After several false-alarms and Photoshopped posters, the official lineup for the 2012 Coachella Music and Arts Festival has been released. For the first time, the festival, which takes place in Indio, California, will be stretched out over two weekends; beginning April 15th-18th and finishing April 20-22nd. This is likely to accommodate for the large crowds (last year the the attendance record was estimated at about 100,000 people) that travel world-wide for the outdoor festival. Each weekend will have identical lineups, […]
Posts tagged "indie rock"
Calculating Hipsterdom: Determining Your Overall Hipster Magnitude (OHM)
A little over a year ago, I wrote an editorial piece about Pitchfork’s cultural hegemony and the “dullard hipster masses” that keep it afloat, arguing that the collective idiocy of Pitchfork’s readership was responsible for their stranglehold-verging-on-monopolization of the critical tide. It was part of a long line of anti-hipster rants and ravings I produced before taking an extended sabbatical from music writing (which I took to fulfill my lifelong dream of sleeping on a couch and working retail). I’ve noticed a lot […]
Spin Cycle: Guided By Voices’ “Let’s Go Eat the Factory”
There’s a tried-and-true indie rock algorithm that states that former schoolteacher and Guided By Voices mastermind Robert Pollard + anything = a song. Like Billy Corgan and Ryan Adams after him, the man’s songwriting muse is so restless that one imagines they must spend their days holed up in a smoky bedroom with the shades drawn, eagerly committing every phrase they’ve ever learned to a series of spiral-bound notebooks in an effort to mold the entire English language into a […]
bLISTerd Presents: Stephen’s Top 11 Albums of 2011
As someone who usually finds himself spinning the same couple dozen favorites over and over again, joining the Popblerd! team gave me new reason to leave my musical bubble and dive head first into the year’s new music. Needless to say, it was a wonderful experience. I ended up with over thirty albums all told in my final tally of the year’s best, but like any bad parent, I was able to pick favorites. So without further ado, here are […]
Spin Cycle: Florence + the Machine’s “Ceremonials”
British act Florence + The Machine follow up their well-received debut “Lungs” with a new album called “Ceremonials”. Can Ms. Welch and company successfully avoid the sophomore slump?
Spin Cycle: Girls’ “Father, Son, Holy Ghost”
If a cursory glance of Pitchfork’s “one-record-you’ve-heard-of-a-week” album review archive makes you shake your head, convinced that you just don’t get indie music anymore, you’re within your rights; if only something could come along, make you feel, transport you back to a bygone era. Something like that. Enter Girls. Their 2009 debut album Album seemed to often be a case of “I know I like this because several tastemaking critics have told me so” – far from bad, but often sort of […]
Spin Cycle: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks’ “Mirror Traffic”
The Indie Rock ‘Splosion of the 1990s brought us plenty of great music, and Pavement was at the forefront. After the band’s acrimonious split in 1999, frontman Stephen Malkmus wasted little time staking out his solo identity: his first solo album was released in 2001 and three more followed in quick succession before the band improbably reunited last year to cash in on the reunion fever that swept the alt-rock world. But the Pavement reunion was limited to touring. Malkmus […]
Spin Cycle: My Morning Jacket’s “Circuital”
I suppose it’s kind of difficult for My Morning Jacket fans to be truly pleased by one of their records at this point; six albums in, MMJ have cycled through country-rock, reverb-soaked psychedelia, discordant white-dude reggae, galloping metal, and squealing funk so quickly that really nailing down which My Morning Jacket you like can be tasking in and of itself. We only need for frontman Jim James to start spitting his oft-dippy, abstract lyrics over tight, polished grooves – the […]
Bon Iver Hits Fallon: Mashes Up Bonnie Raitt & Donny Hathaway
Still not totally sold on Bon Iver yet, I’ve got to say. But Justin Vernon’s got impeccable taste in covers (and I’ve gotta say, he’s adorable). He recently appeared on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” to promote Bon Iver, Bon Iver-his upcoming June 21st release (an album some of you may have gotten early due to an iTunes glitch) and performed a mashup of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (quite possibly-from a lyrical standpoint-the best song written […]
Wikked Hipstah: Animal Collective Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Noise: A Study On The 2000s Most Divisive Rock Band (Part Three)
In case you missed ’em, check out the first and second installments in this series. Sprawling, rich in lyrical brilliance, sample-heavy and a true “pop” record, Merriweather Post Pavilion produced three,bouncing, even radio-friendly songs in the catchy-as-fuck “My Girls,” “Summertime Clothes,” a romp about exploring the joys of being a free soul in the intense summer heat, and “Brother Sport,” an oddly upbeat number about dealing with the death of Panda Bear’s father. More than anything, Merriweather does the best job […]
Wikked Hipstah: Animal Collective-How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Noise: Part 2
In case you missed it, check out Part One . Animal Collective followed the successful Sung Tongs with Feels in 2005. Different from its predecessors and later determined to be different from its successors, Feels returned, if only in form, to the experimentation of Spirit and Campfire Songs. Much of this album’s feel (again, no pun intended) bandwagons on the success and accessibility of Sung Tongs; obvious singles “Grass” and “The Purple Bottle” are bookended with tracks like the synesthetic “Did You […]
