Music
KRFT SNGLS
Fist of God, the second LP from punk bassist-turned-electro house DJ Jesse F. Keeler and cohort Al-P, is an attempt at creating a cohesive dance record.
Guilty Pleasure: Destiny's Child, "The Writings on the Wall" (1999)
This album’s all about “good for nothing types of brothers” — you know, guys who don’t pay their girls’ bills, say their names or know when to stop paging them.
Get Ur Philly Phreak On
Making Time No write up of dance nights in Philadelphia would be complete without a mention of Making Time, the behemoth that arguably birthed this burgeoning scene.
Mirah, Mirah on the Wall
This is not the Mirah who innocently devoted an album’s worth of songs to a number of different insects, nor is it the Mirah who gave lyrical love advice through the poppy C’mon Miracle. With (a)spera’s return to Spanish-influenced guitar plucking, addressing listeners directly and thinly veiled moralizing politics, comes the striking of a different note: gloom.
Cyc-ology
There’s an important but subtle difference between burning love and getting burned. Neko Case explores the effects of toggling that particular four letter word in and out of the equation on her latest album, Middle Cyclone. More aggressive and revealing than her previous solo release, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006), and more straightforward than her New Pornographers material, the flame-haired indie/dixie diva is at her songwriting best.
We’re So Moving On (yeah-ee yeah)
Five years ago, the music gods smiled on Kelly Clarkson and the American public’s desire for a more palatable Alanis found its apotheosis in an awesome little song about dumping your loser boyfriend.
Campus Cred: Off the Beat
Street: Of all the OTB-wannabes on campus, why did you make the cut? Maggie Nyce: I have a nose ring.
Los Angeles, We Have a Problem
In the tradition of major concept albums of years past, Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon of N.A.S.A. (that is, North America South America) have constructed The Spirit of Apollo, which focuses on the transcendent theme of unity through music.
Surf 'n' Turf
Tight Knit has more in common with grass, Vetiver’s namesake, than front-man Andy Cabic could have ever hoped.
Guilty Pleasures: Taylor Swift, "Love Story" (2008)
If you think you’ve never heard Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” or the album Fearless, you’re wrong.
Campus Cred: DJ Newby
Street: What’s so new about DJ Newby? Matt Newberg: Everything is new about DJ Newby because I am hip-hop.
Defibrillator: TLC, "Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip" (1992)
Six years our senior and fresh off the middle school bus, my best friend’s sister Ali was the unquestioned arbiter of cool.
Bad Seed
Despite wandering into Explosions in the Sky’s territory, the epic (post-rock) fail that is Sagarmatha won’t land the A-Cast a spot on the Friday Night Lights soundtrack anytime soon.
Pop Punk Pity Party
Three years after the critically acclaimed The Ringleaders of the Tormenters, Morrissey returns with more wrist-cuttingly good times.
Guilty Pleasures: Saves the Day, "Through Being Cool" (1999)
Maybe big boys don’t cry, but this week has left me dwelling on the long-gone days of puppy love and unanswered Disney Valentines.
This is What It Sounds Like When Gods Cry
Four years after “Catch My Disease” ran rampant through hospital dramas everywhere, Ben Lee is back with The Rebirth of Venus. “I’m a woman too,” Lee claims on track 11, as though anything could validate this failed attempt at a girl power concept album.
Monkeys & Maraschino Cherries
Street: You guys are often compared to artists of the ‘70s, Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Were these the bands you grew up with? Eric Earley: Those are the bands we grew up on and our parents listened to.
This Week in Music History: February 5-12
1957: Bill Haley, a star among Comets, arrives in Southampton on the Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the first American rock star to tour the UK.
Defibrillator: The Beach Boys, "Pet Sounds" (1966)
My parents are, in the simplest of terms, ex-hippies. There are more pictures of my father wearing bandanas than there are of us together and my mother still dances like a girl on Haight Street.
