Grand National, Kicking the National Habit The debut album by London-based duo Grand National sounds something like the Police if they’d recorded disco tunes. While the songs are pop-like in structure and layered with sweet harmonies, they are also defined by their heavy beats, looping bass riffs and hypnotic synth lines. This is dance party…
Netflix Picks: Documentary
As a cinephile with an insatiable curiosity, whenever I find myself with a free hour or two, I scan my streaming Netflix queue for a documentary to absorb. Non-fiction films seem to me a better product than most of the rubbish Hollywood churns out for the sake of entertaining the masses. While I’d never consider…
Remix Monday – Phoenix
Phoenix – Fences (25 Hrs a Day RMX) Phoenix – Lisztomania (25 Hrs a Day RMX)
Unjustly Obscure Albums – Vol. 2
Zeus – Say Us “Zeus doesnt have a dedicated lead singer; songwriters Mike O’Brien, Carlin Nicholson, and Neil Quinn all share that role, and they switch instruments with equal frequency. The result is an album relatively devoid of patterns, since no single musician remains with one instrument long enough to repeat the same trick twice.…
Easter Sunday – Jesus’ Son
“The sun lowered itself through the roof of clouds, ignited the sea, and filled the big picture window with molten light, so that we did our dealing and dreaming in a brilliant fog.” -Denis Johnson Jesus’ Son is a book of short stories, some of the best I’ve read. The narrator, a young man known…
In Honor of Earth Day, The Giving Tree Band
“Hillbilly Jean” The Giving Tree Band’s “stirring musicianship, exemplary songwriting, and emotionally engaged performances” (The Bluegrass Special Magazine) are “leaving audiences all around the country with dropped jaws and a string of incurable rhythms ingrained in their heads” (The Chronicle). The group’s all-acoustic sound has been described as “an ageless music that transcends centuries” (Honest…
Netflix Picks: Four Movies for 4/20
If you’re bored with the usual suspects (Dazed and Confused, The Big Lebowski, etc.) then check out the following flicks. While these movies are not quite great, they’ll blow your mind if you’re in the right state. Plus they’re all available to stream, so you don’t even have to leave your parents’ basement. Enter the…
Unjustly Obscure Albums – Vol. 1
Brazos, Phosphorescent Blues “With a sound somewhere between the jazz-rock fusions of Tim Buckley and the freaked-out folk of Neutral Milk Hotel — all stacked acoustic guitars, impetuous percussion and meandering pianos — Brazos dares listeners to dip into a bracing, deep and sometimes turbulent stream of consciousness.” – Riverfront Times Brazos – Day Glo…
The Coolest Song of All Time
I realize that these guys are both French and Caucasian, but that bass line est très chill…