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(11/14/18 1:00pm)
A few weeks ago, I saw the music video for a song called “Ivy League” that, to my surprise, had been filmed all over Penn's campus. I immediately wanted to find out more about this song, and the artist behind its ludicrous sounds and fun–filled imagery.
(04/17/18 1:00pm)
With new albums coming out every week, it can be hard to keep up on the works of fringe artists. Here at 34th Street, we have compiled a few albums released in the past two weeks that are worth a full listen. If you are looking for some new music to get into, you’re sure to find a new favorite artist from this list.
(04/17/18 1:00pm)
Last week, my friend sent me a link to a song called “Everybody Wants To Be Famous” by a group called Superorganism, captioning it “music video is also sick.” Curious, I clicked and was immediately thrown into a vortex of epilepsy–inducing flashing between random images of a small girl swaying to one of the catchiest songs I had heard in a while. Immediately hooked, I wanted to know more.
(04/09/18 1:00pm)
The dilemma in listening to controversial rappers has been a hot topic for the past couple weeks. Noisey, Vice’s music blog, published an article on the topic, and renowned music vlogger Anthony Fantano gave his personal thoughts on the issue. Their general consensus: by listening to controversial artists, you are thereby helping them avoid the consequences of their actions, so it's best not to listen to them at all. Though these critics have helped spotlight the conversation, they tread rather lightly. It's this ‘lightness’ that prompts a new standard for listeners to adhere to: if you're a true defender of the sexually abused, you cannot promote the music of the abuser.
(04/15/18 1:00pm)
“You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story.”
(04/03/18 1:00pm)
Desert Island discs are an anomaly of music fans. While it becomes near impossible for music lovers to list their top five “favorite” albums, best artists, or even favorite songs, it seems everyone can think of their “desert island discs.” These discs are what you would take with you to the end of the world, what you truly feel will never get old, and what continues to grow on you as you grow up. Although it seems unimaginable to pick just THREE albums that would get you through a period of absolute desertion, it must be done—you know, just in case it actually happens. Music Beat writers Chris Troop and Holden Caplan have set out to explain their Desert Island Discs and why they keep them in an emergency Walkman case in their room at all times. It’s time to get sentimental.
(04/03/18 4:54pm)
Helena Deland is the kind of artist that makes you want to smile. Her ability to convey raw emotion through her heartbreaking lyrics is a talent only found in the truest of songwriters. Hailing from Montreal, Ontario, Helena has been making waves in music through her experimental use of synthesizers coupled with folk tunes. Currently on a US–tour, with a stop in Philly on April 4th, I got the chance to chat with the singer–songwriter about her shift in musical processes, new solo performances, and even got some details about potential collaborations she has in the works.
(03/29/18 1:00pm)
Being a musician today is a different beast. With record companies becoming less and less important, artists need to figure out a way to sell themselves to the public. The easiest route seems to be marketing yourself as the next big star, but some take the path less traveled. DummyFresh, formerly known as Penn’s own Andrew Ellis (C' 18), isn't trying to fit into a mold.
(03/21/18 1:00pm)
Being against house music is as easy as it is difficult. It is repetitive, frequently building off of a classic 128 bpm drum beat that bumps the prototypical “unts unts unts.” Its artists are young hipsters who ‘understand’ music at a level that ‘the rest’ just do not seem to understand. Hell, if you aren’t into house music, you probably are accused of not truly feeling music, that internal energy that builds up in the ravers of old German basement nightclubs, which ‘for–sure’ has no connection to the copious amounts of MDMA consumed. Or at least that is the stereotype.
(03/01/18 2:00pm)
Three weeks ago, I wrote an album review on Rhye’s album Blood for the Love Issue. Their ability to create love songs that are just as sexy as they are heart–wrenching is an ability I admire in singer Mike Milosh and his excellent band. On Feb. 27, I got the chance to see Rhye perform at Union Transfer, an evening which I was eager to experience. I was curious how Rhye translated their precision–cut riffs and falsetto portamentos into their live performances. After a nearly two–hour set that felt like a closed moment of transcendence, I became a mess of love–based emotions that I still carry with me as I write this article.
(03/15/18 1:01pm)
Last fall, my friend showed me an album that had just come out called Red Burns by an NYC–based jazz collective called Standing On The Corner (SOTC) led by Gio Escobar. I was blown away by the complexity of the songs, the themes of uncertainty in the future as a minority in America, and the ability of the album to be so incoherent, yet flow like nothing else. The website for the album is layered with images spanning from famous Worldstar videos to Jim Crow signs. I was confused and amazed at the same time. I was hooked.
(03/01/18 2:00pm)
Cracks in the stereo. Loud blaring. Sometimes listening to music is not a perfect experience. Listen to an old record and it's riddled with the remnants of mediocre audio equipment, weak masterings, and the occasional mic crack. There's a reason so much music from the 60s has been remastered. The quality in which these albums were recorded was under low–quality standards. Now, with the access to amazing studio equipment that the majority of artists have, they are able to remaster songs to make them sound perfect. Error–free music.
(02/28/18 2:00pm)
(02/21/18 2:00pm)
“Damn, Peggy!”
(02/19/18 1:41pm)
One of my favorite biological anomalies is a medical condition known as synesthesia. People with this condition associate one sense with a different one. To give an example, the smell of lilacs may make a person think of the color blue, for no particular reason at all. It usually appears in intriguing characters of novels as a way to make them more connected with the world around them, but it’s also prevalent among creatives. Though I am not on this plane of existence, I still think there are ways to have different senses compliment one another. One of my recent endeavors into this area recently has been an exploration into combinations of some of my favorite foods with certain songs. Through these sensory experiments, I hope to make each, both song and food, greater than they are alone. Let’s get weird.
(02/14/18 4:25am)
The college love culture has nothing to do with love at all. Intimacy is based around one–night stands and stories of passionate sex that flitter away with each new weekend. It is rare that we, as college students, talk to someone we are interested in about what it means to feel vulnerable, to be wanted, and feel safety in the grasp of a lover. These topics stay in the shadows, lingering in our minds as fantasies constricted by communal expectations. Mike Milosh, lead singer and leader of Rhye, an LA–based group focusing on transient disco funk and romantic ballads, brings these issues out of the shadows in their new album Blood. Through the 11–song album, Milosh brings to the forefront themes of solace and comfort in a relationship in a manner that makes you want to sway with your S/O on a dimly lit dance floor, but does not dive much deeper than that.
(02/08/18 5:51am)
There is a Youtube Live station with a constant 10,000–person viewership of a looped video of an anime girl sitting at a desk, looking tired and staring at a whole stack of work to her right as music plays in the background. The live chat is a constant stream of 4:20 blazers, depressed 14 year–olds looking for solace in other depressed 14 year–olds, and music heads from all across the globe. It’s a journey back through the ether of internet chat rooms, but the project is a new venture by Chillhop Music, a promoter of different artists that all make the same kind of transient synth–wave instrumentals. This music is called Lo–Fi Hip Hop and it has already overtaken your taste in music without you even knowing it.
(01/16/18 12:41am)
A year in which much of America was struggling with the reality of our divided nation also featured artists constantly creating—2017 came with a renovation to the music scene and made space for more creativity among artists. A lot has changed in the last year and that’s why 2018 is going to be a great year for music.
(12/01/17 5:11am)
In August, The Killers drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. was asked why rock acts today aren’t as commercially successful. He pompously responded, “People are very quick to blame a changing of the times for a lot of things, when it’s really that they’re just not good enough yet.”