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(04/22/19 11:54pm)
It’s been a very long time since we’ve heard from Vampire Weekend; their last full length release, Modern Vampires of the City, was released in 2013. With six years under their belt, one might expect the band to return to the fold full force with a novel sound and fresh ideas. Instead, Vampire Weekend delivered a lackluster EP. Casually, This Life/Unbearably White is a fine listen: It’s moderately catchy, sonically cheery, and consistently palatable. But beyond a few shining instrumental moments, it’s immensely boring as it falls into a refined palate of the past decade’s most successful indie tropes lumped with a derivative '70s sound.
(04/19/19 1:37am)
Brutalism is a step in the right direction for The Drums; their 2017 album, Abysmal Thoughts, stretched their 80’s indie pop sound as far as it could go, but the sign of a good musician is their intuition towards stylistic expansion. Brutalism capitalizes on a pop sensibility that has always underscored Jonny Pierce’s songwriting and amplifies it to a magnificent volume; employing studio musicians, engineers, and a producer to polish the dust off of The Drums indie sound.
(04/12/19 2:05am)
Recently, it was announced that Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly holograms would be joining one another on stage for a touring show, the “Rock and Roll Dream Tour.” This will be the Orbison hologram’s second tour; the estate–approved image was recently the subject of a touring performance, "In Dreams", this past fall. Like the late Frank Zappa’s hologram, an actual band accompanied Orbison’s hologram on stage to supplement the “newly recorded, never–before–heard, digitally remastered arrangements of his classics.”
(04/04/19 3:00pm)
With the exception of cognitive dissonance, nothing gets a kid that’s taking PSYC 001 this semester more hyped than the mention of schemas. Cognitive structures within our long term memory, schemas help us to make quick decisions by providing scripts for appropriate behavior in a given setting. They’re a quiet understanding of a situation’s social rules and our roles within them. Schemas, however, are inherently skewed. Naturally, our culture creeps into the scripts we write for ourselves, making space for biases as we try to categorize the world around us.
(04/10/19 10:44pm)
Even if you haven’t seen Bradley Cooper’s Oscar nominated directorial debut A Star is Born, there’s no way the buzz has escaped you. The movie soundtrack’s biggest hit, “Shallow,” has swept the radio airwaves, and Cooper and Lady Gaga’s passionate performance at the Oscars stole the show.
(03/27/19 1:11am)
In the days before a gentrified Fishtown, when Old City was Center City’s furthest frontier, Ellen Yin opened Fork at 306 Market Street. It was 1997, and not many restaurants could be found between Broad Street and the waterfront. Yin’s goal was just to stay open for a year. Today, Fork is critically acclaimed, and Yin is the founder and co–owner of High Street Hospitality Group, which manages five successful restaurants.
(03/28/19 9:41pm)
For decades now, it’s been cool for rock bands to sound bad. With the mechanization of pop–rock came a fleet of disenchanted indie rockers pushing back against the norm with gritty records full of fuzz.
(03/19/19 5:38am)
Kansas City native folk rocker and fearless nomad Kevin Morby has announced his fifth solo record, Oh My God. The former Woods bassist and The Babies singer made a name for himself with his acclaimed releases, the latest being 2017’s City Music. On this upcoming double LP, Morby conceptually explores the human experience through religion, as is noted by a recent press release:
(03/04/19 9:20pm)
For rockers like Mike Krol, leaving the safety of the garage can be a dangerous game. Beyond those thin aluminum walls is a world full of heartbreak and despair. On his latest record, Power Chords, Krol ventures outside, barking and biting his way through lost love with his signature fuzz, fists up the whole time.
(02/26/19 6:52am)
As Adrianne Lenker meticulously tuned her guitar in the middle of her set at the First Unitarian Church on Feb. 15, the full audience silently stood by, waiting for her next song. Unassumingly, Lenker softly spoke into the microphone, “Does anyone want to hear anything in particular?” The room suddenly burst with an outcry of song names from her dedicated fans. Clearly surprised by the audience’s outburst, Lenker dismissed the flurry of suggestions with a chuckle to herself. “Okay, this is impossible,” she smiled. “I take it back.”
(03/11/19 1:04am)
For years, Meg Duffy made their bones in the music world by working as a studio guitarist and then playing in Kevin Morby’s band. Their move from New York City prompted the beginning of Hand Habits, which began as a solo project and transformed into a fully fledged band. Their debut, Wildly Idle, which was recorded and produced by Duffy in their bedroom, made a name for the group in 2017. Widly Idle showcased a variety of modern folk songs that were pensive and lush with keen observation, placing Duffy alongside contemporaries such as Big Thief and Angel Olson.
(02/18/19 2:00pm)
FIDLAR means “Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Risk.” This is a band who made their 2012 debut with lead singer Zac Carper screaming, “I drink cheap beer/So what?/Fuck you,” on their eponymous album FIDLAR’s opening track, “Cheap Beer.” Immediately, FIDLAR became the epitome of SoCal party–punk, but “punk” has never really been their sound. Rather than worrying themselves with the strict sonic and cultural guidelines put forth by the generations of social outcasts and staunch, self–identifying nonconformists who call themselves “punk,” FIDLAR has always done what they’ve wanted. And that’s what makes them punk as all hell, even if their music isn’t.
(02/17/19 11:08pm)
Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad formed Girlpool as teenagers living in Los Angeles. Armed with just a guitar and bass, the two–piece sang in inseparable harmony on their unique brand of folk punk jams. Simple instrumentation left them nowhere in their tracks to hide, but hiding was never Girlpool’s intention; their sharp singing took lyrical swings at slut–shaming and white male privilege on their 2014 debut Girlpool.
(02/12/19 4:24am)
Since the dawn of tape decks, lovers have exchanged mixtapes as a sign of alternative intimacy. Cassettes, and later CDs, gave the music-sharing experience a physical form representing a desire to grow closer through the sharing of tastes.