Berated

Bad Braids is a very intimate project, clearly intended to showcase the beautiful talents of Megan Biscieglia. Her talents as a guitarist, vocalist, and lyricist are on full display throughout Arrow and Orb, a fascinating and ingenious release that mixes gypsy-folk, psychedelia, and country-rock with awe-inspiring results. Biscieglia’s voice has a sort of twang often [...]

I have heard several people complain about this phenomenon of “lo-fi” artists. Why hide songwriting under layers of incoherence, they usually ask, if the songwriting is allegedly good? Being one of the more popular lo-fi examples, Ariel Pink is one of the first examples they use. I then usually ask if them if they have [...]

Earlier this fall we were treated to Twin Shadow, the solo project of Brooklyn-based George Lewis, Jr. His adoration for post-punk was no secret, with a post-punk arsenal of rhythmic reverb that beautifully complemented Lewis’ deep and somber voice – which naturally fell somewhere between Morrissey and Ian McCulloch. Barring some more lighthearted moments like [...]

It is not surprising that Benji Schneider grew up on a lake. Michigan’s Lake Huron, to be exact. Most of Schneider’s press photos and album artwork depict him and a body of water in the background, or just the latter. The serenity of water’s flow and grace alone allows us to guess this is not [...]

Os Mutantes are one of few artists that are truly inter-generational. Even apart from their long-standing tenure, the influential Brazilian psychedelic-rockers play music that is received amiably by audiences of all ages and backgrounds. When I saw them live this past Saturday at Webster Hall, the somewhat obnoxious crowd there for opener Ariel Pink began [...]

Christopher Owens reached indie-rock gold by the end of last year. After steadily putting out a handful of singles throughout the year – “Hellhole Ratrace” in July and “Lust for Life” in September – he released Girls’ debut full-length, Album, to nonstop acclaim. A year-end list felt invalid without Girls’ laudable effort reaching the top [...]

Popular hip-hop artist Kid Cudi returns with his highly anticipated sophomore full-length, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. We take a look at it to see if guest stars like Kanye West, Cee-Lo Green, and St. Vincent can help place Man on the Moon II alongside other hip-hop successes this year like Big Boi. The overall result, while containing a handful of successes, is not as exhilarating as Cudi's previous work.

In 2006 it seemed like Matthew Adam Hart would soon reach prolific status. Hart’s flurry of successful remixes and the release of The Russian Futurists‘ ’05 gem, Our Thickness, suggested that he could become the next Matthew Herbert of sorts, a musical entrepreneur with refined innovation even beyond his specialized niche of electronica. Our Thickness [...]

I’ve always thought that it’s peculiar yet marvelous that while I’m getting ready for the cooler seasons, the bottom half of the globe is warming up. I really wish I could migrate south for the winter and take Antonio Paul’s EP Treasures with me, simply because it is the perfect album for living it up in the sun. It’s quite appropriate then, that Antonio Paul are from a small surfer town in Western Australia.

Here we go again. The first “Albums for Autumn” feature went well, providing a good variety of albums new and old that are best suited for autumnal listening. As I said in that post, these albums are recommended to be listened to in their entirety. The MP3 snippets are just to get you going. Wire [...]