The buoyant single “What Love Looks Like”, debuting here on PopMatters, is clearly the product of a life-learned maturity. Fittingly making its premiere on Valentine’s Day, the song is a portrait of modern-day love, set to an upbeat and melodious tune
Shannon Stephens began her musical career at a Christian art school called Hope College, where she comprised one-fourth of indie, folk-rockers Marzuki. It was there, while playing guitar and lending her vocals, that Stephens met bandmate Sufjan Stevens. After the dissolution of Marzuki, Stephens released her first solo album in 1999, before putting her pursuit of fame on pause, opting instead for a quiet life in Seattle with her husband. After nine years out of…]]>What has come to be known as indie music cannot be recorded and released in places where people are absolutely independent. We need to start thinking -- really, seriously thinking -- about how something that is supposed to be inherently independent can be so dependent on so much else.
The P.O.V Lounge sits atop the W Washington, DC. A member of Starwood's W Hotel brand, this location has recently hosted performances by the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Dom, the latter of which emerged from a burgeoning partnership between Stereogum and the W chain. The view from DC's P.O.V Lounge is unparalleled. It offers guests a near-panoramic gaze of the National Mall and Downtown DC. The rough edges of Rosslyn, VA's many…]]>The Mercury Music Prize-nominated folk artist Fionn Regan has lead a lot of living in a very short while, and while his new album has been getting raves, it's here that he reveals a strong affinity for Dylan Thomas, how his stabs at art are very much informed by his love of music, and why he might be "cruising for a bruising" in those oxblood Doc Martens ...
Fionn Regan has had a bit of a wild ride. Although now barely past the age of 30, this Bray-born folkster has already lead a full and complete musical career. His 2006 debut album, The End of History, was an underground knockout, critically adored for its beautiful melodies and quiet confidence, all while snagging a Mercury Music Prize in the process. What's fascinating about that initial effort, however, was that it was almost entirely composed…]]>2010’s The Golden Archipelago concluded a gorgeous trilogy, but Animal Joy presents a leaner, rougher Shearwater.
Just over a year ago, on January 15, 2011, Shearwater took to the stage at Austin’s Central Presbyterian Church and performed its “Island Arc” albums -- a loose trilogy including Palo Santo (2006), Rook (2008), and The Golden Archipelago (2010) -- in their sweeping entirety. When I interviewed Jonathan Meiburg last month, he was still reeling from the experience. “It felt like a validation of those records,” the singer told me proudly. “But it also…]]>Veteran psych-pop outfit takes some welcome detours on their sixth LP.
For a band that never really asks too much of anyone, Philadelphia sextet Dr. Dog sure sees its share of negative press. The line on these guys is that they’re shameless imitators whose quirky, lo-fi brand of psych pop never steps out of the shadows of the band’s extremely obvious influences. There’s also the bit about how they’ve been making the same album for the past nine or so years. Perhaps conscious of these recurring…]]>Rosie Thomas’ first full-length record in four years is a risky, yet utterly sincere, retro-pop gem.
No one can fault Rosie Thomas for not taking risks. With Love steers clear of the fragile indie-pop we have come to expect from her. Her new project is a retro-pop album that feels like it could have been pulled out of your mother’s record collection. Does she pull it off? Yes. This is a charming and unexpected salute to the female pop vocalists of Rosie’s youth, proving that nostalgia does not have to be…]]>Melodic comeback set from some of North Carolina's most adventurous.
Bombadil, a North Carolina based four-piece has certainly seen its share of trial and tribulation over the past few years. Scholarly and erudite, these aren’t your stereotypical rockers. The original drummer left the rigors of touring behind to pursue medical school. A new drummer jumped on board, but the group struggled with doubt, uncertainty, and most seriously, the rare nerve disorder that stripped multi-instrumentalist Daniel Michalak the use of his hands. Fortunately, Bombadil forged a…]]>Sami Akbari is pretty damn good.
Sami Akbari might be setting the bar high, but why not? This collection moves from the breezy '60s sounds recently revisited by the likes of Saturday Looks Good to Me and She & Him to more contemporary bits that call to mind Feist and Frente. Sami’s not afraid to add a little grit to her sugar, as she demonstrates on tracks such as “Making Eyes” and “Yesteryear” (which alternates between futuristic and retro, and is…]]>The Internet’s ability to work with a wide array of sounds in different ways is admirable, but few of their unexpected turns stick with you.
Purple Naked Ladies is the work of the Internet, a duo composed of Syd tha Kid and Matt Martians. It’s the latest release from affiliates of controversial collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (or, simply, Odd Future) and the first full-length from Syd, the group’s female member. While there are a few rapped verses on the album, it tends more towards the Frank Ocean camp in that it is largely sung. Purple Naked…]]>A sort of inflamed fraying bleed with a dance beat pulsing through.
Teranga Beat is a new label and its first two releases are winners. One of them is Senegalese, a great Idrissa Diop retrospective. The second one, Halleli N'dakarou, was recorded in Senegal as well, but the band comes from The Gambia, a tiny river-shaped coastal nation that wiggles for a short distance inside Senegal's larger mass. Musically the country punches above its weight. Guelewar's Ifang Bondi is Gambian, and so is Juldeh Camara the ritti…]]>You have to admire Dakota Suite and Quentin Sirjacq for wringing this much music out of one mood and a limited number of instruments.
Sad and sombre songs are one thing. Many people have them. What Chris Hooson and Dakota Suite have, which many people do not, is the ability to produce every single note with sorrow and deep, conflicting emotions. Over the course of the double album The Side of Her Inexhaustible Heart, the collective's first-time collaboration with pianist Quentin Sirjacq, spanning 16 tracks in 77 minutes, there is hardly one bar of music that isn’t fully marinated…]]>Doors leading nowhere but to drek? Not quite so fast. The now digitally reissued post-Jimus Doors offer up a few choice nuggets worth hearing. Just tread carefully....
Quick: What has six arms, three heads, one pair of glasses, and zero chance of getting an even break? If you replied the Doors without Jim Morrison, then you've probably read at least some of the many reviews panning Other Voices and Full Circle. Both were recorded and released following the Lizard King's July '71 shedding of his Earthly skin, both have long been dismissed by the band and critics, and yes, both are wildly…]]>Let the good times, er, sink into the mire. Gloomy band strikes out interesting, if not particularly fun, new territory.
The Angelus likes to take things slow. Beats tend toward the plodding and rhythms might be described as "dirgelike," while frontman Emil Rapstine's lugubrious vocals convey a weighty gloom antithetical to what the phrase "rock band" conjures up. We might be looking at the birth of a new genre here: dirge-rock? Funerock? Not as in "fun" but as in "funeral," as these tunes swell heavily with portent and gloom. Opener "All Is Well" combines vocals…]]>A Different Kind of Truth is a return to form, but that doesn't mean it captures the brilliance of Van Halen's early recordings.
If Van Halen had never made an album again, the last album to the band's name would have been the universally derided Van Halen III, which was the band's second attempt at a new frontman in Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone. The move was a strange one; while the "Van Hagar" period of the band didn't bring out much great material, it wasn't entirely terrible. The cause of Hagar's departure from the band in the mid-'90s…]]>When I Fall Out is the first of two thematically-linked albums from Brooklyn’s the Phantom Family Halo to be released this year, and as good as it is, it leaves you almost breathlessly wondering how the follow-up will sound like.
Multi-instrumentalist Dominic Cipolla -- formerly of Louisville, Kentucky, and currently of Brooklyn -- is one heck of a busy and prolific guy. Cipolla, along with bassist William Benton, is essentially the brains behind the psychedelica-meets-glam rock group known as the Phantom Family Halo, and since 2007, the band has been spitting out records at a breakneck pace. They’ve put out three long-players, one of them a double album, and last fall released a split EP…]]>Starting with the most memorable and ending with the most dull (or clichéd), here’s what happened on “music’s biggest night”.
Performances at this year’s Grammy awards weren’t about gimmicks, special effects, or surprise appearances. Instead, the show became a celebration of the music and musicians that unite seemingly different people. Fittingly, in a year where so many important musicians passed away, the night was also about people using their talents to bid a fond farewell to those whom we will all miss. It was a night where legends were honored, rock stars danced to country…]]>Coming after the aggressive intensity of the end of “The Sounds of Science”, “3-Minute Rule” seems slight, like the Beasties went on a mini-vacation.
“3-Minute Rule” starts with the sounds of a ping pong game. This opening sample seems apropos for a track that is relentlessly laid-back, almost lazy-sounding, in fact. Coming after the aggressive intensity of the end of “The Sounds of Science”, “3-Minute Rule” seems slight, like the Beasties went on a mini-vacation. It’s forgivable, though, since everyone needs a rest sometimes, including the listener. The texture of “3-Minute Rule” is remarkably sparse. The main samples are…]]>Down With Valentine’s Day! A Playlist for the Rest of Us.
It comes once every year. For weeks, paper hearts decorate nearly every room, store aisles are filled with flowers and overpriced packages of chocolate, cheesy romantic comedies are shown on TV non-stop, and cheery hand-holding couples grace countless jewelry store commercials. That’s right: Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and to all of us who are still single (or just not in the mood), here’s some relief. Take a look at a video playlist…]]>In the wake of a tragic loss within the music industry, the Grammy Awards actually went on a surprisingly respectful, understated route... before turning into the vapid technicolor circus that has become hallmark for the very worst of Grammy broadcasts.
If the 54th Annual Grammy Awards broadcast taught us anything this year, it's that there's a profound difference between the deeply personal and the overproduced. Hours before the broadcast began, people were wondering just how the show was going to address the elephant in the room: no less than 24 hours prior to taping, Whitney Houston -- the definitive pop diva -- was found dead in her hotel room at age 48. The world was…]]>What the Spice Girls had, at the risk of sounding errantly uncool, was magical. It helped teenaged girls define themselves and their world; jump-started teenage boys’ libidos; provided common listening ground for parents and kids; and, best of all, encouraged exuberant positivity -- something sorely lacking from our hollow, joyless decade.
“If the girls keep dancing, everybody's happy. If the girls don't dance, nobody's happy.” -- Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape Ginger Spice: Check! Scary Spice: What do you mean "check"? Ginger Spice: I mean, check; my bishop's got your king. Scary Spice: Where? Ginger Spice: There! You've either got to move it in front, or move it out of the way. Scary Spice: Well I'll move that fairground horse to there. Sort that…]]>This travelogue takes us four locales: Havana, Chicago, Sydney and Caracas. Each locale translates into distinctive interactions with hip-hop and its pillars of deejaying, emceeing, b-boying, and graffiti.
Location, location, location. That's the mantra of the real estate industry indicating that property values are positively and negatively affected by the areas they inhabit. Hip-hop possesses a similar mantra, espoused by Rakim's "In the Ghetto": "It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at." In the United States, hip-hop has experienced spells of regionalism, wherein New York rap was hailed as hip-hop's birthplace while artists from other sections of the country sought legitimacy: bass-heavy…]]>Psych-folk quartet's LP intrigues some, but frustrates more.
The Soft Hills are a quartet out of Seattle whose new LP The Bird is Coming Down to Earth covers a range of musical sounds, from folk to psychedelic to ambient. Signed to Germany's Tapete Records, the band comes across as a more pastoral Fresh & Onlys with some of Deerhunter's epic dreaminess thrown in. Songs about death and mysticism are intriguing, and Matt Brown's production work gives a sense of atmosphere, but the album…]]>The Narrow Garden is a score to a nonexistent film. While beautiful, the album echoes of a grander context that it's lacking.
It was in the dark, cavernous drones of Sunn 0))) and Boris that I first discovered Eyvind Kang. On the much-desired Japanese edition of the Sunn 0)))/Boris collaboration Altar, Kang performed on the bonus track "The Sinking Belle (Black Sheep)", which created an entirely different mood than most of the other tracks on the album did. The track's ambiance was deeply contemplative, and largely free of the subwoofer-testing bass that so dominates drone music. Upon…]]>Jack DeJohnette has done it all. Time for him to have a little fun.
Jack DeJohnette needs no introduction and, in the year 2012, has even less to prove. When it comes to collaborations, composition, recording, and performing, the legendary and near-peerless drummer and composer has touched on everything. And this the year that DeJohnette, in addition to turning 70 years of age, receives a highly prestigious award from the National Endowment for the Arts. What does the man have left to do? Well, for starters, one can return…]]>Matthias Sturm's brand of folk makes for a pleasant enough listen in the moment, but beyond that it's forgettable.
Choosing to name his record after one of the most critically revered metal albums of the last decade (Mastadon's 2006 LP Blood and Thunder) didn't have to be a bold choice for Matthias Sturm. After all, there only so many things one can name an album. But after a listen to this brief album, one might lament for Mastadon's take on the title, despite the fact that it's in an entirely different genre. Blood and…]]>System Krush has done the right thing and given us tracks that are long.
Sibiri Samake plays the donso ngoni, the ngoni-for-hunters -- and he is, hereditarily, a hunter, one of a family of hunters -- his older brothers took up the instrument and so in turn did he. This ngoni is a six-stringed instrument, resonant thanks to a calabash, and each note it produces is surrounded by a faint buzz or burr or purr, a woody insect vibration. The calabash and the strings together give it, at first…]]>"Dark", "mysterious", boring.
Sam Mickens (The Dead Science, ex-Xiu Xiu, Parenthetical Girls) delivers an offering of eerie, funereal music that really doesn’t go anywhere. It is, at best, self-indulgent angst, all whispers and hushed tones. It's “dark”, “mysterious”, and shrouded in titles such as “Lord Death Man”, “Witch’s Cauldron”, “At The Mountains of Madness/Ebb Tide”, and so on. To make matters weirder “Grisly Souls” brings in MF Grimm to bust a few rhymes. It’s as improbable as Newt…]]>The Screaming Tribesmen are a solid rock band. This re-issue of some already released material and first time release of some live songs, B-sides, and demos shows that they had some talent, but not a lot of hidden depth.
Forced Exposure has compiled and re-released an assortment of work by the Screaming Tribesmen, an Australian rock group who tend towards the crunchier side of the '80s rock and roll spectrum. The first disc combines the Date With a Vampyre and Top of the Town EPs from the mid-'80s and adds a slew of covers that show the band has good musical taste. The second disc includes the full length Bones and Flowers and augments…]]>Ten-member collective strives for unpredictability.
Lexington, Kentucky-based prog-pop-soul music collective Big Fresh cover a lot of ground on their newest release Moneychasers. From the opening vocals of "We're All Rockstars on the Internet," which sound something like Queen's arena-rock stylings in their "Bohemian Rhapsody" heyday, to the trip-hoppy beats that kick in moments later or the hippie-psych stylings of follow-up tune "Lonely Hearts of Rome," Big Fresh throws the listener one curveball after another. Confounding expectations can be a hit-or-miss…]]>And the bland played on.
Alyssa Graham has earned her share of critical praise over the last few years, though it’s hard to see what the fuss is all about –– Graham’s whispery voice is so soft it’s almost non-existent, and the material here (some of it written by outside hands, some by Graham with outside hands) couldn’t ignite if it were paper and all other matter in the world were a match. The black-and-white cover might give you some…]]>This Sunday, February 11, Glen Campbell will have Blake Shelton and the Band Perry accompanying him as he performs at the Grammy Awards where he will be presented with the Recording Academy® Lifetime Achievement Award.
This Sunday, February 11, Glen Campbell will have Blake Shelton and the Band Perry accompanying him as he performs at the Grammy Awards where he will be presented with the Recording Academy® Lifetime Achievement Award. This week saw the reissue of Glen Campbell’s critically acclaimed 2008 album, Meet Glen Campbell -- expanded with exclusive bonus tracks for a special CD and digital edition -- in advance of this great honor. Upon its original release in…]]>Brooklyn electro-dancers Tayisha Busay offer up a perfect new video for Valentine's Day, “Heartmeat, Lovemuscle”.
Tayisha Busay is an electro-dance band known for their energetic live performances and sparkle-heavy, bouncy, music videos. The band, comprised of Tessa G, Ariel Sims and Brandon LalaVek, is based in Brooklyn. Some of Tayisha Busay’s past popular tunes include such colorful titles as “WTF You Doin in My Mouth” and “Soul Power”. This highly unique band has their own sound and their own style, listing among their influences “Classy meets trashy, dancing like you…]]>Counterbalance is a concept by which we measure the most Acclaimed Music of all time. This week, number 68 -- the first time an ex-Beatle makes the Great List.
Klinger: I've generally considered John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band to be an album that is more respected than liked. It has a built-in reputation as the by-product of Lennon's "Primal Scream" phase, a brief time in which he employed the therapies of Dr. Arthur Janov and took to shrieking his troubles away. All of this baggage caused me to think of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band as pure catharsis, an extended rant from a young man who…]]>They've conquered the world by singing in French, pretending to rap, and releasing remix albums that are almost as acclaimed as their regular ones. Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of Yelle, where fashion, touring, and a love of Mike Meyers all collide ...
French pop band Yelle (an acronym for "Enjoy Your Life") burst into the music scene a few years ago with their infectious beats and a curious combination of street style and a very Gallic sense of humor. One of their first mainstream singles, "Je Veux Te Voir", contained the lyrics "Je veux te voir/Dans un film pornographique (I want to see you/In a pornographic film)". Catchy songs and vivid music videos helped the group achieve…]]>Regardless how history comes to look Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro, in the context of Cave’s career, it stands alone as the purest distillation of his artistry -- a poetic novel with Cave’s inimitable brand of the grotesque, absurd and often comic nature of humanity.
With the publication of The Death of Bunny Munro in the spring of 2009, Australian songwriter, author, and modern-day renaissance man Nick Cave unleashed on his public perhaps one of the most deviant, despicable protagonists in the entirety of modern literature. Bunny Munro -- drug abusing, chain-smoking, sex-obsessed lothario whose spree of extramarital escapades pushes his unstable wife into the cold arms of suicide and who is so inept as a father that he drags…]]>Twenty years (or so) in, the seminal techno act releases two very different compilations. Both succeed on their own terms.
Not everybody is around for 20 years or more, and not everybody who makes it that far deserves much of a commemoration. But questions of longevity aside (and continued productivity -- 2010's Barking continued Underworld's strong third act, and between soundtrack work and being the musical directors for the London Olympics, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith show no signs of slowing down), Underworld are justly a big deal. For years they've made excellent, emotionally clued-in,…]]>Scottish brooders turn the shoegaze down, invest in some new technology, and make a record that pushes the limits of their band's well-honed sound.
It’s good to try new things. Right? We’re all onboard with that advice. Order the octopus. Go to the matinee at that Bollywood theater. Explore a new neighborhood on your bike. That sort of stuff. And, if you’re a band, try some new instruments in the studio. Usually these will be synths and drum machines. Check them out. Who knows what could happen? Actually, what usually happens is a critic will end up reviewing your…]]>For those looking for something as strong as industrial-strength floor wax to serve as a dessert topping, this EP will handily do the trick.
An extended play ultimately has a multitude of uses. It can be a simple single padded with bonus tracks or B-sides that a band or an artist wants to toss out as a sort of odds-and-sods release for die-hard fans. Or it can be an entity in its own right, a tight package of material that has a definite start and end, and is more of a mini-album – think Sugar’s Beaster as a good…]]>Failure is ultimately an album you can put your arms around and give a great big hug to, and – maybe, just maybe – a big, wet sopping kiss.
The third album from Chicago’s Unicycle Loves You appropriately drops on Valentine’s Day 2012. And there’s a fair deal to love about this trio’s latest, the ironically-titled Failure. While the band earns comparisons to the likes of Guided by Voices – which I don’t see, unless titling your songs “Wow Wave Cinema” and “Master Medical Driveway” taps into the same stream-of-consciousness whimsy of Robert Pollard – what Unicycle Loves You brings to the dining room…]]>Experiments such as these can result in disaster when executed by lesser musicians, but musical genius abounds on this release.
It is best to think of free-jazz as conversations. These conversations can run the gamut, from the incomprehensible to the sublime. In the case of Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness the results are sublime. This inward reflection on time and space drives the listener to consider time as cyclical. This talented New York trio is comprised of Tony Jones on tenor saxophone, violinist Charles Burnham, and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Oakland, CA native Tony Jones steers many…]]>Finally, a worthy compilation – and appreciation – of the greatest stand-up comedian of the '90s.
There's a notion that Bill Hicks was a miserable cynic who hated the human race and thought that everything on the planet was an evil conspiracy. And there's truth and falseness in that statement. A cynic, yes. But despite his oft-quoted bit about humans being "a virus with shoes”, he wasn't actually that nihilistic on the whole. Behind all the skepticism and vitriol, there was an undeniable excitement to his role of what his friend…]]>Lewis & Texas Fire managed to create an album that is full of soul, and deep rooted in the blues – whether or not purists agree.
Picture yourself in a dark basement bar, sitting at a small round table, only enough room for your drink and your date’s. Her purse is dangling loosely from her seatback while the ice melts into your whisky and cigarette smoke drifts into the air. Now turn on The Real Deal. Feels right, doesn’t it? "Music could be so joyful without going to hell!" Sharon Lewis declares in the liner notes to her debut album with…]]>A compilation that shows that Bob Seger was at times a good artist, but also shows why he was never really a great one.
A funny thing happens when you listen to both discs of Bob Seger’s new greatest hits anthology: There doesn’t seem to be any difference between songs recorded decades apart. Indeed, the whole thing plays like a double album recorded all at once, apart from some minor differences in production. That’s an indication of just how consistent Seger’s music has been through the years: he’s never really altered his style or technique all that much. You…]]>The most popular metal band in America makes the most unnecessary blunders to spoil what is otherwise a pretty good third album.
There is a very important reason why Five Finger Death Punch has essentially become the face of metal in America. In many ways, their outward appearance personifies every stereotype that pop culture makes about the modern-day metal listener, just as much as their music matches the preconceptions made about metal by most non-metal listeners. The group's first two albums, The Way of the Fist and War Is the Answer, were chock-full of meaty riffs, wild…]]>From the artwork to that irritating 'z' in the EP's title, Teen Jamz smacks of ironic distance.
From the artwork to that irritating 'z' in the EP's title, Teen Jamz smacks of ironic distance. The glam-rock-via-new-wave that Gross Magic's Sam McGarrigle claims as his own on his new EP feels more like it was manufactured to fill a niche than created out of necessity. That's not to say McGarrigle can't write a solid pop song. "Sweetest Touch", with its crunching guitar riff, is as good as this EP gets, and it's the…]]>"What was it like coming back to America after fighting in Vietnam?" asks an off-screen narrator. A 22-year-old black man nods and begins to talk...
"What was it like coming back to America after fighting in Vietnam?" asks an off-screen narrator. A 22-year-old black man nods and begins to talk, his weary expression suggesting this is a question he's prepared to answer, but one he dreads. "It's almost the same as when I left, " he begins. "I say this because when a man goes to fight for his country and then comes back over here and almost have to…]]>The Oslo-based artist is now coming into his own, creating original, funky sound mixes based in electronica and infused with hints of house, disco and pop.
Joachim Dyrdahl, known in the music scene as successful producer and DJ “diskJokke”, has debuted the latest video for his new single “Now Dance”. Initially reaching fame for his imaginative remixes of songs by the likes of David Lynch, Lindstrøm, Foals and Bloc Party, the Oslo-based artist is now coming into his own, creating original, funky sound mixes based in electronica and infused with hints of house, disco and pop. Below is the most recent…]]>Unlike potboiler musicians with kiss-off egos, the Shadow proves that Blank Generation music was open-ended and robust, a welcome home to punk brands of all stripes.
After the initial sweeping vengeance of punk took hold after 1977, a sweeping platform of New Music strode in, re-landscaping pop music. In that heady era, all things converged, from Talking Heads and the Records to Joe Jackson and Ultravox. That’s the genre I sense when listening to Texas-based the Shadow, who melds punk’s knack for the inchoate and off-kilter with a savvy sense of trad-rock hooks and pop-a-delic fare. To be sure, for every…]]>This is not your basic club single. It doesn't ask you to like it.
Released on vinyl in early 2012 as the b-side to a DJ Hidden/Broken Note collaboration, "Obey" sees Ad Noiseam producers Niveau Zero and Balkansky come together for one brief, dirty moment. While the North American mainstream struggles with the cycle of dubstep hype and backlash, this track falls not into its spiral. Rather, "Obey" huffs and puffs and blows down the house with its uncompromising bass and meticulous production. This is not your basic club…]]>POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Just as folk music provides a basis for the synth music of Au Revoir Simone, so too does Erika’s striped sweater act as a basic essential: a starting point from which the artist builds and transforms, dazzling audiences along the way.
Photos by Nicky Digital / Makeup by Erin Green POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Some in the music industry have labeled the musical style of the three-woman band Au Revoir Simone, started in 2003, as “folk”. Though this may be at the heart of their sound, many layers of other elements combine, making it impossible to categorize their music strictly in this way. Vocalist Erika Forster herself once described the vibe of the band’s album Still Night,…]]>POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Much like her music, Erika’s look here combines unexpected and playful pairings in a cohesive way to create a style that’s bold and unique.
Photos by Nicky Digital / Makeup by Erin Green POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Erika Forster, pictured here in a versatile leather jacket from GAP’s upcoming spring collection, represents one third of the talented all-female band known as Au Revoire Simone, which broke onto the musical scene in 2003. Along with bandmates Annie Hart and Heather D’Angelo, Erika is responsible for creating a musical style that is perhaps best described by British Vogue as “dreamy synth-pop”.]]>Rappers have always wrestled with the question of how to succeed in a society where the odds are stacked against them. The biggest difference now is that their middle class listeners have the same worries.
Last year, a few thousand protesters in New York’s Zucotti Park have captured the attention of the nation. Occupy Wall Street’s slogan, “We Are The 99%", has tapped into mass public discontent over the widening amount of income inequality in the United States. On their tumblr page, people have been posting stories of their struggles with student loan debt, inadequate medical coverage and a lack of job opportunities. Many of these young college graduates grew…]]>To create something or to create something that creates something; that is a question. But if you lead an electric horse to art, does it dream of the avant-garde?
The goal of metacreative artists is to endow computer programs with creative behaviors, to create computer algorithms that have the same ability to make artistic decisions within certain frameworks as human beings. To this end, metacreative artists employ the tools and techniques of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the same used in cognitive and life sciences. 1 Metacreative music composers create virtual performers who can generate new and unique compositions, often in real time, with…]]>