Call it sentimentality, but there’s something to be said for a well-crafted love song, and TV on the Radio has 10 of them on their latest album, Nine Types of Light.
Hipsters across the country have been losing their Urban Outfitters-cool, apathetic facade to get their hands on Panda Bear’s (Noah Lennox’s solo effort) Tomboy, the follow-up to 2007’s Person Pitch.
Katy Perry’s second album, Teenage Dream, is a force to be reckoned with: Each of its successive singles has climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the definitive measure of a song’s commercial success. Some might think it a surprising accomplishment given that one of the songs, “Firework,” poses the simple philosophical quandary: “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?”
You can’t please everybody, but you can sure try sometimes. That happens to be something that the U.K.-based band British Sea Power realized going into their fifth full-length album, Valhalla Dancehall, last year.
Welsh-born pop songstress Marina Diamandis, in her vintage letter jackets and vibrant skirts, would probably look right at home among the pages of a pop art comic book.
Turntablism, the manipulation of sounds through turntables and a DJ mixer, has never been a glorified role within the rap scene. DJs are often required to put in a tremendous amount of work centered around the goals of the artist for whom they spin. Even if given ample room for creativity, it’s rarer for DJs to suggest verses to rappers than for rappers to make suggestions to DJs.
It’s a crisp, clear day and lead singer and guitarist Ryan Lentell is holding a 24 oz. of Budweiser and chain-smoking cheap Pall Malls as he talks about how he thinks the psych-rock scene in Austin has become a trend — not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. After all, Shells has gotten the psych-rock comparison before, though much of Shells’ sound can’t be attributed to one genre.
Despite the Austin music scene’s illustrious history, it has been harboring fundamental flaws that stand to compromise the interests of the artists involved, the core of its reputation, and what it stands for.