Album Review: James Blake, ‘Enough Thunder’
From Prefixmag:
On his latest, Enough Thunder, this happens… sometimes. The six-song EP has a short tracklist but at times feels like an eternity. Sounds are dragged on and on and we’re just not quite sure what Blake is trying to do. On “Fall Creek Boys Choir,” the single released a couple months back that features the vocals of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Blake creates a blissful, pulsing track full of Vernon’s dramatically haunting falsetto; yet after awhile, the song just levels out. We’re building towards something, and something, and something – but it’s never paid off. Rather than hold our attention, the repetition becomes boring. The same goes for the opening track, “Once We All Agree.” It’s only four and a half minutes long, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason why. And within that lies the biggest problem with the EP. The emptiness that felt so purposeful on his debut LP now feels elongated and forced.
Album Review: Deer Tick, ‘Divine Providence’
From Prefixmag:
With the group’s latest venture, Divine Providence, it’s as if the band members are giving one collective middle finger to anybody who has tried to define their sound over their career. From the album’s launch point, a coke-fueled anthem called “The Bump,” McCauley’s growl sets the tone: “We’re full grown men / but we act like kids,” he proclaims over Replacements-esque guitars and drum stomps. Deer Tick doesn’t care what anybody wants it to be. Deer Tick just wants to have fun and play music as loud it possible can.
Tom Morello at Occupy Wall Street: ‘Take It Easy, but Take It’
From Rolling Stone:
Tom Morello paused for a moment as he tuned his guitar in front of the Occupy Wall Street masses this morning at New York’s Liberty Plaza. “This is crazy out here,” he said, smiling. The Rage Against the Machine guitarist went on to perform a four-song set for hundreds of onlookers, including a poignant, protester-fueled rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”
Published on Rolling Stone:
Then it was Kweli’s turn – and he delivered. He had one major message: It’s time for us to focus. In his first rhyme, a freshly written piece called “Distraction,” he criticized our current culture’s priorities: “Skip the religion and politics, head straight to the compassion,” he rapped. “Everything else is a distraction.” But once he finished, at the request of the crowd, he popped right back up – this time, with a poignant rendition of Blackstar’s “Thieves in the Night.” By the end of the a cappella cut the protestors had joined in, repeating the refrain together: “Hidin’ like thieves in the night from life / Illusions of oasis makin’ you look twice.”
Published on Rolling Stone:
Last Thursday, Providence-based rockers Deer Tick announced a free show at tiny Brooklyn club Death By Audio as a direct response to what they called “unnecessary and unjust” police brutality used against women at the Occupy Wall Street protests early last week, an incident (captured on video) that featured an officer pepper-spraying nonviolent protestors. And last night, the band showed their support for the cause while avoiding overtly political statements: To kick things off, Deer Tick exploded onto stage with an electric version of Hank Williams’ “Move It On Over” and frontman John McCauley said to the capacity crowd of around 200, “Not taking sides here. Just don’t think cops should beat the shit out of anyone.”
Album Review: CANT, ‘Dreams Come True’
Published on Prefixmag:
Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor might be one of the most influential people you don’t know. Not only has his band played some type of role in pretty much every single sound to come out of Brooklyn since 2004, he’s also had his hand directly inside the process. With his label Terrible Records, he’s produced some of the hottest young acts in the independent scene (Twin Shadow, the Morning Benders and Arthur Russell). So, it’s not too surprising that with his first solo effort — an album called Dreams Come True under the moniker CANT – he succeeds.
Interview: Chaz Bundick of Toro y Moi
From Prefix Magazine:
Chaz Bundick doesn’t really talk much, but that doesn’t influence his music. His project Toro Y Moi has, for the lack of a better description, absolutely fucking exploded since its inception in 2010. With two excellent albums already under his belt, and the fresh EP Freaking Out out on Sept. 13, it’s not too surprising he’s been dubbed by many as a leader in the so-called “chillwave” movement. And suddenly, that’s put him an interesting position, as some music fans might look to him as a voice for the burgeoning genre, a representation of what that type of music exactly stands for and what it’s trying to accomplish. But, Chaz isn’t this. Or at least he doesn’t seem like it. Instead, he comes off as a mild-mannered, quite shy, early 20-something college graduate who’s just doing what he wants to do — and in his words, it’s simple: “making stuff.”
Album Review: Toro y Moi, “Freaking Out”
From Prefix Magazine:
His newest work — a quick, five-song EP called Freaking Out – is delightful and funky, both musically and emotionally. Coming just seven months after his last LP Underneath the Pine, the EP abandons the — as Chaz puts it — “real instruments” used for Pine (you know, like guitars and drums and stuff) and hops back behind the laptop, reverting back to the lush, atmospheric electronic pop of his debut album Causers of This. But, Freaking Out is a bit more fun.
Stream: Three Songs from The Kook’s “Junk of the Heart”
From Rolling Stone:
Fans of the band anxiously awaiting the album’s release should be happy, as Junk of the Heart continues in a very Kook-y direction. However, frontman Luke Pritchard is candid with his influences. Regarding “Is It Me” – a funky, upbeat song about love gone wrong — he cites LCD Soundsystem as a source of inspiration. “I really wanted the drums to sound like a track off Sound of Silver – you know, really Tom Tom Club-y,” he says. “The programming on that track is amazing.”
Daytrotter: The Internet’s Music Hall
This is a story I’m particularly proud of. Not only was I able to write about one of my favorite websites on the internet, Daytrotter, but I learned that the people behind the operation are even cooler than the operation itself.
Published in Prefix:
The operation is pretty simple, or as Moeller puts it, “the most honest way to record.” Run by Moeller and three other guys (illustrator Johnny Cluney, engineer Mike Gentry and administrator Phil Pracht), they use a minimalistic setup: a few mics and preamps record a band performing four or five songs straight to 1/4 inch analog tape. Aside from a conversion to MP3, there is no post-production — no overdubs, no fixes and the mistakes are left in. As the website says, “What you hear is what happened in the room that day.” Moeller then writes an essay about the band, Cluney creates a funky illustration and, boom, a Daytrotter Session is born.
