Beloved Boston post-hardcore band Pile have shared a new video for their song "Dogs." Originally released as a single from their standout album A Hairshirt of Purpose, which dropped earlier this year, the track is now paired with closeups of dusty cityscapes and a scruffy Rick Maguire, refracted through a hazy lens. Exploding with a…
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Beloved Boston post-hardcore band Pile have shared a new video for their song "Dogs." Originally released as a single from their standout album A Hairshirt of Purpose, which dropped earlier this year, the track is now paired with closeups of dusty cityscapes and a scruffy Rick Maguire, refracted through a hazy lens. Exploding with a…
(Asthmatic Kitty) Sufjan Stevens' 2015 album Carrie & Lowell, a reflection on the death of his mother, was one of that year's best, as the Michigan musician returned to the delicate, poignant folk that made his name. This companion piece features four songs left off the record, along with demos and remixes. The grandest of the offcuts, Wallowa Lake Monster, suffers in comparison with the far superior Should Have Known Better, whose melody it briefly shares, but The Hidden River of My Life is a gem – too uptempo and jaunty for Carrie & Lowell, its fingerpicking decorates lyrics charged with a happy curiosity. The demos are unnecessary, as is the echo and heft Helado Negro adds to two remixes, but there's a pleasant Postal Service-style whimsy to others – recent collaborator James McAlister, AKA 900X, turns the “we're all going to die” refrain of Fourth of July into a weirdly uplifting techno-pop affirmation. Continue reading...Melissa Schuman, formerly of the pop group Dream, alleges that Carter assaulted her when she was 18
Nick Cave Calls Israel Show “a Principled Stand,” Accuses Roger Waters of “Censoring Musicians”11/21/2017 Ahead of two Tel Aviv shows, he explains his decision to play Israel in a press conference
American music awards: A-listers absent and women underserved in night of missed opportunity11/21/2017 The 2017 AMAs promised to be political and empowering but – with a few exceptions – delivered the same old formula that feels less urgent than ever “This year, perhaps more than any in recent history, we needed the power of music to help us escape the news of the day,” announced Jamie Foxx during the cold open to the 2017 American music awards, before introducing Pink and Kelly Clarkson's somber rendition of R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts. “We needed that power to help us heal from hurricanes, wildfires, hate, and hatred-fueled violence.” On a night that celebrated the achievements of pioneers including Whitney Houston and Diana Ross, while conferring its awards upon a slew of young white men including Niall Horan, Shawn Mendes and the Chainsmokers, the 45th annual American music awards oscillated between rejecting and reaffirming 2017's national political moment. Continue reading...(RCA) If Paloma Faith hadn't trumpeted The Architect as her “political with a small 'p'” album, it might sound just like another big, brassy retro soul collection about love and heartache. It's far from obvious that the swaggering Guilty apparently expresses the thoughts of a regretful Brexit voter (“I'm living in my worst fears / Begging you back through tears”). Samuel L Jackson's opening monologue about revolution is far more direct than the subsequent title track's oblique apparent references to domestic violence. Owen Jones's rousing speech about the politics of hope leads only to the wishy-washy Kings and Queens. However, there's plenty of the big-voiced, Amy Winehouse/Lisa Stansfield-type pop that saw Faith's first three albums go double platinum. The John Legend duet I'll Be Gentle is trademark classy schmaltz and the Sia-penned Warrior addresses refugees on the vaguest terms. Nobody will storm parliament after hearing this, but Faith's heart's in the right place. Continue reading...Tove Lo shares her new album, Blue Lips, the companion LP to last year's Lady Wood: Stream11/17/2017 Photo by Ben Kaye Today marks the release of Tove Lo's new album, Blue Lips [Lady Wood Phase II]. Subscribers of Apple Music and Spotify can stream below. The pop star's third LP, Blue Lips is designed to be a companion piece to last year's Lady Wood. Tove Lo says that, together, the albums tell the “Lady Wood Story.” Spread across two “chapters”-”Light Beam” and “Pitch Black”- the new album is said to describe the “highs, lows and ultimate demise of a relationship.” Also part of the albums' collective story arc are a pair of short films, Fairy Dust and Fire Fade, that mark Tove Lo's acting debut. “It has more of that feeling of never really feeling satisfied and chasing that direction,” she told NME of the albums. “Calling the first one Lady Wood and then following it up with Blue Lips, it's the female version of 'blue balls'. In a deeper sense it's all about trying to reach satisfaction – I don't just mean sexually, I mean for life overall.” “I think sonically, I've been a bit more free this time,” she continued. “I've been playing with sounds that I haven't explored before. On this record, I decided to have my first ballad. I wanted to get into the different types of pop that I didn't on Lady Wood. That was cohesively more together, but this one goes in more different directions on purpose.” In advance of the album, Tove Lo dropped “Disco Tits”, for which she released an amazing, NSFW video in which she fucks a puppet. Earlier this week, she performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Blue Lips [Lady Wood Phase II] Artwork: Blue Lips [Lady Wood Phase II] Tracklist: Pitch Black (part two): It was recorded during his last tour behind their One More Light album
(ECM) Over time, gifted player/composers sometimes sideline the first skill in favour of the second – but not Django Bates. He shines still more brightly as a piano improviser in his 50s, as he confirms on this ECM debut of the Belovèd trio he originally formed to play Charlie Parker's music. The boppish Passport is the only Parker tune here, all the others are the leader's. Often unfamiliarly tender and contemplative by Bates's wayward standards, the session continues to foreground this close-knit threesome's fondness for letting spontaneous ideas go where they will, rather than sustaining one dominant mood. The mixed-tempo dance of Giorgiantics is full of one-touch dialogues with bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun; We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way imparts jolting Batesian disruptions to a sometimes Bill Evans-like grace; Peonies As Promised suggests a Broadway standard in its lilting unison piano/bass theme, but nobody but Django Bates in its impulsive scurries toward resolutions. A session by a master improvising composer, and in ideal company. Continue reading... |
Helen Chilton
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