There are few things in popular culture as divisive as Christmas music. The mere mention of the topic tends to create two factions in an otherwise amenable group; one party feels as though they must come up with progressively more…
Category: Music
Christmas Music Guidebook: A Totally Tijuana Christmas!
There are few things in popular culture as divisive as Christmas music. The mere mention of the topic tends to create two factions in an otherwise amenable group; one party feels as though they must come up with progressively more…
Album Reviews: Luscious Jackson, The Shondes, Mike Doughty
Luscious Jackson – Magic Hour (City Song Records, 2013) It’s been fourteen years since the last Luscious Jackson album. In their late-90s heyday, their infectious tunes spanned the divide between the underground and overground, breaking into modern rock radio playlists…
Interview: Creators Vivek J. Tiwary And Andrew Robinson Discuss “The Fifth Beatle”
Vivek Tiwary and Andrew Robinson’s The Fifth Beatle is a new graphic novel that tells the story of Brian Epstein, a man who discovered and managed The Beatles, and built them from a modestly popular local band into the most…
M.I.A. live at Terminal 5, 11/1/2013
On November 1st, M.I.A. played the first of a pair of New York City shows promoting the release of her new album, Matangi. The evening began with a surprise: a brief intro over the house PA, and then a live…
Album Reviews: Locust, vintage electronic soul, Justin Timberlake
Locust- You’ll Be Safe Forever (Editions Mego, 2013) Locust is the name that composer/musician Mark Van Hoen recorded under around the turn of the millennium, producing a series of influential (and highly regarded) albums between 1993 and 2001. The records…
Album Reviews: Johnny Marr, Bastille, They Might Be Giants
Johnny Marr – The Messenger (Sire Records, 2013) Over his tenure with The Smiths, and in the two and a half decades since that band split, Johnny Marr has built a reputation as the greatest guitarist of a generation. His…
ESG: Live at Bowery Electric, 1/30/13
In the late 1970s, four young sisters from the South Bronx formed a band and began to perform around New York City, starting with talent shows and quickly moving up to nightclubs and discotheques. They produced a completely unique form…
Single Reviews: Luscious Jackson, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Veronica Falls
Luscious Jackson – Are You Ready? (self-released, 2013) Luscious Jackson were one of the great genre-bending pop groups of the 90s, turning out folk-inflected trip-hop, harmonic disco torch songs, slither-funk party raps, and whatever else they felt like. They were…
Album Reviews: Czarface (7L/Esoteric/Inspectah Deck), Jamie Lidell
Czarface- s/t (Brick Records, 2013) Czarface is a new project that features the dynamic rap duo 7L and Esoteric joining forces with Inspectah Deck (of Wu-Tang Clan) to produce fourteen tracks of action-packed boom-bap, and it’s an inspired combination. The…