Live Review: Actress at Chicago’s Empty Bottle (10/27)
It’s always a good thing to see Chicago dancing with abandon. For whatever reason (I’m guessing the pre-concert cuisine doesn’t stray too far from New York, though pizza and drink is a bit heavier here...
View ArticleAlbum Review: YVETTE – Process
The contemporary notion of consumerism entails that the end product is more important than the process itself of engineering something. Yet, there’s a life unto the creation of an object in itself —...
View ArticleAlbum Review: Diane Coffee – My Friend Fish
The artist is no dusky Brazilian beauty; rather, Diane Coffee is the new solo project from Californian Shaun Fleming, last heard drumming with psych outfit Foxygen. The name may have origins in Twin...
View ArticleDrake’s “Would You Like a Tour?” hits Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (10/28)
Drake is a hydra. The minute you cut off one of his heads, two more grow in its place—challenging and snapping at the image of him you thought you had. Last night, when he performed at Brooklyn’s...
View ArticleAlbum Review: Girls Names – The Next Life
Morbid atmospheres, a deadpanning vocalist, and reverb-laden guitars with a bit a chorus flange. It’s a bit difficult to think about Icelandic quartet Girls Names without The Cure or Joy Division...
View ArticleAlbum Review: Moonface – Julia With Blue Jeans On
“Set fire to my music,” Spencer Krug sings on Julia With Blue Jeans On, “It wasn’t much good anyway.” If he’s serious, that explains a lot. Moonface, a moniker Krug attributes to his solo work,...
View ArticleAlbum Review: Los Campesinos! – No Blues
You get older.You graduate high school. You graduate college. You meet someone. You break up. Your sports team wins some games. They lose some others. You get older. You live alone for the first time....
View ArticleAlbum Review: Alcest – Shelter
Do you like pretty music? Because Alcest have made a very pretty album. Not that Stéphane Paut, a.k.a. Neige, ever made exclusively heavy music, but stop after those first two sentences and...
View ArticleLive Review: Fitz and the Tantrums at Oakland’s Fox Theater (4/3)
Photography by Laura KudritzkiFitz and the Tantrums aren’t sponsored by Red Bull, but see them live and you’ll wonder if they don’t have a lifetime supply of the stuff backstage. Singers Michael...
View ArticleLive Review: Ben Folds and yMusic at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom (4/27)
Ben Folds has always been a fan of conducting. Anyone who’s ever been to one of his shows has probably seen this in some capacity; the piano man stands up, raises his arms and controls the pitch of the...
View ArticleGerber & Gerber: Independence Day: Resurgence
Will the sequel live up to the original or come crashing down? Gerber & Gerber: Independence Day: Resurgence Sami Jarroush
View ArticleSufjan Stevens reviews Katy Perry’s new album: “LORD JESUS HAVE MERCY”
Try as she might, Katy Perry is not having a good week. Despite big promotional gimmicks for her newest album — including a 72-hour, Big Brother-like livestream — the reviews for Witness have been...
View ArticleSonic Frequencies from “The Black Album” Make Metallica’s Latest Blackened...
Metallica have unveiled The Black Album Whiskey Pack, the latest release in their Blackened American Whiskey line. The 12 songs from the classic 1991 album were used for the “Black Noise”...
View ArticleLittle America’s Second Season Offers a Much-Needed Dose of Optimism: Review
The Pitch: It’s often very difficult to feel optimistic about the general state of things in this country. For people who have grown up and lived through crisis after crisis, the many who were thrust...
View ArticleGrease: Rise of the Pink Ladies Is Confection and Camp, But Simply Has Too...
The Pitch: Let’s start with the obvious — these folks had big hoop skirts to fill. Grease is one of the most successful movie-musicals of all time. The 1978 classic had the right people at the right...
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