Tag: alternative

Album Review: Man Alive! by King Krule

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Artist: King Krule

Album: Man Alive!

Genre: Alternative, Lofi

Hometown: London, England

Track Listing (* – recommended tracks):

  1. Cellular*
  2. Supermarché
  3. Stoned Again
  4. Comet Face
  5. The Dream
  6. Perfecto Miserable
  7. Alone, Omen 3*
  8. Slinky
  9. Airport Antenatal Airplane
  10. (Don’t Let the Dragon) Draag On
  11. Theme for the Cross
  12. Underclass
  13. Energy Fleets*
  14. Please Complete Thee

Songs with profanity: #2, #3

Recommended if you like: Cosmo Pyke, Ariel Pink, Blood Orange, Homeshake

Label: Matador Records

Reviewed by: Lil Macchiato

New Artist Spotlight: The Polychromatics

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This week, the WDCV music directors added a few featured artists, and we’ve decided to shine a light on one of the newest bands.

The Polychromatics are an indie rock band based in Philadelphia, and their EP is a perfect depiction of the versatility of their talents. They’re refreshingly open to experimenting with their sound. John McKenna, the guitarist of the band and featured vocalist on two songs off the EP, describes each song on the EP as an island, but I disagree. While the songs sound sonically different – in four songs they manage to play everything from folk, to garage jam band, to psychedelic – the lyrics convey a claustrophobia and existential anxiety that feels genuine and relatable to anyone in transition.  

According to the guitarist, the band’s influences go hand in hand with their favorite music, such as Pink Floyd, Ty Segall, King Crimson, Gandalf, and The Doors (some of my favorites as well). McKenna specifically said that the song that is most prominent from his youth is The End by the Doors, which led him to pursue music. He says, “When I first heard Robby Krieger’s skill on that song, I made the decision to become a guitarist.” (He also recommends we listen to the psychedelic band Wand.)

If you’re interested in listening to them, they’ll be circulating through our automation, and they’re also on Soundcloud. When I asked how they felt about how the internet affects the music business, a controversial issue, they said, “It’s giving our band the ability to reach an audience quickly [which] we might not have had the chance to do if we took the old school method…I can’t help but see the benefits of instantaneous communication on a free platform for unknown bands like ourselves.” 

If you have any questions for the band about their work, or event opportunities, you can contact them at their email, the.polychromatics@gmail.com, on twitter or on facebook.

If you have questions for the author of this article, please email logiurab@dickinson.edu or post on her facebook page. 

ADDs of the Week for 10/22-10/23

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I know I haven’t been exactly on top of my ADDs game for a while. A lot of senior thesis work and staring out the window has been occupying my time. Not to mention my attempts to break this caffeine addiction. It’s a little disturbing. Anyway, we have a lot of really great ADDs this week which you will be hearing over the air for a while, especially the ones I’m about to tell you allllll about. Because they are awesome. Didn’t I already say that? Anyway, here are this weeks top ADDs:

Titus Andronicus — Local Business: The long anticipated and accidentally recently leaked new album from punk rock Americana superband Titus Andronicus is here! This album differs from their other two albums because it doesn’t follow a set concept or narrative, but it is just as violent and rawly awesome as their other work. The subjects covered in the album’s themes range from an eating disorder to quitting smoking to lots of other things so nihilistic I can’t even begin to describe them all. Listen and punch a wall simultaneously to get the full effect.

Recommended Tracks: Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape With The Flood Of Detritus, My Eating Disorder, In A Big City, (I Am The) Electric Man

RIYD: Andrew Jackson Jihad, Bomb the Music Industry!, Japandroids

Paul Banks — Banks: This is the front man of Interpol’s solo album, and let’s just say he works even better alone. A more simplified sound, Banks’s voice still adds a lot of the allure that has fans drawn to his band Interpol as well. There’s something a little 1970s about this album as well.

Recommended Tracks: The Base, Over My Shoulder, Young Again

RIYD: Turtle Giants, Interpol, Blonds

Chelsea Wolfe — Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs: Okay, this girl is like Lykke Li and Cat Power had a baby after listening to a lot of Grimes. Though the album is primarily acoustic, her voice and layering of harmonies make this album a lot richer. There is a lot of raw emotion juxtaposed with clean cut structure. This album is perfect for studying or pretending to be studying but actually just stressing out while staring up at the ceiling. Highly recommended.

Recommended Tracks: Sunstorm, Flatlands, Boyfriend

RIYD: Cat Power, Lykke Li, Tegan and Sara, EMA

New Single from TEGAN AND SARA

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I don’t know about you, radioland, but I have been waiting for a new Tegan and Sara single since I was in, like, high school. Like. They’ve probably had new music before then but I haven’t had any new Tegan and Sara in my personal universe in a long time.

Anyway, you should definitely check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dSGbOmW4AjI

And you can check out their first single “Closer” right here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7MNGPmrlWo

Their new album Heartthrob is set to be released in January 2013.

THIS WEEKS ADDS (9/11/12-9/12/12): Cat Power, Animal Collective and The XX

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We have a lot of new adds this week for WDCV, and a lot from last week as well. While we sort through the piles of CDs currently overflowing from the rickety bookshelves in the exec office, here is a little sample of the bigger names we’ve racked in for adds this week.

All of the music we have gotten is of course, awesomeee, but these three deserve a post all their own.

The xx — Coexist: This album is everything you’d expect from The xx, sensual slow beats and the pleasant harmonies of sultry male and female voices winding in and around each other. Their second studio produced album, Coexist is the product of the band’s endless touring for the past two years and the loss of their fourth member Baria Qureshi. The themes common to the xx’s previous album remain the same with Coexist, loneliness, love and lust dominant the lyrics of the album. Though their music is inspired by pop and dance music, their sound is simple enough to stand on its own whether the band is playing live or you just have Romy Madley Croft’s voice sighing in your ear through inexpensive headphones.

Recommended Tracks: Angels, Chained, Fiction, Sunset, Swept Away

RIYD: Purity Ring, Lykke Li

Animal Collective — Centipede Hz: The tenth studio album from Animal Collective, Centipede Hz is the first in a while to actually include collaborative efforts of all four original members Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin. More experimental and less clean cut than Merriweather Post Pavillion, one is reminded of the raw quality of albums like Sung Tongs and Strawberry Jam. Fans of the old Animal Collective will warm to this album, with its trance elements and unique collaged quality.

Recommended Tracks: Moonjock, Today’s Supernatural, Applesauce, New Town Burnout, Amanita

RIYD: Gang Gang Dance, Deerhunter

Cat Power — Sun: Layered musically as well as lyrically, SUN is Cat Power aka Chan Marshall’s first album of solely personal and self written material in six years. Marshall wrote all of the material herself, and the music reflects her independence as an artist as well as her ability to mold and manipulate multiple musical styles. The haunting guitar and throaty vocals classic to Cat Power’s previous style remain as well as the influence of a more upbeat electronic sound that makes her work more competitive with current synth pop.

Recommended Tracks: Cherokee, Sun, 3 6 9, Manhattan

RIYD: Bat For Lashes, Sharon Van Etten, Neko Case, Grimes

 

That’s all for this week, keep checking in for more featured artist updates!

Meow.

The Two Rapstresses We Can’t Get Enough Of

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And coincidentally, they have similar(ish) names: Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks aka Yung Rapunzel

Iggy Azalea, real name Amethyst Amelia Kelly, is a native Australian only 22 years of age. Despite her youth, she has already gained an avid underground following with a free mixtape available for download as well as her EP Glory which is also available for free download. Iggy was recently signed to Grand Hustle Records, the record label founded by TI in Georgia. Her rise to fame has been mostly due to her videos going viral on Youtube, and her sound is as fun as it is fierce. Her main influence is Tupac Shakur.

See her video with TI for Murda Bizness here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzI9VQUHJkU

Follow her on twitter here! https://twitter.com/IGGYAZALEA

Meanwhile, Azalea Banks is an American rapper/singer/lyricist from Harlem, NY. She is currently signed to Interscope/Polydor records. She is a young up and coming artist as well–she is only 21 years old! From a young age, Azalea was interested in theater and performance, but she eventually left high school early in order to pursue a career as a rapper. Azealia has a mixtape titled Fantasea as well as an EP released on Polydor/Interscope titled 1991.

See her video for Liquorice here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPaXn2XR-P8

And follow her on twitter here! https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS

The Avett Brothers at Innsbrook Snagajob Pavilion 7/20/2012

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Almost a week ago now, I had the chance to see ever-energetic and delightful Avett Brothers perform in concert. I had yet to see them live, and after hearing wonderful things and crying over the online ticket purchase only briefly, I was able to see them in all their bearded glory.

Despite the kind of monotonous and nap inducing opener Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Avett Brothers came on with “Will You Return” and it was like a bomb went off in the pavilion (in a good way). Everyone was dancing, even the dads in their lawn chairs with beer sloshing everywhere. It was a hot and humid night, but halfway through their set it started drizzling slightly, and it was practically a scene from Singing in the Rain.

The set list in its entirety is below:

1) Will You Return
2) Traveling Song (slow)
3) Down With The Shine
4) Love Like the Movies
5) January Wedding
6) Salina
7) At the Beach
8) Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
9) Live & Die
10) Laundry Room
11) Sally’s Lover
12) Ballad
13) Closer Walk
14) The Fall
15) Colorshow
16) Go to Sleep
17) Kick Drum Heart
18) Slight Figure Of Speech
————-
19) Please Pardon Yourself (slow)
20) Paranoia
21) And it Spread
22) Talk on Indolence

This band is amazing because whenever they play their songs live, they always seem to change some of the lyrics. After stalking the forums on the band’s website after the show, I even found some live recordings so all of you avid fans can watch for yourself. Included is the recording of their new song “Live and Die” set to be released on their new album which comes out in September.

Will You Return

Down with the Shine

Live and Die

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Please Pardon Yourself

For more pictures from the concert you can see them on one of the photographer’s facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150924003341502.412537.138022931501&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10150924003341502.412537.138022931501&type=1

The xx released a preview of their new album!

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The xx is FINALLY releasing a new album! The album is titled Coexist and can be preordered here: http://bit.ly/CoexistPreorder

The album will be officially released by Young Turks on September 10/11th

They’re so cute! Anyway, I myself cannot stop listening to this track and am SO EXCITED for Coexist.

Check it out for yourself–

Listen to it on Youtube by clicking the link below!

The xx – Angels

 

Hope you’re all having a great summer and be sure to keep checking the blog for more new music updates!

Grimes is Awesome

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Has anyone gotten into Grimes yet? Have you heard of her at all? Because she is great.

She comes out of the illegal DIY culture in Canada, and she’s been making music for a couple of years, though I’ve only heard of her recently because of  her latest album Visions. Anyway, the video for Oblivion just came out and you must all watch it. Ergo, I’m posting it here.

Grimes — Oblivion

Also, here’ s a picture of her. Yay.



She also has a twitter account @grimeszs

Meep,

Tori

 

Heavy Rotation Update: ADDs for the week of 4/23-4/24

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Hello hello hello, is there anybody listening out there? I wasn’t sure.

Anyway, the weather here in Carlisle has taken yet another drastic turn for the cold and depressing, with some apocalyptic rain for good measure. For those of you suddenly depressed by copious amounts of last minute papers to write plus the lack of sunshine, here’s a breaded cat to cheer you up:

Anyway, here are some of the adds for this week:

Anathema — Weather Systems: This band is pretty doom and gloom, but not so much so that you need to curl up in to a ball afterward. A little more 90s alternative than I usually go for, at least in public, they definitely work as a pleasant mind meld when you’re tired of pretending that OFWGKTA is the only thing you ever listen to outside of working out at the gym. RIYD: 30 Seconds to Mars (lol), Porcupine Tree, Muse

Joel Plaskett Emergency — Scrappy Happiness: Who doesn’t like a guy with a dreamy voice singing about nostalgia and stuff? I would describe this album’s genre as being a creature of “wistful rock music.” Let’s get weepy. RIYD: Paul Baribeau, Ted Leo, Elvis Costello

The Guiltracket — Thuds and Grunts: Still not sure if that’s all supposed to be one word or two words. Oh well. This band is probably my favorite add for the week, just saying. They’re a lot punkier than we usually have in our binder, and they balance it out by having plenty of folk edge to them as well. RIYD: This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, Ghost Mice

Anyway, keep your nose wet and your tail dry. Er…

Love,

Tori