A riot broke out at New York’s South Street Seaport during a free concert Tuesday. And what nefarious musician inspired such a disastrous public event? The newest shock rocker to hit the scene? Some “evil” death metal band? An anarchist cult yelling at the crowds to fight the government conspiracy? Nope. It was Drake, hip-hop and … [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…]
Metric is a band made for the big stage. You wouldn’t know it from their background, as a term like “Canadian indie rock group” often equals total obscurity when crossing the border. But, somehow Metric has found success outside their home country. As their set at Chicago’s Vic Theatre on Thursday showed, they can not … [Read more…]
Free the Music is a guide to new albums, EPs and songs that are available for free online. Today’s drop is: Caddywhompus – Remainder. At any one moment in indie music history, there are a number of divergent sounds heating up the national scene. They’ve got their communities, they’ve got their fans and they may or may … [Read more…]
Love Justin Bieber, but afraid to reveal it to your punk rock friends? Do you tell your friends that the music you’re blasting on your iPod is the latest pop sensation when it’s really Black Flag’s Damaged? Wish these two worlds could finally meet? Well, XLR8R and Exclaim! music writer and Grown Ups member Josiah … [Read more…]
On Monday, Rolling Stone debuted it’s online subscription model, as well as a much-needed website facelift. Unfortunately, it may be too little, too late. In the years Rolling Stone wasted their web-space, with nothing to show but a handful of articles hosted on a domain, music blogs and sites have sped past the magazine (and many … [Read more…]
The past few years, one word has come up constantly in conversation about today’s pop music: Balkanization. Be it another teeny-indie scene given the tag “glo-fi,” or another subset of Brooklyn bands revisiting the aural atmosphere of ’60s garage pop, the message remains loud and clear: As micro-scenes develop within pockets of our society, our … [Read more…]
There’s a famous scene in Good Will Hunting where an arrogant Harvard student berates Ben Affleck’s Chuckie Sullivan with his in-depth historical knowledge. This is done to bully Sullivan and humiliate him in front of a couple of women Sullivan is trying to hit on. Then, in comes Matt Damon’s Will Hunting to save the … [Read more…]
It’s hard to sum up an entire year of pop music in one concise “best of” list. Instead, here’s a tidy little look at some of the highs and lows in pop music over the past year: Hip-Huh?: The New Yorker‘s Sasha Frere-Jones declared that hip-hop was dead and upset a lot of hip-hop heads. … [Read more…]