four-word description on a friend’s Amazon wish list years ago. I don’t know if she still does, but after hearing 2001’s phenomenal Danse Macabre, I was hooked. Not only is their music
Glorious Ballad of the Ignored
My familiarity with Pas/Cal has largely been based on a precious few songs heard over the years as well as a few concert posters in a friend’s apartment. The songs are usually above average, and the posters are great. As you can see from their web site, they
Ran
Hailing from Calgary, Azeda Booth has just released In Flesh Tones, its first full-length album. On its web site, the band describes itself as “too skittish for space rock, too hot for IDM, too concise and charming for glitch-core.” I know, right? The furor this band has currently unleashed in
Playing With Fire
The biggest music news from the past week has to be that ABKCO Music & Records, Inc., holder of the Rolling Stones’ publishing rights, is suing Lil Wayne and his label for copyright infringement for borrowing a chorus melody and title from the Stones’ hit “Play With Fire” for Wayne’
Alphabets
As one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA (sometimes Genius) has meaningfully contributed to what many will always consider the biggest and best hip-hop group of all time. Though he doesn’t get the credit as a producer that RZA does, the movie roles that Method Man
Antibodies
Thank God for dance music. And guitars. “Antibodies,” from Poni Hoax’s new album Images of Sigrid, is like that workout tune LCD Soundsystem penned for Nike. It pumps hard and wants to to motivate you, keeps you out when you are either out of it at 12 miles gone,
Stay Positive
One can’t help but get swept up by it all. This is a rock n’ roll life-affirmer that’ll last for months, way past the stadiums where we sang, past gutters that you fell you into. Things change, but we’ll keep singing, we’ll keep falling, and we’
The Old Days
This matinee performance relies on the stage disintegrating, tumbling, torn down by actors who demand something sleek and so un-Dr. Dog. From a just-out fifth album, the lament of “The Old Days” is the final protest in the final act, and it’s a damn rousing song. I was yesterday
So Fast
“So Fast” is well-punctuated, well-announced, and sufficiently well-thought of that it is the first track on Julie Doiron’s reissued Loneliest in the Morning. Ten years after the release and much more than a decade since she left noise-pop outfit Eric’s Trip, Doiron’s subtle and acoustic meditation on
Church Under the Stairs
Broken Social Scene don’t make albums anymore. No, that Canadian group hug now presents, or at least one of their members presents them—gives them a formation, arms them, and sends them out to battle. Last time out it was Col. Kevin Drew organizing the troops, but this week
Chemtrails
Beck’s latest album, Modern Guilt, is ambitious but it sees his sound reduced, filtering out some unnecessary digital noise from his previous work, 2006’s The Information; cell phone rings that were good, clean fun inspire little except the desire to not party. The vagueness of “Chemtrails,” however, hints
Kevätrumpu
Dusty and spiritual, Finnish duo Paavoharju represent Scandinavia with something churned up and surreal in “Kevätrumpu.” Pavvoharju don’t just wander and drift amongst their collage of noise, they work hard to carve an identity during what sounds like some sort of ritual ceremony led by a beat of bells.
Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey
I rarely find music I (wrongly) assume to be indie rock so stirring and spirited. Said the Gramophone find that in “Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey,” wherein Bodies of Water “…starts shouting the colors and I can see them right there. I kind of listen to this music the same
Knowing Me, Knowing You
I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but ABBA will never tour again. Mamma Mia!, the musical and upcoming film that samples heavily from their back catalog, will keep them happy for the next few years—we can only assume. If there were any life
When We Embraced
When I was in jail last night it was dark, raining, and roofless—with an abundance of cell-phones. I woke up from this dream with a hangover, glad not to be in jail. Micah P. Hinson spent some time in jail in his youth; this rebellious hangover could have suffocated
Oh! You Pretty Things
If you’re anything like me, you can’t get enough David Bowie. Except of course for the whole Tin Machine thing. What was he thinking? Whatever. A new covers album called Life on Mars—each song hand-picked and approved by Bowie himself—will be released on July 8. Already
One of Us
Known as one of the most influential bands to emerge from the British punk scene in the late ’70s, both for their music as well as their Situationist politics, Wire has done what few of their contemporaries could manage to do: They stayed together. A little over a month ago,
Sunshine Kid
While perusing Radiohead’s Dear Air Space blog the other day, I came across an entry by someone calling himself “Colin,” who implored readers to seek out a new album by someone or something calling themselves “One Little Plane.” After a brief and painless amount of research, I discovered this
666
There will probably always be a foolish, rebellious, adolescent part of my consciousness that will try to act out by imploring me to slam dance, play with fire, and tempt the forces of evil. Though my staid, responsible, adult brain is unlikely to give in to these impulses anymore, thankfully
Bruno's Torso
After signing to Sub Pop back in ’06, Brooklyn-based Death Vessel was expected to release something shortly after. Now, two years down the road, the label debut is slated for mid-August. The music, which calls to mind the Shins’ more stripped-down work, is folksy, droney, and twee, and the vocals,
Better
The legend is true: The infamous, ill-fated, Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy has been leaked after 14 years of recording and scads of record-company dollars down the four-track. I had hoped it would be the greatest peak in maddening celebrity indulgence, like a thousand Golden Throats records combined into
No Pause
Kids seem to love these mash-ups. It appeals to their dual desires of flaunting copyright laws and hearing lots of songs all at once. It’s a short-attention-span, intellectual-property-law jamboree. And this latest Girl Talk album is a sampling bonanza sure to boggle the minds behind any copyright claims. They
The Secrets of Iceland
From what I can tell, Iceland is on a breakneck pace to make it seem like a place called “Iceland” is a sun-drenched adventure land. They don’t use gasoline, produced Björk and Sigur Rós, and race around naked to their hearts content. It’s all part of a giant
3rd Planet
I really wanted to love bluegrass; I really did. It helped me think I didn’t actually avoid country music, just commercial country music. Or electric country music (or some other arbitrary distinction). That was before the Washington, D.C., N.P.R. affiliate would play 12 straight hours of
African Scream Contest
In Africa, they’re just getting around to publishing essential psychedelic compilations that should have been out eons ago. Few know a name outside of Fela Kuti or King Sunny Ade. If there were any justice in the world 50 Cent would take the offer from Taco Bell to change
Go for the Exit
After calling Guided by Voices quits just four short years ago, Bob Pollard, the quits-caller, has released about eight solo albums, plus various EPs and albums with side projects (e.g., the Takeovers, Keene Brothers, Circus Devils, etc.). To call him prolific is nearly an understatement, as it’s hard
Good Enough
I’m a sucker for a good cover, and this week’s honorable mention goes to the Acorn, a Canadian group that recently contributed a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Good Enough” for a Coke Machine Glow podcast. Their version softens Lauper’s already nonchalantly pop masterpiece, but the highly
Ghost Town (Pt. 1)
Only recently was I clued in to Parts & Labor, a Brooklyn-based noise-pop outfit playing at this summer’s Siren Festival at Coney Island. Luckily I heard about the group just in time to find out about member Dan Friel’s solo work, which is mostly instrumental noise pop. Linked
Dr. Carter
At the tender age of 15, Lil Wayne was already becoming something of a trump card in Cash Money’s hand, and Wayne’s Hot Boys group produced some of the more popular singles from the label (cf. “We on Fire” and “Project Chick”). Ten years later, Lil Wayne has
White Winter Hymnal
Hailing from Seattle and signed to the cred-dispensing Sub Pop label, Fleet Foxes not only has a really cute name that’s fun to say, they have current and former members of such noteworthy indie groups as Crystal Skulls and Pedro the Lion. What’s better, they hate hippies. Which
A Truer Top 40
We all know the Billboard Top 100 is a sham; it’s a meaningless list of vacuous posers and pitch-shifted payola. The bands, singers, and studios that make it to the top of their Singles Charts, Hot Canadian Digital Singles Charts, or even the Bubbling Ringtones Chart, only got that