February 2012
3 posts
10 tags
4 tags
The Rough Harmonies of Sharon Van Etten →
The New York Times apparently doesn’t allow their videos to be embedded (good luck with that, NYT), so you’ll have to click through if you want to watch a video of Sharon Van Etten showing the Times around my neighborhood and performing a gorgeous rendition of “We Are Fine” in the front room of my local bar. I promise it’s worth the click, though I’m probably a...
2 tags
January 2012
13 posts
7 tags
5 tags
4 tags
“Yeah and also, we make music that is big and sometimes grand, and I feel like...”
– Zac Pennington of the Parenthetical Girls, as interviewed by John Norris in Interview Magazine. This is one of the things that really sets Pennington apart from so many of his peers as a writer—he’s pushing himself to write unmistakably adult songs while working within a tradition...
catastrophicwaitress asked: I'm curious, did you manage to resist the urge to pledge $400 for a Stuart Murdoch bus tour or did your inner fan get the better of you?
7 tags
4 tags
“To a 2001 native’s ears, hip hop might seem to have warped and contracted like a...”
– I somehow managed to miss Wilson McBee’s excellent year-in-review piece, “Reflections on the Year in Hip-Hop: The Internet is Your Area Code,” when it ran back in December but I sure am glad I stumbled upon it today.
6 tags
“Those who count on Hollywood for support need to understand this industry is...”
– Former senator and current MPAA Chairman and CEO Christopher Dodd blatantly threatens members of Congress and in so doing, explains where legislation like SOPA comes from.
4 tags
Pazz & Jop 2k11
It’s that time of year again: Pazz & Jop or as some call like to call it, “music critic Christmas”. Here’s my ballot for 2011; my extended top 20 albums list is after the break. I’m thrilled to see that Tune-Yards clinched the overall #1 album spot this year—that photo of Merill Garbus on the front page pretty much sums up the collective sense of surprise....
8 tags
1 tag
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews: Interviewing Lil Wayne... →
pitchforkreviewsreviews:
In the back room of a basement club in Chelsea, past the bouncer who mercifully let me in, through the front door and down the stairs, past the coat check and across the dancefloor and down a narrow hallway, I am staring at Lil Wayne through a very thin, almost transparent curtain. There are models and reporters and bottles of liquor and champagne all around me, and...
6 tags
On Beige Ford Tauruses, Carcinogenic Summer Jobs...
In the summer of 1999, at the age of 16, I got a job working at the vehicle emissions testing station in Racine, Wisconsin. Wisconsin, like many states, requires that all licensed vehicles be tested for emissions every few years and for a couple of months, I was paid minimum wage to stand behind cars and collect noxious petrochemical fumes with a rubber hose. I soon fell in with a co-worker named...
3 tags
5 tags
December 2011
10 posts
4 tags
“And yet, as significant as this shift in listening habits might be for the music...”
– I wrote about the year in music technology for MTV Hive.
4 tags
5 tags
4 tags
4 tags
1 tag
3 tags
4 tags
“Penny Chisholm, MIT marine biologist, showed GZA around her lab and gave him a...”
– The GZA visits MIT.
6 tags
November 2011
4 posts
5 tags
“The last stop on our Wright tour was Racine, a factory town that has seen better...”
– The New York Times, describing the town where I grew up in a travel piece on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Yay, Racine!
4 tags
Previewing MGMT’s Guggenheim Performance Visuals →
I interviewed Brooklyn-based video artist and fellow ITP student, Alejandro Crawford, for MTV Hive. Alejandro has been doing some really incredible video projection stuff for MGMT for a little while now—he spent most of last year touring with the band overseas and handling their live visuals—and is currently working on an “audio-reactive LED wall” that will be displayed...
1 tag
September 2011
1 post
2 tags
Percussivo Mundo Novo’s Controlled Experiments →
I interviewed Brazilian hardware hacker, percussionist and MIDI controller enthusiast Mikael Mutti for MTV Hive.
August 2011
2 posts
1 tag
“I was at a mighty fine BBQ joint in Chantilly, Va., with brothers Mike (guitar)...”
– What a bombshell—pg. 99 aren’t vegan? Jokes. Do be sure to read the rest of my buddy Lars’ interview with the band, which, in addition to containing the above shocker, also features both the interviewer and interviewees reflecting on what early ’00s skramz hath wrought, ten...
July 2011
3 posts
5 tags
2 tags
Phil Rich: Why Glastonbury Works →
philrich:
Part of Glastonbury’s charm therefore exists in a collective simplification of this work/reward binary. The physical effort of dragging a heavy trolley means that you can create your temporary home. The greater effort you put in, the greater environment you are able to create for yourself. The greater this environment, the more pleasurable it is going to be. This explicit, simple cause...
1 tag
“Thus my disappointment with my own enjoyment of I’m Gay (I’m Happy). I feel as...”
– In his review of I’m Gay (I’m Happy) for Prefix, my former PopMatters colleague, the vastly underrated hip-hop scribe Wilson McBee, ably outlines the duality that lies at the heart of Lil B’s latest. I’m Gay is a weird record by Lil B standards, which means that it’s a...
June 2011
3 posts
3 tags
3 tags
2 tags
May 2011
4 posts
5 tags
5 tags
5 tags
2 tags
tumblinerb:
No shots intended at all, but I...
April 2011
12 posts
3 tags
1 tag
3 tags
2 tags
WatchMy brother’s band, Good Night & Good Morning, playing a drone-heavy interlude that’s equal parts abrasive and blissed-out. You can follow them on the tumblr, if you like.
2 tags
“Of course, the hate spewed at Lil B reflects a real problem. I mean, death...”
– If you haven’t seen it already, Ann Powers’ conversation with Tavia Nyong’o on the state of homophobia in hip-hop is a must-read. I do agree with the article’s cautious optimism and am reminded of Wale’s flip-flopping around this time last year, when he pulled out of...
1 tag
3 tags
WatchTwo dudes on camera dishing out legal tips for music bloggers isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to watch, so I’m glad to see that the folks at WebProNews added DRAMATIC MUSIC and FANCY GRAPHICS to the interview they did with Mike and I down at SXSW. Also, the blog that you are reading at this very moment makes an unexpected appearance at the 5:50 mark, Ken Burns effect and all.