Author Archive
By staff
Saturday February 1, 2014
I could go on and on about the vitality of Death Grips’ music — even if I myself don’t happen to be one of their bigger fans — so I won’t. Instead I would like to talk a minute about the forgotten legacy of Huey Lewis and his band, The News. If memory serves me right, Huey Lewis and the News came into existence around the same time the J Geils Band wrote that shit stain of a song “Centerfold”, and basically they rode that sound until it died a couple years later. It’s quintessentially mid-1980’s — which means it both sucks and rules at the same time. Think the same sort of stupid kitsch nostalgia that makes you order a Canadian Whiskey even though you know Crown Royal is nothing more than water and brown. Anyways, in that time frame Huey Lewis and the News released what is known in most circles as “The Whitest Album Ever Made” with 1983’s Sports. The song “It’s Hip to Be Square” isn’t on that album, but for all I care about it should be because then it would have been even more of a classic album in the same way Snow’s breakthrough single “Informer” is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WZ8xI9YykY
By staff
Saturday February 1, 2014
Quebec City-based Sandveiss burst onto the stoner rock scene by dropping their excellent debut, Scream Queen, in December. Effectively blending strong booming riffs with a hefty dose of blues-echoing grooves, enticing melodies and rock’n’roll swagger, this young group have already made a name for themselves in the saturated scene. In between the rehearsals for their shows in and around Quebec, Canada, the band have found some time to answer a string of questions for SputnikMusic.
Sandveiss are:
Luc Bourgeois – guitar, vocals
Daniel Girard – bass
Shawn Rice – guitar
Dzemal Trtak – drums
Since you guys are an emerging band, tell everyone how did the whole project start?
(Luc) The idea of the project was born in my head 6 or 7 years ago. As the years past, I found myself to jam my ideas with different musicians. After building a couple of song structures with another drummer, I met Dan Girard (bass) who rapidly joined the band. For the next couple of months we worked on arranging the songs as a trio. At a certain point we had no drummer and Dzemal Trtak joined in. A couple of weeks passed as a trio, we decided to recruit a lead singer, that person was François Couture. With this lineup, we recorded a 4 track EP (Dead Man Stare, Do You Really Know, Untie Me and Green For Gold). The name of the band was chosen right before the release of the EP in March…
By staff
Tuesday January 28, 2014
It’s Sputnik Music’s honor to provide the exclusive stream for the self-titled album of Portland-based progressive pop rock band Icarus the Owl. The album is set for release on Friday, February 7th in the U.S.
Icarus the Owl is the result of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, whose net effect yielded the band the production mettle of the acclaimed Kris Crummett (A Lot Like Birds’ No Place, Closure in Moscow’s First Temple, all of Dance Gavin Dance’s earlier records and many more.) This change is a subtle one, as Crummett works within the reach of what’s familiar to Icarus the Owl- but his contributions to the group’s sound work wonders.
In terms of the music, this is the most cohesive and memorable Icarus the Owl have ever sounded. Songs like “Flint and Steel” are sure to entice newcomers, while deeper cuts like “Input. Time. Destruct.” will make long-term fans out of them. Those that found joy in the group’s 2012 release Love Always, Leviathan are sure to see the same kindling flame in Icarus the Owl– the experience just feels more intuitive this around.
Icarus the Owl can be bought at any major digital music retailer once it drops next Friday.
By staff
Monday January 27, 2014
James Blake – “A Case of You”
When young dubstep prodigy James Blake stows the electronics and takes a seat at the piano, the results always seem to be astounding—like the soulful “DLM” from his most recent album, Overgrown. But his cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” on 2011 EP Enough Thunder takes the cake for Blake’s balladeering. Simple as it is, his hurried vocals exude such sincerity and vulnerability that it perfectly illustrates how powerful music can be when it’s just a man and his piano. Or a woman and her guitar.
Van Halen – “Ice Cream Man”
Electing to cover a somewhat obscure blues tune would seem extremely odd for a band like Van Halen, were brothers Eddie and Alex not raised by an accomplished jazz saxophonist and clarinet player. And the suggestive lyrical content that kept the song from being released until 1969 made it a perfect fit for David Lee Roth, who opens the number dedicating it to the ladies. Diamond Dave gets things started off slow and sultry over some acoustic guitar before everything erupts into a typical Van Halen rock epic. Eddie absolutely dazzles with his acrobatic shredding and whammy bar assaults. The tribute to the Chicago bluesman is often overshadowed by the also excellent cover of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” on the same record, but “Ice Cream
…
By staff
Thursday January 16, 2014
There’s something enchanting about what electronic producer Four Tet does in the below video – rather, what dontwatchthat.tv forces him to do. You can tell the guy’s got mixed feelings about having to compose an entire track in only ten minutes, and furthermore, only with samples from Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It’s the kind of process that forces one to rely on creative intuition, nothing else- and you can see that side of the producer shine through as he places Thriller on the record player. He spins it, and lands on arbitrary moments, and then assesses- he considers each instant as a possible instrument for the tune he’s about to make, and then he proceeds based on how he feels about it.
It makes me think about music in a different way. We get so used to hearing entire tracks, and we music lovers sometimes convince ourselves that hearing a song in any other way besides start to finish is sacrilege. But you see Four Tet cobbling together random moments from the record, and you see how much fun it can be to hear snippets from really engaging records. Each time he lifts the needle and picks a new spot it sounds like a new artist, and so when he fuses all these ingredients to make his own song it feels so unlike Thriller, and yet so familiar to that record my parents used to play around the house.
Watch this video if you want to see how Four Tet works…
By staff
Friday December 27, 2013
Sometimes I think the best and worst decision I’ve ever made was to become an obsessive music nerd, but what do I really have to show for it? A few hundred records dating from the sixties all the way up to today, three massive CD booklets, two terabyte hard-drives full of everything from top 40 pop to all but forgotten black metal cassette rips, and thousands of dollars in lost savings in the form of ticket stubs. I don’t regret a single second of it. But I must admit, being constantly inundated with new and unknown media almost every waking hour be it in the form of Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, emails, or friends texting me about what new records have leaked has done considerable damage to the way that I take in new music. It used to be you bought a record and over the course of hours, days, and weeks it would blossom and grow. That first impression was important but even the most off putting records usually revealed some sort of secret, even if I didn’t necessarily enjoy them right away. Hell, Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was a 4 year endeavor for me to finally see its genius. Now, though, I just don’t have the time to wait. It’s unfortunate and I hate it. Now those slow burners get tossed by the wayside. If it doesn’t hit immediately I move on to something else that does. Rarely does an album ever…
By staff
Sunday December 22, 2013
26. Shugo Takumaru: “Katachi”
25. Gaytheist: “Stomach Pains”
24. Kvelertak: “Bruane Brenn”
23. Beastwars: “Realms”
22. Ghost B.C.: “Year Zero”
21. Darwin Deez: “You Can’t Be My Girl”
20. Dope Body: “Leather Head”
19. Coliseum: “Doing Time”
18. Meshuggah: “I Am Colossus”
17. M.I.A.: “Bring The Noize”
16. MGMT: “Your Life Is A Lie”
15. Oliver Wilde: “Perrett’s Brook”
14. Lord Dying: “Dreams Of Mercy”
13. Fiona Apple: “Hot Knife”
12. Deville: “Lava”
11. Janelle Monae: “Q.U.E.E.N.”
10. Gassaffelstein: “Pursuit”
9. Queens of the Stone Age: “The Vampyre of Time and Memory”
8. Kirin J. Callinan: “Victoria M.”
7. Portal: “Curtain”
6. Alice In Chains: “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here”
5. Arcade Fire: “Reflektor”
4. The Body: “The Ebb and Flow of Tides in a Sea of Ash”
3. The Dillinger Escape Plan: “When I Lost My Bet”
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: “Sacrilege”
1. The Knife: “Full Of Fire”
By staff
Sunday December 1, 2013
I still remember the first time I heard City of Ifa. I was in the car with my bandmate, and he was blasting Blue Shoes— and when the album transitioned into “The Human Atlas,” I was sold immediately. The track is post-hardcore that begins with the catchiness of pop-punk; complicated music that calms itself for its first minute before descending into instrumental chaos incarnate. It’s as if An Isle Ate Her decided, just momentarily, to stop writing the most complicated songs they could afford before harking back to their ways of havoc. This group is more melodic than that technical-metal outfit, though, recalling Thomas Erak’s work in The Fall Of Troy– how he’d write those tapped riffs that were impressive as hell, sure, but that also found a way into your head after a few spins.
Today marks the day that City of Ifa is finally streaming its self-titled album only four hours before its December 1 release date, and to call that a cause for celebration for the group’s fans would be an understatement. While the post-hardcore act (or at least more post-hardcore than any other genre label) has released some incredible music in its time, nothing has ever floored me at the end of the day. On a precursory glance, though, this record seems to possess all the necessary ingredients for success. Just by looking at the tracklisting (nope, I haven’t listened to this yet either,) this album looks more comprehensive than anything else…
By staff
Saturday November 16, 2013
Sam Levin (synth bass), Timo Ellis (guitar, vocals), Dave Burnett (drums)
Describing the music of Brooklyn-based Netherlands is hardly an easy task. Erik Wunder (of Cobalt and Man’s Gin), who gets the credit for introducing me to these guys, defines their style as “hyper-noise-punk-electro-psychedelic-metal.” This seemingly convoluted tag oddly fits the outfit that doesn’t shy away from embracing divergent styles in a high-octane manner. The trio’s second full-length Silicon Vapor is one of the most invigorating rock records of the year, juxtaposing eccentric musical ideas with enticing melodies deeply ingrained in the rock tradition. These qualities are combined with extremely fuzzed-out tunings of instruments that certainly distinguish Netherlands from the pack. Here’s my interview with Timo Ellis, the trio’s frontman whose impressive resume includes collaborations with Yoko Ono, Melvins and John Zorn over his extensive 20-year career as a session musician.
What motivated you to form Netherlands?
I’d had a band called Bird Of Doom in the early 2000s. After its natural dissolution, I really wanted to maintain an outlet for my weirder rock inclinations!
Your music is rather difficult to pin down as you combine many different subgenres of rock, punk and even metal. How would you define your style?
I’ve made loads of dramatically different types of records besides the rock stuff. I think I’m up to 33 albums at this point: 17 LPs and 16 EPs. So, I think other styles of music end up naturally coming out a…
By staff
Tuesday November 5, 2013
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of November 5, 2013. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Alice Rose – each is a DREAM (Manual Music)
Avril Lavigne – Avril Lavigne (Epic)
Bryce Dessner & Kronos Quartet – Aheym (Anti Records)
Celine Dion – Loved Me Back to Life (Columbia)
Connan Mockasin – Caramel (Phantasy/Because Music)
Cut Copy – Free Your Mind (Loma Vista/Republic) – Rudy K.
DJ Rashad – Double Cup (Hyperdub)
Eden’s Curse – Symphony Of Sin (AFM Records)
Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (Aftermath)
Guido – Moods Of Future Joy (Tectonic Recordings)
Hellogoodbye – Everything Is Debatable (Old Friends Records)
Howe Gelb – The Coincidentalist (New West)
James Blunt – Moon Landing (Atlantic)
Luscious Jackson – Magic Hour (City Song)
M.I.A. – Matangi (Interscope Records)
Melodic – Effra Parade (Epitaph)
Melvins – Tres Cabrones (10 Spot)
Midlake – Antiphon (ATO Records)
Scott Stapp – Proof Of Life (Wind-Up)
Sore Eros & Kurt Vile – Jamaica Plain (Care In The Community Records)
Steven Wilson – Drive Home (Kscope)
Stryper – No More Hell To Pay (Frontiers Records/Universal)
Submotion Orchestra – 1968 (Circus Records)
Weekend Nachos – Still (Relapse)
A Wilhelm Scream – Partycrasher (No Idea Records)
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Album Streams:
Avril Lavigne – Avril Lavigne
Bryce Dessner & Kronos Quartet – Aheym
Celine Dion – Loved Me Back To Life
Connan Mockasin – Caramel
Cut Copy – Free Your Mind
Eminem…
By staff
Thursday October 31, 2013
Kim Pack (violin, vox), Christian Creek (bass), Rebecca Vernon (guitar, vox), Andy Patterson (drums), Sarah Pendleton (violin, vox)
There are enough qualities that distinguish Salt Lake City’s SubRosa from their doom metal brethren. Aside from ingeniously incorporating violins into their ultra-heavy sound, the quintet excels in songwriting that’s singular in its brutally honest depiction of tenebrous themes. Their new staggering full-length More Constant Than The Gods (Profound Lore) centers around the topic of Death and its numerous implications. Instead of alienating the listener with such a serious subject matter, the album manages to sound visceral throughout, delivering a series of expansive tunes that ebb and flow with admirable precision. Here’s my interview with the band’s charismatic mastermind, Rebecca Vernon.
What inspired you to be a musician? Were there any particular moments in your life when you thought that you couldn’t live without creating music or was the whole process of becoming a guitarist, singer and songwriter more fluid?
Music is my number one passion and has always been in my blood. There are times when I’ve been distracted by other things, but those periods never last long.
I started taking music lessons on violin at the age of 9, then learned piano and drums around age 12. I played these instruments in school orchestras and marching bands, and later, in college, real bands.
Becoming a guitarist, singer and songwriter, though, was very abrupt. I had wanted to start a band for about…
By staff
Monday October 21, 2013
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 22, 2013. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
AFI – Burials (Universal Republic) – Adam Thomas
Best Coast – Fade Away (Jewel City)
Brandy Clark – 12 Stories (Slate Creek Records)
Cage – Kill The Architect (Eastern Conference)
Dead Gaze – Brain Holiday (Fat Cat Records)
Def Leppard -Viva! Hysteria (Frontiers Records)
Drop Electric – Waking Up To The Fire (Lefse Records)
Emphatic – Another Life (Caroline (Universal)
Hell – The Age Of Nefarious (Nuclear Blast)
Katy Perry – Prism (Capitol Records)
Linda Thompson – Won’t Be Long Now (Pettifer Sounds)
Lita Ford – Bitch Is Back (Steamhammer/SPV)
Meek Is Murder – Everything Is Awesome Nothing Matters (Meek Is Murder/MetalSucks)
MEN – Labor (Men Make Music)
Metal Church – Generation Nothing (Rat Pak Records0
Motorhead – Aftershock (UDR)
NOIR – Darkly Near (Metropolis Records)
Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu (Ribbon Records)
Poliça- Shulamith (Mom & Pop Music)
Ryan Hemsworth – Guilt Trips (Last Gang Records)
The Strumbellas – We Still Move On Dance Floors (Six Shooter Records)
The Twilight Garden – Reconcile (Metropolis Records)
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Album Streams:
Beast Coast – Fade Away
Brandy Clark – 12 Stories
Dead Gaze – Brain Holiday
Katy Perry – Prism
MEN – Labor
Motorhead – Aftershock
Omar Souleyman – Wen Wenu
Poliça- Shulamith
Ryan Hemsworth – Guilt Trips
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SputnikMusic’s Most Played Artists of the Week (according to Last.FM):
Staff :…
By staff
Tuesday October 15, 2013
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 15, 2013. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Anberlin – Devotion (Big3 Records)
Anneke Van Giersbergen – Drive (Inside Out US)
The Avett Brothers – Magpie And The Dandelion (American Recordings)
Beats Antique – A Thousand Faces: Act 1 (10 Spot)
Black Milk – No Poison, No Paradise (Fat Beats Records)
Bloc Party – Tapes (Retrofit/!k7)
Boardwalk – Boardwalk (Stones Throw)
Cass McCombs – Big Wheels And Others (Domino)
Courtesy Drop – Songs To Drive To; Cray And Make Love To (Animal Style Records)
Crystal Antlers – Nothing Is Real (Innovative Leisure)
Cults – Static (Columbia) – Rudy K.
Death Angel – The Dream Calls For Blood (Nuclear Blast US)
Diane Birch – Speak A Little Louder (S-Curve Records)
The Dismemberment Plan – Uncanney Valley (Partisan Records) – Adam Downer
Doomriders – Grand Blood (Deathwish Inc.)
Ereb Altor – Fire Meets Ice (Cyclone Empire)
Fall Out Boy – Pax AM Days (Island Records)
Field Study – Feverland (Nine Mile Records)
Friendzone – DX (Self released/Bandcamp)
Gary Numan – Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) (10 Spot)
Gavin DeGraw – Make A Move (RCA)
The Head And The Heart – Let’s Be Still (Sub Pop)
Heavenly Beat – Prominence (Captured Tracks)
I Am King – Onehundred (Rise Records)
Icon For Hire – Icon For Hire (Tooth & Nail Records)
James Ferraro –…
By staff
Wednesday September 25, 2013
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 24, 2013. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Andrew St James – Doldrums (Fortune Records)
Au Revoir Simone – Move In Spectrums (Instant Records)
Audio – Bag Of Bones (Blackout Records)
Bleach Blonde – Starving Artist (Rise Records)
Buried Beds – In Spirit (Devinyl Records)
Cher – Closer To The Truth (Warner Bros.)
Chvrches – The Bones Of What You Believe (Glassnote) – Eli Kleman
Deals Death – Point Zero Solution (Spinefarm)
Deer Tick – Negativity (Partisan Records)
Drake – Nothing Was The Same (Cash Money) – Adam Thomas
Elton John – The Diving Board (Capitol Records/Universal)
Frankie Rose – Herein Wild (Fat Possum Records)
Ghostpoet – Some Say I So I Say Light (Play It Again Sam)
Gov’t Mule – Shout! (Blue Note/Universal)
Ha Ha Tonka – Lessons (Bloodshot Records)
Huerco S. – Collonial Patterns (Software)
Icona Pop – This Is… Icona Pop (Big Beat/WEA)
The Internet – Feel Good (Odd Future)
INVSN – INVSN (Razor & Tie)
Jesu – Every Day I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came (Shellshock)
Kelley Stoltz – Double Exposure (Third Man Records)
Kings Of Leon – Mechanical Bull (RCA)
Lovers – A Friend In The World (Badman Records)
Matthew Good – Arrows Of Desire (Frostbyte) – Irving Tan
Mazzy Star – Seasons Of Your Day (Rhymes Of…
By staff
Monday September 23, 2013
As the clock ticks down to the release of her sophomore record (Nocturnal; due Oct 29th on Verve), the next milestone in what has been an absolutely phenomenal year for Ms Yunalis Mat Zara’ai, the pint-sized Subang Jaya native must be feeling that life simply can’t get much better than this. And who can blame her? Just a few years ago the Universiti Teknologi MARA graduate was still playing to tiny audiences for free at humble acoustic venues in the margins of her home city. Yet, earlier this month she did no less than perform for four sold-out nights at Kuala Lumpur’s Istana Budaya, the Malaysian equivalent of London’s Royal Albert Hall. Were you to plot this on a time-based graph, the resulting curve would probably appear asymptotic.
Yuna’s decision to uproot herself to the United States, effectively the introductory chapter to her spellbinding rags-to-riches tale, has been a journey of wonders thus far. Having released her excellent debut album stateside under the Fader label (whose representatives flew all the way to Malaysia to convince her to sign for them), the Malaysian lass appeared on the radar of world-renown producer David Foster and was subsequently signed to his Verve Music Group – the same label that plays host to the likes of Andrea Bocelli, Diana Krall, Melody Gardot, and Carla Bruni. Her star shone brighter still when she was contracted to perform both a cover of The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun” for Oliver…
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