After finishing in second place in season 11 of American Idol, Jessica Sanchez’s rookie album is here and while it’s inconsistent, the young teenage girls will love it.
Pop Music
Mini-bLISTerd: A Tribute to the Style of Nile
If you like music and you’ve been on the Internet in the past few weeks, you can’t go far without seeing Daft Punk’s name in print. The French dance duo came back in a big way this month with the release of Random Access Memories , a stirringly retro dance album and their first proper studio album in eight years (a live album and the soundtrack to TRON: Legacy have all appeared in the interim). Deftly zigging where an EDM-fueled crowd expected them to […]
Matt Nathanson Channels Hitchcock with “Mission Bells” Video
Singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson’s new video “Mission Bells” looks back to the horror films of Alfred Hitchcock for inspiration. He says: “we shot it in San Francisco as an homage to the great Alfred Hitchcock. The idea was to make the kind of video you might have seen if you watched “120 minutes” back in the day… which was MTV’s show dedicated to alternative bands like The Cure & Love and Rockets. The video was directed by Fort Ripper, who rule. […]
I Wanna Listen to Robin Thicke’s New Song “4 the Rest of My Life”
Croon your little heart out, Robin Thicke. Following the pop/dance triumph of “Blurred Lines,” which has gone from a YouTube curiosity (ooh naked women) to an actual hit, Robin serves his core constituency with the ballad “4 the Rest of My Life.” Rob’s slow jams are always dope (unless he’s shamelessly trying to recreate his biggest hit “Lost Without U,”) and this song is no exception. Stellar songwriting, those signature creamy vocals and a little more “edge” than usual? It sounds like […]
Daft Punk, Random Access Memories: Album Review
From their 1997 debut Homework and even moreso with 2001’s Discovery, Daft Punk arguably became the foremost ambassadors of electronic music, at once pleasing the discerning tastes of college radio and mainstream audiences. They’ve simultaneously managed to maintain a sort of indie credibility while shilling commercial products for The Gap, Sony, Victoria’s Secret, Coca-Cola, and Adidas. Today’s release of Random Access Memories is one of 2013’s most anticipated releases, the culmination of a months-long publicity campaign waged primarily through television […]
Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City: Album Review
There was a time that Vampire Weekend perched, perilously, on the precipice of being one of the great one-album wonders of the ’00s. Like Cannibal Ox or At the Drive-In or Bloc Party before them, the Ivy League pop-rockers seemed poised to turn heads with one masterstroke of a record, and then retreat into either obscurity, oddity, or simple irrelevance. That album was 2008’s Vampire Weekend — the one with “Oxford Comma” and “A-Punk” and basically all the Vampire Weekend […]
So…Kanye Was the Musical Guest on “SNL” This Past Weekend…
The return of Mr. West…or should we call him…Yeezus?
Songs in the Key of Life 34: “Fistful of Tears”
Ever stand in front of a mirror and just stare at yourself for a while? What happened? Did you check out your wonderful/flawed physical features? Did you begin to talk to yourself? Did you sing? I did it just a few days ago and the reflection lacked any type of humor. I realized that I am angry. For mother’s day, my family went to go pay a visit to my mother at her old South Carolina church’s backyard cemetery. My […]
My Morning Jacket & Erykah Badu Hop On the Horn & Call “Tyrone”
My Morning Jacket. Erykah Badu. Two great tastes that taste great together.