Regardless of one’s feelings about The Ting Tings – day-glo pop masterminds or mere dancefloor diversions – they’d doubtlessly be a surprising addition to the canon of 2000s artists granted pop longevity. Their debut record, We Started Nothing, was a dance-rock jackpot, spilling out a startling amount of durable singles like a generous Atlantic City slot machine; but it, as a record, never offered anything below the heavily stylized surface. Not that all music needs to, mind you – it’s just […]
Posts tagged "music"
Spin Cycle: The Magnetic Fields’ “Love at the Bottom of the Sea”
Digestible and lean, The Magnetic Fields’ latest record, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, attempts to have it both ways: while each Fields album after their massive, masterful magnum opus 69 Love Songs has been more laser-focused than that thrillingly kitchen-sink record, Love at the Bottom packs 15 swift tracks into its sinewy 34-minute runtime. For this we can thank Stephin Merritt, Magnetic Fields maestro and patron saint of indie kids who scrawl their lyrical sketches on cocktail napkins and dog-eared […]
A-Sides With Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Psyched to be a part of the Blerd Team… Blerdy Blerd Blerd. Anyway… Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul, and always will be. Ditto for Michael Jackson and his King of Pop distinction. Sharon Jones made that abundantly clear in a recent “A-Sides” interview. Having said that, there’s still room for another queen in the worldwide music castle. Jones is the self-professed “Queen of Funk.” The lead singer of the appropriately named Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings is as […]
This Year’s Coachella Lineup Is Hipster Heaven!
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, […]
bLISTerd Presents: Drew’s Top 11 Albums of 2011
As we reach the inevitable list-making portion of the year, all of the usual concerns arise: how to order? What was the one album of the year that stands head and shoulders above the rest? Will LMFAO come back next year, and if so, is there any way to stop that from happening? But me, I’ve got a special reason to celebrate: this year, my good buddy The Blerd roped me back into doing some more of that writing stuff […]
The Jukebox From Hell 08: “Christmas Shoes”
This Jukebox From Hell installment is a special one, dear friends. Even as I write this, a Christmas tree glows proudly in my window; stockings for Drew, wife, and pets line the bookcase; in preparation for the holiday at hand, rolls of wrapping paper are stacked in the corner like the most festive teepee framework ever assembled. The brisk air is scented with the pine-scented Yankee Candle to my right; it’s almost depleted, but fear not, for we have backups. […]
The Blerd Interview: Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton sits and has a talk with Popblerd’s Stephen, discussing his absence from recording, his new album and more!
It’s Crazy Clown Time!: David Lynch Gets Set To Release Album
Through the years, David Lynch has worked in a variety of media – photography, sculpture, web series, furniture and his own line of coffee (no joke). But it’s Lynch’s film and television work for which he is best known, comprising a dossier of art house cult classics including Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and the Twin Peaks series (which at times, I still can’t believe aired on prime time network television). Music has always been central to Lynch’s film […]
Why the Hell Should I Like… post-’Thriller’ Michael Jackson? (The Rebuttal)
“Why the hell should I like… ?” is an experiment of sorts between Popblerd and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit . What we’re going to attempt to do is to pick 10 songs from our favorite artists — one for which the other has professed dislike or disinterest — and show them why they’re wrong. I can’t say exactly why I have never sat down and listened to much of Michael Jackson’s post-Thriller music. It’s not as if he released a ton of records in […]
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 […]
A Moment With: Kenya Hall
One wouldn’t necessarily expect Maine to be a hotbed of soul, but sure enough, there’s an up and coming soul band emerging from the…er, whatever Maine is famous for (anyone from Maine reading this post-please don’t kill me.) If you’re from the area and you haven’t checked out the Kenya Hall Band , then shame on you. If you’re not from the area and you love soul music, please allow this column to be your introduction. I was fortunate enough to be able […]
