Come and Share This Jam with Me

Part of what's left of the famed  Jonathan Fire* Eater , The Walkmen are able to distance themselves from Jonathan Fire* Eater incorporating and marking themselves with a post-punk revival style, and their breakout banger, "The Rat" is more than telling of that. Listed by Pitchfork as the sixth best single of 2004 (if that means anything to you), "The Rat" is singer Hamilton Leithauser explicating his disappointments in a frustrating anthem of loneliness and loss in a bravado that expresses a hope to feel wanted or at least noticed. After Jonathan Fire* Eater had fizzled out and The Strokes , Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had taken over. The shift in New York City went from the nuanced and gothic stylings in downtown Manhattan to a post-punk and indie rock flavor that focused on the raw basics of rocks rather than trying to break the mold. It was music that reflected the irritation of the indie rockers in New York having to accept an out-dated U2 an...

Normally, artists taking influence from the 70's incorporate smooth and lucid riffs, a soft/easy beat and a groovy bass line, akin to artists like The Grateful Dead and David Bowie . With MOD CON, and specifically the song in question, "Scorpio Moon," the 70's influence is undeniably related with the hard rock stylings of bands like  Heart . While undoubtedly taking influence from 70's hard rock,  MOD CON and their full-length debut Modern Convenience , finds themselves squarely fit into this New School of rock with the likes of  Courtney Barnett ,  Starcrawler  and  The Regrettes . "Scorpio Moon" has a rawness and authenticity to its production along with a snarl that says "I don't give a fuck;" indicative of the New School.  Right out of the gates bassist Sara Retallick is making you play catch-up but just before you find your breath lightning strikes with a slick riff and a thunderous beat throws you on your ass for the rest of...

Shout out to YouTube's alona chemerys  for posting another beautiful track...goddamn. "Stupid Songs" off Alpharo's debut EP, Stupid Songs , like many off the songs posted by alona chemerys, is sexy, groovy, dreamy, melodic and addictive (seriously). While falling somewhere in the dream pop genre, "Stupid Songs" stands out much like Feng Suave's brilliant " Sink Into the Floor ." There is a soul, an empathetic sound to the collective of the track that is palpable allowing the listener to be engaged with Alpharo in his narrative. Like so often with love songs and sentimentality, there's a lot of perplexity. There is no true coalescing of emotions as different feelings tend to arise simply out of nowhere and fade all together. Thus, is the nature of this song in its lyrics surmised by its lucid instrumentation that is so often accompanied with dream pop. In speaking of its lyrics , "Stupid Songs" is something of a meta-narra...

On April 16th, 2018, Kendrick Lamar has become the first rapper and artist outside the Jazz and Classical Music genre to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. DAMN , is personally my favorite album to come from the Kendrick Lamar canon. Every song on the album is poetry and is able to transcend that fine line between artistic merit and commercial appeal. Most importantly, it's an honest and current observation of African American life in the United States during what we are now recognizing as a controversial time period.  The committee's decision is not only agreeable, it's important. To choose DAMN is to choose an idea of progress in music and in our culture. The decision is indicative of the fact that we are able to move away from a narrow mindset of what constitutes as music, or what constitutes as a proper medium, to express and evoke imperative and palpable themes and ideas.  This decision reiterates the fact that we do not need to constantly look into the...

The Disco-Punk kid's wet dream in the early 00's...definitely an acquired taste. The song that put both The Rapture and DFA Records (pre- LCD Soundsystem ) on the map, "House of Jealous Lovers" is some crazy nonsense that if you get, if you can comprehend what The Rapture is going for, then you'll love it. Otherwise, you're going to absolutely hate this song. We start out with an elongated and bouncy bass, snare and hi-hat combination straight out of a NYC club but with an accompanying cowbell, because fuck polished Disco...right? Then in come the off-pitched guitars to create more chaos to the song along with the off-key repetition of the phrase "house of jealous lovers." It is really a wild song when you look at it through an objective lens. Let's not forget, this is not a straight up Disco track, it's an ironic as all hell combination of Disco and Punk (Disco-Punk), which is evidently the point. No one makes a crazy song just beca...

A rule of thumb, if you see the name MF DOOM attached to anything, immediately listen to it. "Bomb Thrown" is the lead single off the CZARFACE and MF DOOM collaboration,  Czarface Meets Metal Face , and as imagined, it's rife with impressively witty verses and superhero themes mixed with enough traditional elements to give you nostalgia for 90's Hip Hop. What's interesting about "Bomb Thrown" and Czarface Meets Metal Face,  is the flow of the instrumentation: sounding like a 60's cartoon score, with an exasperated snare. The end result is a mix between a classic Hip Hop beat and and an echoed superhero cartoon of the 60's...now that's worth a listen. However mesmerizing the nuanced beat may be, the best thing about "Bomb Thrown," and both CZARFACE and MF DOOM individually, is their word play and witty verses. In particular, MF DOOM is known to use an incredible amount of assonance (vowels repeating the same sounds) in his r...

Two years after the release of their 2016 titular  EP , The Shacks are back with their first studio album,  Haze .  Rife with spacious harmonies and inventive melodies Haze  expands and improves on the EP with a more intricate effort creating seductive undertones that whispers translucent truths. "Texas" is one such breakthrough from the album about the Wild West genre that uses a semi-folk interplay of the beat, synthesizers, riffs and accompanying vocals. An indication that The Shacks are more than just an ambient group; they're a nuanced collective that pushes the boundaries of what is expected in music. Although, the tracks on both efforts sound similar, with Haze, The Shacks have found a congruent sound and it's addictive. "Texas" sticks out from the track listings due to its distinct sound and motif, but doesn't stray too far to seem out-of-place on Haze as the entirety of the album incorporates multiple elements and perceptions. However, the...