5 Ellie Goulding – “Lights” Summoning Florence + the Machine a little bit, but somehow less gaudy, Goulding canaries in with gemstone femininity on this one, and it makes for something fairly beautiful. Bubbling synths give the song a dance feel, but the producer clearly took pains to go for a garage-rock snare. I’m guessing … Read more“Top 5 Radio Pop Singles of 2012”
The Starlight Mints want to make you uneasy. I doubt they’d make any bones about that. Piling chord upon chord at the introduction of “Coffins ‘r’ Us,” which is nervous-chuckle-inducing enough, given the title, but spooky nonetheless even with just hearing the song as something anonymous, they rage into uncharted territories of the mind’s threshold … Read more“Middle of Nowhere, Center of Bounce”
It looks like it’s an album we can fight over, To hurl glasses from across the bar At someone with A different favorite song from us, Like boys, men, The light straddling The ceiling is five sixths of the width’s end of the mind, She will be by and by, As I flagrantly refresh the … Read more“A Hopefully Destructive Gush”
Do you ever think about the idea of the exact person who made up the term “chillin’”? That had to be a cool ass motherfu**er. Maybe in a packed apartment in the middle of Queens with no AC, and maybe the fridge had just run out of beer. There’s a girl out in Colorado who … Read more“Chillin’”
25 Band of Skulls – Sweet Sour Admittedly, I was a pretty big Band of Skulls fan before I heard Sweet Sour; I’d let people know about them, heralding “Death By Diamonds and Pearls” as the new revitalizing rock anthem. And I guess it’s a sad fact, but anger is really a prerequisite for making … Read more“Top 25 Albums of 2012”
The reason I’m writing about these bands is that they’re brilliant, not that they have a certain genre or style. Each one delivers musical statements, though, that are simple and full of the utmost gravity, and they do so, despite using technical means that are unorthodox, in quick, effortless swatches. In their own way, each … Read more“Ween and Their ‘Real’ Alternative Viceroys”
If I were to sum these two videos up, in introduction, I’d say they each match their subject matter — “Our Sorrows” is somber and empathetic, and “Goddess Eyes II” is humorous. Each video features the musical artist’s face en masse, so inevitably this itself becomes part of the video’s interplay. “Our Sorrows” opens with … Read more“Video Reviews: Julia Holter – ‘Goddess Eyes II’ and ‘Our Sorrows’”
Bear in mind I’m writing this from the Midwest, where people can be pretty, uh, simple, regarding what bands of which they’ve heard. I realize a lot of people have heard of Mudhoney. Somewhere along the line, somehow, I think my standards for rock music ballooned out of control; either that or everyone else’s are … Read more“Mudhoney: Like a White Bad Brains”
It’s an elusive truth, but no matter who is telling this, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone to hear that the objective of life is a state of mind, a feeling of joy. You could say this differs from heaven because when you have a body to control, the whole thing … Read more“Picking Up an Empty Mountain Dew Can”
How do you figure? Well, you aren’t decided. About if I want to stay there the rest of my life? Yeah. Yeah I might not be. You should use some more of your soul when you go there. Dream on. Put yourself in my position. I was once 18, doing funny things and getting high. … Read more“You’re Spying On Your Job!”