The word minimalism is used a lot to describe Disappears, the mezmerizing Chicago quartet that dropped its new album, Lux (Kranky), in April. via Tonight: Disappears at Black Cat – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper. I first saw Disappears at the Joan of Arc Variety Show in January. They kicked off their 15-minutes-or-less set … [Read more…]
I’m an unabashed fan of Kickstarter, a site where creative types pitch projects for friends, family and complete strangers to help fund. I’ve helped fund a few projects here and there, and the platform Kickstarter has on its hands manifests the same kind of inquisitive state that can lead to spending hours on the site. … [Read more…]
Songs of Summer is a guide to the summer’s new tunes that evoke sensations of everyone’s favorite season. Today’s jam is: Bodega Girls – “We Are Losers” Bodega Girls have been toiling away in Boston’s music scene for some time now. Their new single, “We Are Losers,” is a great reflection of their city’s odd … [Read more…]
Country music legend and sausage hawker Jimmy Dean has died. The New York Times reports that his death Sunday evening was unexpected: His wife, Donna Meade Dean, said her husband died at their Henrico County, Va., home. She told The Associated Press that he had some health problems but was still functioning well, so his … [Read more…]
Some musicians flounder when asked to create and perform new material on short notice. Extra Life frontman Charlie Looker isn’t one of them. In 2006, Looker was asked to perform a solo set at The Stone in the East Village. Looker didn’t have any solo material, as he’d been spending his nights exploring the esoteric … [Read more…]
Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion fits approximately 11,000 people. That is, unless there is a free She & Him show. The Pavilion has 4,000 fixed seats, and the lawn fits about 7,000 people. When She & Him performed at Millennium Park’s concert pavilion Monday, the number of people that can fit in the area grew … [Read more…]
Someone out there thinks that it’s a perfect time for a music video making fun of those who died on the Gaza flotilla. Jerusalem Post deputy editor Caroline Glick for one. So do the people at Latma, a Hebrew-based “satire” site that Glick happens to edit. That partnership happened to produce the following “humor” video … [Read more…]
A massive argument amongst indie music bloggers spilled over Twitter on Thursday. Or, in real terms, a blip on Twitter’s scanner brought up some pretty big concepts about how new music is transmitted dispersed online, and right from the keyboards of a few “big” name indie bloggers. The whole shindig went down when I Guess … [Read more…]
On May 23, Paul Simon performed “The Boxer” to a packed house. About six or seven minutes after Simon took to the mic, the crowd arose and applauded the acoustic showman. It was like any other concert one can imagine. Except it wasn’t any old musical performance. It wasn’t even a concert. It was Brandeis … [Read more…]
An assignment. The thrill of that first assignment. It was the fall of 2004, and I’d just taken what felt like a real assignment. I had to travel to New York to interview the noise trio Wolf Eyes. I was a freshman at Brandeis University in the ‘burbs of Boston and Wolf Eyes had recently … [Read more…]