Frequency 2013 Issue - DSMS `14 (Digital and Social Media

frequency
WMRE’s Music & Culture Zine
Localsfest presents
Killer Mike
New Music
From Drake,
NiN and
AlunaGeorge
Atlanta’s
Top Five
Late-Night
Joints
CHVRCHES
On the Rise
Kanye:
Artist, AHole,
Or Both?
Issue 32 — Fall 2013
wmre.fm/zine
WMRE EXEC
General Manager | Wilma Qiu
Wilma Qiu is a senior from Screwston, Texas majoring in Business and Visual Arts/
Art History. Her spirit pizza topping is pepperoni (because she’s crucial to every party),
and her tombstone will read, “Here Lies Wilma, Whose Name Woefully Doesn’t Rhyme
With Anything.” Her favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Taylor Swift, un-ironically.
Programming | Bobby Weisblatt
Bobby Weisblatt is a junior from Belle Mead, N.J. majoring in English and Film
Studies. His spirit pizza topping is portobello mushrooms, and his tombstone will read,
“Sunt Lacrimae Rerum.” His favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Girugamesh.
ZINE STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
Sonam Vashi
Assistant Editors
Alexa Cucopulos
Special Events | Jordan Francis
Jordan Francis is a senior from Los Angeles, Calif. majoring in Finance and Film
Studies. His spirit pizza topping is the olives, and his tombstone will read, “Unfortunately, #YOLO.” His favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Sixpence None the Richer.
Tech | Neil Sethi
Neil Sethi is a senior from Alpharetta, Ga. majoring in Computer Science. His spirit
pizza topping is the “Ghostface Killapepper”, and his tombstone will read, “That Dude
Was Dope.” His favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Linkin Park.
Zine | Sonam Vashi
Sonam Vashi is a junior from “Atlanta,” Ga. majoring in Journalism and Political Science. Her spirit pizza topping is black olives, and her tombstone will read,
“¯\_(ツ)_/¯.” Her favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Queen, with the Freddy Mercury
stache on.
Treasurer | Rachel Leff
Rachel Leff is a senior from Atlanta, Ga. majoring in IDS with an English minor. Her
spirit pizza topping is salami, and her tombstone will read “#ChoicesWereMade.” Her
favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Grimes.
Music | Rhett Henry
Rhett Henry is a junior from Lawrenceville, Ga. majoring in Creative Writing and
Philosophy. His spirit pizza topping is Papa John (himself), and his tombstone will read,
“Bodies Die but Dadpunk Lives On.” His favorite artist to sing karaoke to is ABBA.
Promotions | Julia Howard
Julia Howard is a sophomore from Poolesville (aka “Bumsville”), Md. majoring in
Marketing and Art History. Her spirit pizza topping is pineapple, and her tombstone
will read “See, I Told You I Was Sick.” Her favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Minor
Threat.
Brigid Choi
Staff Writers
Nick Bradley
Ben Cheng
Brigid Choi
Ben Crais
Alexa Cucopulos
Jacob Eckert
Stephanie Fang
Laura Flint
Max Goodley
Rhett Henry
Julia Howard
Zachary Issenberg
Alex Jalandra
Ellie Kahn
Harmeet Kaur
Sloan Krakovsky
Priyanka Krishnamurthy
Maddie Lampert
Logan Lockner
Sanai Meles
Matt Nawara
Jerry Schusterman
Neil Sethi
Sara Stavile
Wilma Qiu
Sonam Vashi
Bobby Weisblatt
Denton Williams
Media Manager | Caroline Stokes
Caroline Stokes is a senior from Bryant, Ark. majoring in Economics and History.
Her spirit pizza topping is spinach, and her tombstone will read “BRB.” Her favorite
artist to sing karaoke to is Destiny’s Child.
Design
Sonam Vashi
Personnel | Ben Crais
Ben Crais is a sophomore from Atlanta, Ga. majoring in Film Studies. His spirit pizza topping is cilantro, and his tombstone will have
a .gif of a skeleton dancing on it. His favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Throbbing Gristle.
Business | Ben Cheng
Ben Cheng is a junior from Dayton, Ohio. majoring in Math. His spirit pizza topping is andouille sausage, and his tombstone will read,
“Life Is Chill.” His favorite artist to sing karaoke to is Backstreet Boys.
Social Chairs | Alexa Cucopulos and Matt Nawara
Alexa Cucopulos is a sophomore from Franklin Lakes, N.J. majoring in Philosophy and Creative Writing. Her spirit
pizza topping is jalapenos, and her tombstone will be blank, divested of truth or meaning. Her favorite artist to sing
karaoke to is ‘NSYNC because JT is the greatest philosopher of the late 20th and early 21st century.
Matt Nawara is a junior from Naperville, Ill. majoring in “White Man’s Lies at Coca-College.” His spirit pizza topping
is anchovies, and his tombstone will read, “Pronounced Dead on April 20, 2069.” His favorite artist to sing karaoke to
is “Rick James, B---h.”
2
[Table of Contents]
Artists on the Rise ... p. 7
Concert Reviews ... p. 21
Features ... p. 26
Arts ... p. 33
Top Fives ... p. 39
Album Reviews ... p. 47
3
Monday
Tuesday
The Phat Hour
with Tubz
12PM
Fever Dreams
wmre programming
11AM
1PM
Cammie
Wagner and
Lauren Levitt
Random
Moment
Wednesday
Thursday
Liner Notes
Kinetic.
4PM
Hey Girl Hey
Daydream
Off the
5PM Ladies Love
Country Boys Beaten Track
Highz n Lowz
GIRLS
NITE
OUT
Mo Music
Mo Problems
Lulu’s Jams
Elite Tribe
Radio
7PM
What’s This?
Trip B and
‘Lil G
Folk, Etc.
8PM
Beyonce
Power Hour
The Dinner
Party
Hump Day
Happy Hour
RMXs w/ the
AZNs
Now for
Something
Completely
Different
Music in
the Movies
Random
Moment
Bearded, Not
Stirred
11PM Good Vibes
4
‘93 til
INfinity
First and
Goldblum
10PM Jazz Jukebox Night School
International
Superhits
Katie Stout
and Ilene
Tsao
The Dare of
the Hog
EPSN
Wabi-Sabi
Study
Music
Off the Charts
Words with
Friends
Cartoon
Network
Electro
Boosh
Electro
Boosh
Disturbing
the Peace
Dino and the
Doctor
Feminist Hits Ratchet Radio Baselines and
Jives
of 2013
The Secret MF Doom and
Friends
‘Stache
The Blaine and
Sunglasses
Macintosh
and Advil
Show
Sunday
Fuad and
Aqua in the
Morning
The G-Spot
6PM
9PM
Saturday
Kira Jazzy’s
Awesome
Show
Queen Kitten’s Hip Speaks &
2PM
Aural Fixation
Pink Jukebox Hot Beats
3PM
Friday
Study
Songz
Nat^2
R&B
with B
Audio Vista
~DJ spotlights~
y
d
he
g
ut
e
ng
e
Words With
Friends
Names: Mansi Upadhyay and Jessica Jordon
Description: Based off the app, “Words with
Friends,” we pick a word each week (sometimes
we use a random word generator, other times
people send us words through our Facebook
page). Our playlist is then based off of this
word! We usually play more alternative and
chillwave music. Our show is Thursdays from
4-5 p.m.
Years: Seniors
Majors: Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology;
Psychology
Hometowns: Uganda, India; Colombia, Hong
Kong, Brazil, Argentina
Top Five Albums of 2013
1. Random Access Memories — Daft Punk
This album is super upbeat and fun! We absolutely love the collaborations with Nile Rodgers and
Pharrell!
2. True Romance — Charli XCX
We can listen to this album endlessly on repeat! Besides being totally catchy her songs are definitely original.
3. Long. Live. A$AP — A$AP Rocky
What else can we say but fresh and real? Haha. We love his beats and his verses. He's just the realest dude in the game right now.
4. Trouble Will Find Me — The National
There is a lot of depth to this album, and it’s a great listen for any mood you’re in. Definitely a goto.
5. Hummingbird — The Local Natives
This album has very thoughtful lyrics to each track. It's hard not to hum along or to have your
foot tapping while you're listening to this album.
5
~DJ spotlights~
Sunday Study Sesh
Names: Andrea Molino and Camilla
Worsfold
Description: Starting at noon, DJ
Milla and DJ Drea play fresh, current, eclectic and completely lyric-free
music so everyone can get their study
on. In the last 15 minutes, we play
whatever we want.
Years: Sophomore
Majors: Biology
Hometowns: Wheaton, Ill.; Wenham,
Mass.
Bearded, Not Stirred
Names: Michelle Peretz and Sarah Chew
Description: Every Thursday at 10 p.m.,
we feature music by bearded men or
those with bearded spirits (but really, we
just play music by men who happen to
have beards and those who don't).
Years: Seniors
Majors: Psychology; Psychology and
Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Hometowns: Portland, Ore.; Washington, D.C.
6
[Artists
on the
Rise]
From FKA Twigs’
“Water Me” Video
By Alexa Cucopulos
“I’m a quiet person,” FKA Twigs said in an interview with Pitchfork. “During the week, I’m quite
simple. I wake up in the morning, I go to ballet, I
come back, I maybe make a beat.” Twigs’ soft-spoken yet powerful demeanor shines through in her
recently released EP, an ethereal and understated
artistic musical collection.
The 25-year-old Englander works as a bartender
on the side to continue raising money for her musical endeavors and also trains as a ballet dancer,
the fluidity and airiness of a ballerina’s movements
transuding their way into her musical sensibilities.
The rising artist’s newly-released EP, entitled
EP2, unfolds like a fever dream, each song seamlessly dissolving into the next. Like a delicate spool
of thread, Twigs’ vocals loosely unravel and entwine
the listener, gently luring her audience further and
further into a celestial dimension as the album progresses.
In the EP’s first track “How’s That,” Twigs queries, “How’s that, how’s that feel?” and then goes
on to assert, “You feel right. That’s so amazing.” She
lifts the audience with her spiritual presence. Her
voice is ghostly; it often verges on a whisper, like
an ethereal being beckoning the listener into a benevolent realm. Her intentionally vague lyrics allow
the instrumentals to speak for themselves and encapsulate a universal notion of euphoria.
The following song, “Papi Pacify,” literally feels
like a pacification; Twigs’ delicate voice overlaps
with pure background pitches, distilling music
down to its most lucid form.
For many of her EP tracks, Twigs has accompanying music videos. For instance, her video for
“Water Me” is hypnotic in its tableau imagery, focusing mainly on a singular image of the artist’s face
with slight variations. We see a close-up of Twigs’
face against a tranquil mint-green backdrop, her
right side bathed in light, her left side shadowed
with icy bluish hues. Her red lips pop against the
video’s otherwise cool colors. But most striking are
her abysmal eyes. They embody a trancelike quali8
ty: half closed lids, a sleepy, glazed-over appearance
through which she entices the viewers into inhabiting her same liminal state between sleep and wakefulness. Her head bobs back and forth, rapidly at
first and then more subtly, like a magician’s pocket
watch swinging to and fro until it comes to a hypnotizing halt.
The image’s nuanced repetition entrances the
viewer and coaxes her into a dreamlike stupor
through minimalistic imagery and echoing vocals.
The ambience of the track is reminiscent of rippling
water dispersing outward and plants growing upward toward a tranquil sun. Ultimately, the track
is the quintessence of Zen. The artist superimposes
her angelic voice over higher-pitched vocals that
sing the same lyrics: a phantasm of Twigs herself.
The EP’s Brooklyn-based producer Arca (also a
co-producer for Kanye West’s Yeezus) is a clear influence on Twigs’ laid back yet sordid beats. Arca
has helped Twigs establish her growing position
within the trip-hop genre. (Her beats have only gotten more refined since her first EP). His own synergy of disquieting percussion and sedative vocals
has permeated many of Twigs’ own works. However, that’s not dismissing the young artist as a mere
product of her producer. EP2 showcases her originality in both musicality and lyricism. Twigs is a
mastermind in splicing seemingly opposing tones:
graceful melodies over foreboding beats, calm ambience over frenzied cadence. Not to mention,
she’s just an overall talented musician.
Ultimately, EP2 is a metamorphosis for
both the listener and Twigs herself. One begins as human but ends as a mere essence of
oneself. It’s a purification, a sordid rebirth
of music and the individual. The album
thrusts the audience into temporal moratorium in its use of staccato and legato,
synthesized notes and raw tonalities,
slowing down and speeding up. Its vexing beats and gaseous vocals dig to the
core and mentally cleanse the listener.
FKA Twigs
From FKA
Twigs’ “Papi
Pacify” Video
9
Lucius
The only part of music-making
that Lucius enjoys more than producing new records is connecting with
the audiences that follow them, an
experience that the Brooklyn band
eagerly anticipates before each show
they perform. Recently launching a
tour to promote their forthcoming
debut record Wildewoman, (Mom +
Pop Records), Lucius finds that the
most invigorating prospect about this
series of shows is connecting with a
new audience each night — especially
those who attend shows in smaller
10
By Stephanie Fang
towns.
“That’s what excites us: playing for
people who are music listeners and
music lovers who go out and support
large music,” singer Jess Wolfe enthused in an interview with Frequency. “I think that’s really the best thing.”
Lucius formed after Wolfe and
Holly Laessig — who share the spotlight as frontwomen and the band’s
primary songwriters — met during
their time at the Berklee College of
Music. Like a storyline ripped from
the pages of a indie-pop fairytale,
Wolfe and Laessig began to jam together after they discovered an extensive collection of mutually-beloved
musical inspirations.
After forming their “automatic
kinship” over a shared love of artists like David Bowie, Sam Cook and
Little Richard, the then college-aged
Wolfe and Laessig decided to collaborate on a Beatles-inspired project. They rearranged and planned to
rerecord all the tracks on the Beatles’
White Album but only managed to get
through “Happiness is a Warm Gun”
Photo By Peter Larson
before calling it quits and choosing to
write their own music.
The rest is history. Now, 11 years
after they first met (at arguably the
most fortuitous college house party
they ever attended) and nine years after they began to play together, Wolfe
and Laessig are gearing to release Lucius’ first album. The creative process
took a total of three years to complete
as the friends and band-mates grappled to find a definitive sound.
“We were looking to explore our
sound further in the studio — trying
to experiment and throw spaghetti at
the walls and see what stuck,” Wolfe
said. “We had no true intention. We
had no refined goal in mind. It was
just to play with sound.”
However, the two were in no hurry
to finish the record — believing instead that the quality of their music
trumped all else.
“We’ve never tried to rush anything,” she commented. “We’ve never
tried to put the cart before the horse.
[We wanted to] nurture the craft and
write beautiful songs and when they
were ready, make sure they were documented in some way.”
Wolfe and Laessig wrote many of
the songs for Wildewoman while living in Flatbush’s Ditmas Park neighborhood in Brooklyn in what they
called the Brahman House, an old,
Victorian-style home they chanced
upon while browsing Craigslist.
As their work on the forthcoming
record progressed, Wolfe and Lasseig
began to meet and recruit new bandmembers, adding Danny Molad, Peter Lalish and Andrew Burri to the
line-up. Wolfe remarked that the rest
of the band, which she referred to as
one “[complete] family” has become
integral to the sound that she and
Laessig have cultivated.
These days, Wolfe and Laessig have
moved past their early affinity for soul
music and glam rock, and the tracks
on Wildewoman reflect the band’s
light-hearted, doe-eyed flirtation with
twee-pop and art-house rock stylings. The sweet, vibrant vocals create
a sound similar to Zooey Deschanel’s
bubble-gum-and-rainbows crooning
for She & Him. However, each song’s
content and electronically charged
buzz makes the record reminiscent of
Grimes’ 2012 Visions — appropriate
given that the Canadian artist is one
with whom Wolfe is “particularly in
love right at the moment.”
Consequently, Wildewoman possesses more of a girl-power quality
— though underneath all the layers of
edginess is a certain self-consciousness that pulses poignantly on each
track, perhaps because Wolfe and
Laessig wrote their songs while focusing on similar experiences of loneliness they’d faced in the past.
It was also this similarity in these
struggles that Wolfe and Laessig encountered that added not only to the
cohesiveness of their friendship but
also to the songs that each wrote for
Wildewoman.
“I think we both grew up very
lonely and that’s something that has
connected our songwriting,” Wolfe
noted. “Even though we come from
very different backgrounds, we’ve had
so many parallels in our life challenges and our relationships. So, we’ve had
an easy time sort of speaking for one
another and relating to one another
because of that.”
However, Wolfe is reluctant to
pigeonhole Lucius’ sound into any
particular category of music due to
the band’s “neverending,” constantly
changing stream of musical influences and favorites.
“We’re all so strongly influenced
by so many different genres and different bands. It would be hard to discount anyone,” she cautioned. “The
list is really endless, and I think you
hear so many different influences in
the music that it’s really just not one
or two.”
Wolfe did mention that she
thought the record was “bold” and
“melodic” and that it possessed “a
strong element of preciousness.”
These qualities, she claimed, make
it nearly impossible to place Lucius
into a specific genre, despite critics’
mischaracterization of their music as
“indie rock.” With the weariness of
an artist who likely must repeat this
opinion more often than she’d like,
Wolfe added, “I think everything is
everything these days and to say indie rock is, in my personal opinion, a
waste of words because you could say
anything is indie rock.”
11
Folk bands seem almost commonplace these days,
with imitators of popular acts like Mumford & Sons and
the Lumineers popping up everywhere you look. But
Half Moon Run manages to stay ahead of the pack by
blending familiar elements with their own unique approach to create a sound that is both instantly recognizable and completely singular.
Half Moon Run was formed in 2010 in Montreal and
is comprised of lead singer Devon Portielje on guitar and
percussion; Conner Molander on guitar and keyboard;
Dylan Phillips on drums and keyboard; and multi-instrumentalist Isaac Symonds on percussion, mandolin,
keyboard and guitar. Half Moon Run released their debut album Dark Eyes in Canada through Indica Records
in 2012. They were soon signed by Glassnote Records,
who released their album internationally in 2013 with
the addition of a new song, titled “Unofferable.”
The songs on Dark Eyes are anchored by
Portielje’s rich vocals, but the other band members aren’t relegated to their instruments. Half
Moon Run’s songs are defined by the combination of
intensely beautiful harmonies and oftentimes subtle yet
richly layered instrumental tracks.
The album opens with “Full Circle,” a rousing anthem featuring a pounding drumbeat underneath delicate guitar lines and vocals that speak poignantly of
pain and addiction. “Call Me in the Afternoon” moves
things along nicely with hopeful-sounding instrumentals punctuated intermittently by searing harmonies,
and “Need It” adds a slow, romantic touch to the album
as Portielje and his bandmates croon over a lover in the
Half Moon
Run
12
night. Dark Eyes is rounded out by “21 Gun Salute,” a
track that skillfully displays some surprising electronic
components.
The members of Half Moon Run have said that they
didn’t know each other well prior to forming the band
and that they aren’t particularly close even now, but that
distance doesn’t stop them from crafting intricatelydetailed music, where every band member plays a
precisely-defined part but still manages to sound
totally in sync with everyone else.
This especially comes across in the band’s
live shows. Half Moon Run performances
are typically intimate affairs, with setups ideal for showcasing the delicate
arrangements which they play so
well. You can feel a real musical
By Jerry
Schusterman
Photo Credit: Valeria Cherchi
connection between Portielje, Molander, Philips and
Symonds as they build off of and support each other
both vocally and instrumentally. Despite the complex
beauty of much of Half Moon Run’s instrumentation,
it’s their crystal clear voices that really take center stage
at their shows, leaving no doubt about their raw technical skill.
Half Moon Run has toured with acts like Of Monsters and Men, Mumford & Sons and Metric, played
music festivals across the globe to great critical acclaim,
and the band’s currently touring internationally in
support of their debut album. Hailed by Ben Lovett of
Mumford & Sons as “one of the most important bands
debuting an album this year” and “progressive without
being pretentious,” Half Moon Run is truly a delight for
the ears. Don’t be surprised if you see them dominating
Hip-hOP’s most
honest player
steps forward
By Ben Crais
After a string of mixtapes, culminating in this year’s
fantastic In Dark Denim, San Jose rapper Antwon has
emerged as one of the more eclectic voices working in
hip-hop today. A former punk rocker and outspoken
fan of Kid Rock, Antwon’s mixtapes are often diverse affairs, shifting from apocalyptic noise-rap to bouncy love
anthems in the blink of an eye.
On the mixtape End of Earth, he raps about crop circles and death over a threatening, distorted Wounderaeser beat only to create a fun-loving summer anthem
two tracks later. This versatility is a testament both to
Antwon’s talent (he’s equally comfortable performing
with metal band Deafhaven and rapping over a Sigur
Ros sample) and his wide-ranging appeal.
While Antwon occasionally
engages in the typical rap
braggadocio, it’s far more common
to find him expressing romantic
and sexual anxiety.
One subject remains consistent across his freewheeling musical sensibilities: women. His breakout release,
2011’s Fantasy Beds Mixtape is “dedicated to all womyn,
mothers and daughters,” and his music since then, especially In Dark Denim, reflects this. While Antwon
occasionally engages in the typical rap braggadocio, it’s
far more common to find him expressing romantic and
sexual anxiety.
While his songs are always from his own perspective, he generally portrays the women of his life as free
agents, independent of his own desires. Unlike many
heterosexual male rappers, who often make a point of
not caring about the women they sleep with, Antwon
14
does exactly the opposite.
In Dark Denim’s closing track finds him lamenting
how the woman he loves doesn’t reciprocate his feelings
and only wants him for sex. Over Cities Aviv’s glitchy,
left-field production he booms, “Rose petals touch my
lips, feel like glass shards.” This is not the immature
passive-aggression of Drake, who temporarily admits
wounded feelings before reasserting his dominance, but
Photo Credit: Jonathan Weiner
rather a recognition that the woman he loves has ambitions and desires that do not necessarily include him.
Antwon’s honesty and lack of pretension plays a large
part in his allure. Whether bitter and lonely, as in the
Fantasy Beds Mixtape closer “Darby Crash,” or affable
and ready to love, Antwon always appears to the listener
as a likeable everyman.
Listening to his music can often feel like convers-
ing with a friend as he shares stories of unloyal friends
and romantic pursuits with either surprising candor or
winking hyperbole (as in his most recent song, the neogoth “Dying in the Pussy”). Antwon is the ideal Internet rapper: a relatable, funny guy who, rather than tying
himself down to any particular style of music, makes
use of the variety of sounds and collaborators available
at the tip of his fingers.
15
Photo Credit:
Kelsie McNair
16
Into the Stratosphere
With
Suburban Living
By Ellie Kahn
I first heard Suburban Living’s sound “Video Love” off the band’s Always Eyes
EP, to be precise, in the background of a video interview with Kat Dennings for
Nylon magazine. The sound was fresh and far-away, and one that I often look for
in today’s music scene, and I knew it would be all that would come out of my
headphones for the next week. And the week after.
The problem is, the band’s repertoire is composed only of an EP, a mini-EP, and
a single — which is around nine songs — so it’s like a television show that’s only
released part of a season, leaving you shaking and suffering a withdrawal that can
only be cured with more (or a double shot of espresso).
Mr. Wesley Bunch of Virginia Beach is the lone man behind the sound, one
that he’s played around with since he was 14 but didn’t officially call Suburban
Living until 2010. He does everything — the writing, the vocals, the mixing, the
drum machine-operating. Bunch admitted in an interview with Prefix Magazine
that he’s no good at drumming, so he used a machine to lay down the tracks for
his EP. But it doesn’t matter. Instead of sophisticated riffs and verses and bridges,
he offers stuff that’s expertly synthy and distant, just how we like it.
Suburban Living’s music has been categorized by bloggers and critics as “dream
pop,” which I see as synonymous with music that’s easy to drown out your surroundings with when studying.
Listen to the Always Eyes EP a few times through, and Starbucks will become
a grassy pasture with expansive willow trees. Spin the EP Cooper’s Dream for an
evening, and the library stacks will become a rooftop overlooking a metropolitan
city. It’s trance music, reminiscent of pros like Beach House and the xx, that seems
more like overlapping sounds buried under layers and layers of each other than
just songs.
We get about 26 percent of the lyrics most of the time, and the rest is just there,
floating around in Wesley Bunch’s personal stratosphere.
However, Bunch knows how to write a melody. The unsigned band’s top hit (if
you could call it that) “I Don’t Fit In” delivers a chorus that has chant-at-a-concert
potential and boasts a pop format we can all recognize. Bunch isn’t doing anything alarming or stinging with his music, but with winning songs like “Give Up”
that feel modern yet also reminiscent of another era, he gets us to close our eyes
and take a break from all things college.
What’s great about Suburban Living’s collection of tracks is that it’s musicallyaccessible to the most devout of hipsters — and also to the most suburban of suburbanites. And that’s the point of this stuff. Bunch’s intent is to express through his
music what it’s like to live in the suburbs, but also give you a means through which
to escape it. So take it, if you need it.
17
By Sanai Meles
Initially, the members of Glasgow-based synthpop
group Chvrches may appear to be an odd combination.
Lead vocalist Lauren Mayberry, the lone female in the
group, is the youngest at 25 years old and holds a plethora of educational degrees, while bandmates Iain Cook
(synthesizer, guitar, bass, vocals) and Martin Doherty
(synthesizer, samplers, vocals) were musical journeymen that found themselves involved in a few rock bands
before forming Chvrches. Mayberry was previously involved in a few bands, including performing as a singer
for indie band Blue Sky Archives.
It was in this setting that she would meet Cook, who
was producing an EP for the group. The band became
fully realized when Cook, looking to put together an
electronic-based group, asked Mayberry to sing on
a couple of demos for him and Doherty. The demos
proved to be successful, and Chvrches came into fruition.
Opening with bursting
synths, Mayberry’s sweet,
powerful vocals soar and
sweep across the track in
an electronic whirlwind.
The group’s arrival on the scene would be marked by
the release with the release of their song “Lies” (which
is included on debut album The Bones of What You Believe) in May 2012. The song garnered widespread attention in the blogosphere and social media, and how
could it not? Opening with bursting synths, Mayberry’s
sweet, powerful vocals soar and sweep across the track
in an electronic whirlwind.
Chvrches has drawn comparisons to other acts like
Purity Ring, a pretty reasonable comparison with the
18
similar female lead vocals and synth based. But, as Cook
puts it in an interview with Pitchfork Media, “Purity
Ring are a lot more obscure in terms of their melodies
— they try to bury their hooks a lot deeper, whereas we
want our melodies to be up-front and immediate.” The
Bones of What You Believe, released via Virgin Records,
finds the band further embracing the formula of “Lies:”
hook-filled, precise and favoring a big sound. Chvrches
performs like a traditional rock band that solely utilizes
Photo Credit: Eliot Hazel
electronic sounds — not a far-fetched statement considering their previous musical backgrounds.
Some critics describe Chvrches’ music as “soulless,”
and that the synth base lacks a certain expressivity. It’s
a leveled criticism that’s understandable. In the contemporary soundscape where electronic music is hitting its peak in popularity and has become accessible to
just about anyone and everyone, production can falter.
However, Chvrches doesn’t falter in our modern culture.
As group that seems to fully understand the potential of
their setup, Chvrches looks to make pop music that, as
Kitty Empire of The Observer noted, is “accessible” and
“only just short of truly brilliant.”
If you want to check out Chvrches, they’ll be playing
in Atlanta on Tuesday, Nov. 26 at the Variety Playhouse.
$20-$22. 8 p.m. Nov. 26, 2013.
Variety Playhouse. 1099 Euclid Ave. 404-524-7354.
19
~DJ spotlights~
Hump Day
Happy Hour
Name: Kellie Vinal
Description: Bringing local jamz, upand-coming artists, and sometimes
nonsensically-themed playlists directly
to your ears.
Year: Fourth-year
Program: Microbiology and Molecular Genetics in the Graduate Division of
Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Hometown: Raleigh, N.C.
Liner Notes
Name: Bennett Kane
Description: Investigating the industry
figures (producers, engineers, labels and
studio musicians) who make important
contributions to successful recordings.
Year: Sophomore
Major: Philosophy
Hometown: Marietta, Ga.
Hip Speaks & Hot Beats
Name: Ben Crais
Description: I play a variety of hip-hop
and electronic music, especially acts in
which the two genres intersect.
Year: Sophomore
Major: Film
Hometown: Atlanta, Ga.
20
Ph
[concert reviews]
Photo by Michael Schmelling
21
Localsfest
Atlanta-based artists Killer Mike and Carnivores came to absolutely rock WMRE's Localsfest
on Oct. 26 in the tiered outdoor setting of Emory's
Business School Amphitheater.
Localsfest is an annual fall concert put on by
WMRE, Emory's student-run radio station. Featuring up-and-coming artists from the Atlanta
area, Localsfest acts as a great opportunity to acquaint the Emory community, many of whom
come to the school from outside Atlanta, with the
local music scene. Past Localsfests have featured
artists like Atlas Sound, Washed Out, the Booze,
Mood Rings, and the Coathangers.
To start off the chilly Saturday evening, Astigmatic, aka College junior (and WMRE Co-Social
Chair) Mateusz Nawara, played a killer electronic
DJ set with moody beats and atmospheric glitches.
Nawara has been producing since he was 16, and
during his performance, he broke out tracks like
“Videodrome,” as well as others from artists like
22
Carnivores/Ross Politi
Localsfest/Wilma Qiu
C.Z., Submerse and H20$port$.
After Astigmatic, local opener Carnivores
brought their brand of surf punk to the stage.
Formed in 2009, Carnivores is comprised of Philip
Frobos (bass/vocals), Caitlin Lang (keyboard/vocals), Ross Politi (guitar), Nathaniel Higgins (guitar/vocals) and Billy Mitchell (drums), and they've
played countless shows in and out of Atlanta, including a tour opening for Franz Ferdinand last
summer.
Incorporating coastal sounds similar to Best
Coast and Tame Impala, the band uses discordant
melodies soaked in reverb to create rhythmic, lofi music, delivering a live performance possessed
with an unmistakable, danceable joy. Songs like
“Spells” and “Sinking in Your Automobile,” off of
their newly-released third full-length Second Impulse (Army of Bad Luck), ended with cheers and
applause from the small crowd. Based on the headbobbing and foot-tapping among a crowd largely
Fall 2013
unfamiliar with the group, Carnivores certainly
made a few new fans.
As Carnivores concluded their set, more and
more of Emory's dedicated rap heads and general
music enthusiasts began to arrive in anticipation
for Atlanta rap heavyweight Killer Mike, who
eventually came on stage to a resounding ovation.
The critically-acclaimed hip-hop artist released
his last full-length R.A.P. Music in 2012 and released the groundbreaking collaborative album
Run the Jewels this summer with New York rapper El-P.
An Atlanta native who holds a deep sense of
pride in his city, Killer Mike holds close ties and
friendships with legendary Atlanta hip-hop duo
OutKast, who featured him on Stankonia (2000)
tracks like "Snappin' & Trappin'" and "The Whole
World," and was part of renowned rap supergroup Purple Ribbon All-Stars, responsible for
the hit "Kryptonite."
At Localsfest, Killer Mike started off the night
on a thunderous note with the track “Big Beast”
off of R.A.P. Music, and his enthusiastic, spiritual
performance continued from there. Even though
technical difficulties interrupted the performance
at one point, Killer Mike was a consummate professional and rapped a cappella instead of complaining about the circumstances. His performance would go on without missing a beat, as he
gave onlookers more Southern hip-hop.
Killer Mike seemed well versed in knowing
how to work an intimate crowd and gave onlookers a window into his down-to-earth persona,
full of love for his family and hometown. Songs
like “Kryptonite” had the audience jumping and
chanting every word, and the harshly poignant
“Reagan” gave rhythmic life to political dissent.
Killer Mike’s personality and stage presence made
for an interactive, fun performance, and by the
show’s end, you forgot how cold it was outside.
23
Fall Festivals
One
t
s
e
F
c
i
s
u
M
In its fourth year, ONE MusicFest blessed Atlanta
with another incredible lineup. With headliners Snoop
Dogg (aka Snoop Lion), classic hip-hop supergroup
Goodie Mob, Joey Bada$$ and many more, the music festival did not disappoint. Conveniently located at
the Masquerade Music Park and Historic Fourth Ward
Park, the festival drew a sizable crowd. The combination of artists and clear, sunny weather really created the
perfect environment.
Early on in the afternoon, Joey Bada$$ tore up the
stage by bringing out fellow Pro Era member Kirk
Knight to rap favorite songs such as “Hardknock.” Following the song, Joey B proceeded to spit off the dome
in a flawless freestyle. The star ended his performance
with one of the original songs that catapulted him onto
the big rap scene “Survival Tactics.” By paying tribute to
his fallen member and close friend Capital Steez, Joey
Bada$$ finished his show on a very strong note. Arguably the face of the new young generation of hip hop,
Joey Bada$$ gave one of the best performances of the
day.
Later on in the evening, Atlanta-based hip-hop
quartet, Goodie Mob began their performance on the
“Do the Right Thing” stage. Drawing a large crowd, Cee
Lo Green and the other members performed several
fan favorites. One of the most memorable moments of
Goodie Mob’s show was when the group brought out
R&B icon Erykah Badu. They proceeded to perform the
classic song “Liberation” by Atlanta’s legendary rap duo
OutKast, which energized the crowd.
While Erykah Badu’s presence during Goodie Mob’s
performance might have been unexpected, she actually
had a set of her own under the alter-ego DJ Low Down
Loretta Brown. A very well-respected artist, Badu kept
the crowd very entertained with her music. However,
during the show, Ms. Badu’s sound equipment unexpectedly failed. While this might have appeared to be
a big obstacle, Erykah Badu smoothly continued her
show by singing a couple of her hits.
The night ended with Snoop Dogg’s long-awaited
24
By Ben Cheng
performance. With his appearance at ONE being rela-
tively close to the drop of his new reggae
single, “La La La,” I was unsure whether
the famous rapper would perform rap or
include some of his newer reggae music.
As it turned out, Snoop Dogg not only
performed both styles of his music, but
he also paid homage to two of hip-hop’s
most iconic figures, Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. Rapping both Tupac’s hit
“America’s Most Wanted” and Biggie’s
“Hypnotize,” Snoop Dogg got the crowd
incredibly hyped. I could not think of a
better way to end the music festival.
The combination of the crowds, artists
and weather really made for a fun way
to spend your Saturday. Overall, ONE
MusicFest was a great event — a perfect
way to not only see your favorite up-andcoming artists like Joey Bada$$ but also
experience the performances of musical
legends like Snoop Dogg.
Bo
Music Mid
t
o
wn
By Laura Flint
This year’s Music Midtown will not only be remembered for its diverse and talented lineup, but also for the
drenching rain that persisted from the noon opening of
the concert on Saturday until 5 p.m. that night. Spectators were immediately soaked (ponchos or not) and the
once green, grassy hills of Piedmont Park turned into
sludge and mudslides.
But these poor weather conditions
failed to deter the 50,000 spectators who
attended the second day of the concert
from getting their money’s worth.
Music Midtown began in 1994 as
a three-day event that quickly became
one of the biggest festivals in the country, with over 300,000 concert-goers. But
after 2005, the festival took a five-year
hiatus due to declining attendance and
increasing costs and wasn’t restarted until 2011. The success of the concert at its
new location at Piedmont Park has owners optimistic about future expansion.
The festival opened Friday with gor-
diction, with classic rock band Journey headlining.
Of the afternoon acts, Phoenix stood out the most
— this alternative French band, on tour with its newest album Bankrupt!, pumped up the hot, sweaty crowd
with hits like “1901” and “Lisztomania.” Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars displayed stunning tenacity by walking into the center of the crowd and surfing back to the
stage.
Cake put on an interesting, disconnected show under a spinning disco ball, as lead singer John McCrea
punctuated his set list with his own somewhat eccentric
thoughts.
Even with a 100 percent chance of rain, festival-goers swarmed to Piedmont Park early Saturday to catch
acts like the Neighborhood, Capital Cities and Weezer.
Sadly, many of these bands overlapped, and attendees
were forced to decide whether they favored the newer
electronic sound of Capital Cities or the classic alternative tunes of Weezer. Capital Cities, who released their
debut album In a Tidal Wave of Mystery in June, put on
an amazing set through the pouring rain, ending with
their pop anthem “Safe and Sound” and an encore dubstep remix.
Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo ventured to the
edge of the stage and braved the downpour during classics like “The Sweater Song.”
Artists such as boisterous English alt-rock band Arctic Monkeys and Atlanta punks the Black Lips powered
through the deluge as well, but Las Vegas-based Imagine Dragons stood out as one of the best shows of the
afternoon. Just as the clouds lifted, the alternative pop
band put on an amazing performance that let the audience escape the discomfort of their soaked clothes and
mud-caked shoes.
The band was followed by the eclectic tunes of Yeah
Yeah Yeahs, who performed their raucous brand of
garage rock until 8:00. At that point, attendees had to
choose between Queens of the Stone Age and Compton, Calif.-born rapper (and 2013 Emory Spring Band
Party performer) Kendrick Lamar. The night ended
with a three-hour performance by funky headliners the
Red Hot Chili Peppers, who looked much older than
geous weather but a less well-known setlist that includ- their 50 years but played their old and new hits in shirted 2 Chainz, the Mowgli’s, Phoenix, Cake and Jane’s Ad- less, rock-n-roll glory.
Top Photo: By Bridger Clements
Bottom photo: By Ellen Von Unwerth
25
[features]
FEATURES
Kanye
26
Kanye, The Artist
Six Reasons Why He’s More
Than Just An Asshole
By Wilma Qiu
K
anye West. The certified asshole. The number-one fan of “leather jogging pants.” The “gay fish.” Despite being the brunt of a fair share of jokes and having the media paint a less-than-positive image of his character,
Kanye West is undoubtedly an extremely significant innovator in the music industry.
I’m writing this, as a lover of music and hip-hop, to take a look beyond the image of Kanye created by his outbursts and buoyed by TMZ and Us Weekly. His unapologetic sound, in combination with his outspoken personality, create art that has laid the groundwork for important advances that may not be apparent at first glance.
To understand this, it’s useful to trace Kanye from his humble (fun fact: this very line is the first time “humble”
and “Kanye” were used in the same sentence) beginnings to the current era.
Without further ado, I present to you The Artist Formally Known as Kanye West: Yeezy to Yeezus.
The College
Impressionism:
Dropout; Late Registration
2003 was an interesting year for music. The top 10 songs on the Billboard 100 at the time included 50 Cent’s “In
Da Club,” Chingy’s “Right Thurr” and R.Kelly’s “Ignition” (I’m imagining my fifth-grade self singing every word
of the chorus without knowing what any of it meant ... *shivers*). In other words, rap was dominated by a gangsta
image that trended more toward homogeneity than creativity.
But then, Kanye’s first album The College Dropout was released and broke the traditional rap formula. The collection of songs bridged the gap between sounds of underground rap (think De La Soul or A Tribe Called Quest)
with mainstream popularity. Most importantly, it introduced and popularized a new element of hip-hop: the soul
sample, prevalent in the songs “All Falls Down” and “Through the Wire.” “Jesus Walks” also got me admitted into
high school, but that’s another story*. *See page 29
Late Registration, released a year later, represented a continuation of the innovative impact of Kanye’s music.
The album solidified the platform for alternative-leaning rap and used orchestral and booming sound (think
“Touch the Sky”) to disrupt the then-sturdy platform of hip hop built on hoes, bling and do-rags.
Both albums set the stage for rap that had a more emotionally-aware, socially-conscious flair
that could still appeal to a diverse audience, ranging from hip-hop fanatics to hard-to-please
hipsters. They also built a foundation for popular alt rappers like Lupe Fiasco and B.o.B.
Photo Courtesy of Kanye West
27
Cubism:
Graduation
After two albums, it was time to re-invent. Graduation fused electronic music with hip-hop (“Stronger” and
“Flashing Lights”). While it seems commonplace now, in 2007, EDM music hadn’t quite taken over the airwaves
yet. Kanye’s album pushed electronic music to the masses with an already-established genre. In doing so, he
seeded the elements of mainstream success that support the full-blown powerhouses that create electronic music
today. It’s hard to think that Kanye was a predecessor to artists such as Zedd and Avicii, but only six years ago,
there weren’t many electronic-influenced genres on the radio.
The Blue Period:
808s & Heartbreak
This is an interesting anomaly in his musical line.
innovative — it heavily utilized the overpopular trend
despite its common medium, the album’s different apKanye lays it all out there — sadness, heartbreak ...
music but was uncommon. The album opened the
pealed to our angsty sides, like the music of Kid
From Kanye West’s
“Blkkk Skkkn Head”
Video
28
808s & Heartbreak at first seems to be the opposite of
of Auto-Tune on the entirety of the album. However,
proach to content had a deep impact. This is where
more sadness. Before 808s, emotion existed in rap
doorway for alternative hip-hop and R&B that apCudi, Drake and Frank Ocean.
The Mona Lisa:
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye’s masterpiece. It’s difficult to give this album due
justice in a paragraph, but I’ll try. Released after his infamous incident with a certain blonde pop songstress, My
Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was an incredibly impressive exercise in music.
Kanye brings the threads of all his previous compositions together:
the soulfulness of The College Dropout and Late Registration, the electronic elements of Graduation and the emotional vulnerability of 808s
and Heartbreak. All complemented by amazing production.
The result was music that was unlike anything else in the industry. It
was a new concept in its music and yet had a profoundly widespread appeal. The drama, maximalist beats and grand atmosphere all culminated
in this album.
Postmodern Art:
Yeezus
Released just over the summer, Yeezus is Kanye’s attempted entry into god-status (almost literally). I won’t talk
about this much since its impact on the industry is still at
large. However, it definitely is a more experimental, artistic
exercise and moves away from convention. Will we have a
postmodern rap scene? Stay tuned.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Kanye is an unapologetic, abrasive man. But
it’s exactly his shamelessness that holds the key to his musical success.
The relationship between his ego and his rhymes combine to produce
albums that move away from the static equilibrium that so entices the
music industry.
The end result is that Kanye is an Artist.
The College Dropout and Late Registration were similar to Impressionism in completely rejecting the norm in an audacious and colorful
way.
Graduation, like Cubism, incorporated industrial elements to reevaluate what was commonplace.
808s as the Blue Period is self-explanatory.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is Mona Lisa because of its near
universal appeal and beauty.
And finally, Yeezus is the postmodern art we hope to one day understand.
So, Imma let you finish but … KANYE WEST, THE BEST INNOVATOR IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY OF ALL TIME! ALL TIME!!
* ”Jesus
Walks”
In order to get into one of the
best public high schools in our district, students had to write an essay
about a piece of art that had inspired
him or her. To impress admissions
counselors, I (with my middle
school brain) originally wrote about
Einstein’s E = mc2.
Satisfied with my deep knowledge of nuclear physics, I turned my
essay into my English teacher to be
reviewed.
It was the worst essay I had ever
written. According to her, at least.
She called a private meeting to
politely ask me what the hell I was
thinking when I wrote the piece. To
put it simply, I just had no idea what
I was talking about. And did E = mc2
really affect my life? Probably not.
She encouraged me to be honest
with myself — what had really inspired me? I turned inward to think.
At home, I opened up Napster (yes, I
was pretty cool) and started playing
my favorite song at the time: “Jesus
Walks” by Kanye West.
Now I wasn’t religious in the
least, but its message of breaking
away from the norm, highlighting a
social message and encouraging its
audience to think differently really
struck a chord with 12 year-old me.
So I decided, partially out of rebellion, to write a new essay about
“Jesus Walks.” And I turned the piece
into my English teacher, an elder
woman who probably had not heard
a rap song in her life. She called on
me after class to say the essay was a
great piece of writing, a very significant improvement and that I should
turn it into the high school.
I got in.
And that’s how Mrs. Crowley and
Kanye West taught me how to stay
true.
29
26
RUN THE TRAP
A Look at the Dirty
South’s Take on EDM
By Nick Bradley
Atlanta has long been one of the South’s primary
musical hotspots. From the blues to hip-hop, this
southern metropolis has fostered a broad range of
some of music’s most influential genres. Now, the
recent boom of electronic dance music (EDM) in
the United States has given rise to the South’s dirty
new sound: real trap shit.
Trap music is a hybrid genre, a volatile mix of
European house synthesizers, dubstep’s wobbly subbass and Dirty South hip-hop’s hard edge. It’s hiphop’s new face for the electronic era, and it sounds a
lot like you might expect.
Low-down bass booms under the rattle of triplet snare drum patterns and rolling hi-hats, while
punchy synth lines and gunshot/cash register/hawk
scream sound effects deck out the upper end of trap’s
sound. And although much of trap’s vanguard prefers well-designed synths to lyrics, it’s not uncommon for a witty wordsmith to lay down his rhymes
over a hard-hitting trap beat.
“The trap” is a place, but it’s not one you could
find on a map. The term describes the snare-like nature of inner-city communities, where hip-hop and
now trap music were born. The sound is a product
of a rough life on the street, dealing drugs and trying to get by.
“I think the ‘trap’ term came from Atlanta,” said
DJ Scream, a prolific trap producer, in an interview
with LiveMixtapes TV. “The old heads will tell you,
‘you in the trap, man, you hustling. You might make
30
some money, but you in the trap.’ You gonna get
shot at, killed. Your partner gonna come get you,
your enemy gonna come get you, the po-po gonna
come get you. It’s just that — you trapped.”
Early influences in the trap game are names the
average listener will most likely remember from
their middle school years: Three 6 Mafia, T.I., Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka Flame. Trap music takes
much of its sound — and attitude — from Dirty
South hip-hop.
It incorporates similar rhythmic elements and,
most notably, samples from the Roland TR-808
drum machine. The “808” sound was developed
mostly out of necessity, as the TR-808 was one of
the least expensive drum machines available at the
birth of hip-hop. The 808 was also popular for its
ability to produce exceptionally low bass drum frequencies.
Although the term “trap” first referred to Dirty
South hip-hop, it has come to embrace a broader
spectrum of music — one that has derived significant influence from the growing EDM scene.
Trap music embraces the heavy, oscillated subbass that DJs like Skream and Rusko developed in
the United Kingdom in the early 2000s. In much the
same way that dubstep utilizes sub-bass rhythms to
create a half-time rhythmic feel, trap DJs such as
Ta-ku often supplement 808 drum lines with bass
counter-rhythms.
But where hip-hop mixtapes might stop at rela-
tively simple instrumentals, trap music embraces
European electro-house and trance’s penchant for
well-crafted synthesizers.
The variety of synth sound in trap music is immense and depends entirely on the styling of the
producer.
Computer technology has opened the floodgates
to an almost infinite number of sounds a DJ can
make, and producers are taking the opportunity to
create their own unique brand of trap music.
While trap music began as a Dirty South phenomenon, it has begun to spread across the country
– and even the globe. Everywhere it goes, the trap
sound blends with the dominant style of electronic
or hip-hop music and develops just a little more.
In San Francisco, trap picked up a touch of the
Bay Area’s “hyphy” sound, which was popularized
by Tyga on his track “Rack City.”
In Tokyo, DJ duo Watapachi has added elements
of Japanese house music to give their trap music an
international flair.
The most important ingredient in the double cup
that is trap music isn’t musical at all — it’s the Internet. Websites such as SoundCloud and LiveMixtapes.com have given up-and-coming producers the
ability to share their work with a world of listeners
without landing a record deal or having their work
played on the radio.
More importantly, the Internet has given producers the chance to interact and collaborate with
producers of all styles. This, of course, suits trap’s
blended style perfectly.
If trap music sounds like something you might
get down to, here’s some required listening that’ll
give you a cross-section of the trap spectrum:
“Original Don (Flosstradamus Remix)”
— Major Lazer
“Scaley” — gLAdiator
“SPEND IT” — MAYHEM x ANTISERUM
“Don’t Stop” — Iamsu!
“Trap Shit V16” — UZ
Courtesy of DJ HadjiBeats
31
Musical Chairs of the
Music Industry
By Sanai Meles
On an otherwise uneventful Saturday, I found myself in
a Best Buy store looking to purchase an external hard drive,
but, like the kid drifting to the candy section of the grocery
store, I found myself drifting the aisles laden with CDs. As
my eyes scanned across the vast array of albums, spanning
numerous genres, I settled on buying two discs (Daft Punk’s
Random Access Memories and OutKast’s 1996 classic album,
ATLiens). Feeling satisfied and content with the day’s purchase (despite not actually buying the external hard drive),
I showed my younger brother my haul for the day. His response was to simply shrug and say, “You still buy CDs?”
The landscape of the music industry has been drastically
altered in the past decade or so. One needs to look no further
than the total revenue from music sales, which have been on
steady decline from $11.8 billion in 2003 to $7.1 billion in
2012, according to the Recording Industry Association of
America. There are many reasons to which pundits attribute
this steep decline. New means of obtaining music have allowed the listener a variety of options in satisfying their music fix. Streaming and purchasing services like iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and Bandcamp have become more popular
than ever. The biggest and earliest giant-killer of them all,
iTunes, has given listeners the option of purchasing individual songs without buying the whole album.
With the exception of die-hard music lovers, the average
listener only cares about a few tracks off an album. Other
services like Spotify and Soundcloud have tapped into the
service of free music streaming and premium versions for
customers who want to avoid ads and more features. All of
these services have been popping up in recent years and have
been testing the music industry’s will to adapt. As well-known
music industry executive L.A. Reid put it in a 2011 interview
with the Hollywood Reporter, “I learned to stay in business.
People are still buying music, dancing to it and dressing like
it. They’re using it to sell cars and CoverGirl makeup, so we
sell product lines with our artists. The popularity of music
is at an all-time high. How we monetize it is sometimes a
moving target.” In the end this begs the question, what does
it mean for the artists and their listeners, the two most visible
pieces in the exchange of music?
In many cases, artists seem to be more creative in adapting to changing circumstances than many of their music industry counterparts. As NPD analyst Russ Crupnick put it
in the same CNNMoney report, “He believes that musicians
32
will have to increasingly rely on touring, merchandise sales,
and endorsement deals to make up for lost album sales.” It is
a revelation that they seemed to have taken note of. Artists
like Washed Out, A$AP Rocky and Chvrches have previously
mentioned in interviews that blogs, social media presence
and general word-of-mouth on the Internet surrounding
their music played a huge role in their burgeoning success.
Artists have become especially creative in reaching out
to fans in order to cultivate a well-connected fan base. Rapper Curren$y is known to drop monthly videos on YouTube
as part of his “Jet Life Chronicles” series. He gives viewers
a window into his world by shedding light on his down-toearth personality. It allows him to connect with fans on a
more intimate level while solidifying his brand. Other artists
like Lady Gaga and Rihanna have a large presence on social
media cornerstones Twitter and Instagram. It has allowed
artists to interact with fans and provide information at a moment’s notice.
Another rapper with a devoted fan base, Compton-based
Nipsey Hussle made a jarring move recently when he decided
to sell 100 copies of his new mixtape Crenshaw for $100 at a
small pop-up shop in his neighborhood. While the mixtapes
were hand signed on sight, the price tag seemed ridiculous.
To everyone’s surprise the mixtapes sold out in 24 hours. The
realization seems to be that there are now many avenues for
delivering the music we all love instead of the traditional singular model we have all known for years. It’s a diverse world
marketplace now, one where the relationship between the
artist and his music has taken on new forms of accessibility.
As I reflected on my brother’s words regarding my recent
purchases, I took a long look the CDs I had just bought, reflecting on my purchases. I had already downloaded both albums on my computer, both in better audio quality as well.
As I open the both albums and my eyes take in the intricacies and minute details of the album artworks and booklets,
I notice the small messages of thanks to those involved in
making this album and the fans who supported them. In the
end, I feel more satisfied; for me, purchasing these albums is
my way of interacting and supporting the artists and music
I love. As I place them on the shelf alongside other albums
I deemed purchase-worthy, a smile forms on my face as I
survey my collection. In the end, music is music. There will
always be artists to produce it and fans to enjoy it — in whatever fashion they see fit.
[Arts]
The Mercury Prize
Arguing Against Choosing a Winner
By Logan Lockner
The Pulitzer Prize jury shocked readers in 2012 by refusing to name a winner for the annual prize for “distinguished”
American fiction. From the outcry this event caused, it
would appear that the passage of seasons had been denied, as
if withholding a prize were nothing short of unnatural. Given
the shortlist for this year’s Mercury
Prize, the jury for that award —
given to the best album produced
in a given year in the United Kingdom or Ireland — might do well
to follow the precedent set by last
year’s Pulitzer refusal.
Instead of being unsettled by
the refusal of annual prizes, we
should question why we are so attached, as consumers or critics or artists ourselves, to the process. Despite
what nuanced qualifications are offered or
assured, the larger cultural project behind
prize-giving is one of canon-building.
This notion, already problematic enough
on its face, is made even more so by the nature of the
Mercury Prize, which was devised in 1992 by the British Phonographic Industry and the British Association of
Record Dealers to reward artists and albums that would
be overlooked by the Brit Awards, the Anglo counterpart of the Grammys.
The intended connotations are obvious: this is an award meant to recognize
the sort of music described with the battery
of ill-conceived adjectives like alternative, underground or
— the current favorite — indie. It’s too easily neglected that
these categories have almost nothing to do with the music
itself; they describe systems of production and patterns of
consumption. What, then, is the aim of the Mercury Prize?
To construct an alternative canon, to challenge the establishment by pursuing procedures parallel to its own?
Every artist on the 2013 Mercury shortlist who did not
release their first album this year — five of the 12 nominated
albums are debuts — has been nominated for the Mercury
Prize before, and the Arctic Monkeys, who received their
third nomination for this year’s AM, won for their debut
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not in 2006.
David Bowie was acknowledged for The Next Day, a tribute
likely deserved but somehow appearing as deference to an
elder statesman, someone whose career helped define what
it means to be alternative. James Blake’s Overgrown, perfectly
competent but hardly canonical, might be on some listeners’
lists of favorite albums of the year, but is it really the best?
PJ Harvey, whose sublime Let
England Shake triumphed over
Blake’s debut album in 2011, is the
only artist to have won the Mercury twice. (She also won for Stories from the City, Stories from the
Sea 10 years earlier.) Consequently
it’s nearly impossible to think about
the prize without considering Polly
Jean, reigning queen of the Mercury. It’s
laughable to imagine any album this year
is as prophetic — or as deserving of a place
in cultural history — as either of these.
Canon-building is a suspicious project,
but we must believe that Eliot and Woolf belong in the canon of English literature, just as
Harvey belongs in the canon of contemporary music.
These are artists whose work speaks of its time and yet
transcends it, who challenge tradition and earn their place
in its annals.
It’s not only that none of the repeat nominees deserve
to challenge Harvey’s distinction of being the Mercury’s only multiple honoree — this year’s
debuts actually surpass their more seasoned
competition.
Nineteen-year-old Jake Bugg sings more like a young McCartney than anyone I’ve heard in years, and fans of Corinne
Bailey Rae and Lianne La Havas (both of whom are also past
nominees) will be delighted by Laura Mvula. Electronic duo
Disclosure deserves a degree certain recognition for producing the most eminently danceable track of any nominee,
“Latch.”
I doubt that the Mercury jury will refrain from awarding a prize this year, and despite my reservations, I can say
without any hesitation that it is one of these newcomers who
most deserves it. These artists are at the beginning of their
careers, however, and a more exciting year will be the one
where one of them — with luck and skill and vision — joins
PJ Harvey on the short roster of multiple Mercury winners.
33
The 2013 Richard
Ellman Lectures in
Modern Literature
34
Photo by Mark Seliger
n
On Sept. 22-24, 2013. acclaimed singer-songwriter Paul Simon visited Emory to present the 2013 Richard Ellman Lectures in Modern Literature. With four events taking place in Glenn Memorial Auditorium, he spoke of
his songwriting process, his history as a musician, his relationship to poetry and his opinion on popular music
today. To conclude his visit, Simon performed some of his most well-known songs in the Schwartz Center for
Performing Arts with special guests Zachary Issenberg and Sara Stavile were able to attend all four of these oncein-a-lifetime events and provide brief synopses for fans who did not win the ticket lottery.
Compiled by Brigid Choi
“Sailing on an Endless Sea: My Life as a the world. With experience as part of a musical duo and
singular songwriter, he spoke with experience that any
Songwriter”
What struck me most in this lecture was Paul Simon’s
focus on the sound of the song first, with lyrics serving
to further carry out the sound. For a musician so highly
regarded for his lyrics, the lyrics really do seem like a
final touch to his songs. Does this mean that the stories
found in Graceland would be as touching as any story
fulfilling the sound? It seems odd to think of any other
words going with “The Boy in the Bubble”, but after listening to Simon explain his songwriting process, we can
believe that the words touch us because they ring true to
their supporting sound.
— Zachary Issenberg
Conversation with Paul Simon and Billy
Collins
meaningful work must have a solid creative voice. Simon also questioned the current view of music and art
by the world today, calling out a focus on pop-culture
appeal over honest expression. He questioned the validity of a world where “music sells everything — except
music”. His words ring true although aged and reminiscent of every critic of art in a new direction. Simon was
unable to give any substantial advice during questioning to someone looking to make art for themselves. For
someone who has loved Paul Simon since I could walk,
this took off the rose-tinted glasses.
— Zachary Issenberg
Music Performance with Paul Simon and
guitarist Mark Stewart
The second Richard Ellman lecture, a conversation
between Simon and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy
Collins, explored the fine art of musical mechanics. The
songwriter said he wanted his pieces to be complex yet
sincere, a quality that he called “Zen simplicity.” The
speakers drew similarities between the construction
of songs and poems, focusing not just on the significance of words, chords and flow but also space. Simon
explained how he would record air to fill in the silence
between notes, in order to create a natural breath in his
songs. As Simon’s long list of hits can attest, his songwriting methods are successful ones. Billy Collins remarked that “The words … seem to be enjoying the
company of the words around them.”
— Sara Stavile
The series ended with the much anticipated concert
in Schwartz. Simon and guitarist Mark Stewart opened
with “The Sound of Silence,” appropriate for an audience awed by the presence of a musical giant, followed
by “Slip Slidin’ Away” and “Me and Julio Down By the
Schoolyard.” Then came a cover of “Here Comes the
Sun,” a musical choice that made several in the audience gasp in surprise. From then on, the concert’s tone
shifted from intimate performance to open jam session. Billy Collins and composer Andy Teirstein were
invited onstage to play tambourine and harmonica
for “Mystery Train.” Event manager Becky Herring
accompanied Simon for a flirtatious version of “Mrs.
Robinson.” The performance ended with “The Boxer,”
a haunting ballad that also included a performance by
Professor Joseph Skibell on guitar. The lesson from the
“View from Cloud: The Solitary Artist in day before seemed to color my viewing of the concert.
I found myself appreciating the “Zen simplicity” of
a Collaborative Culture”
Simon’s works. It was as if the songs that I had listened
In his conversation with Collins, Simon pondered to so many times before had come to life again. I could
the validity of fame for his artistry. In this lecture, Si- feel the breath within them.
—Sara Stavile
mon explored the identity of the artist and their roles in
35
The Low Museum: ‘4x6’
Photography as Everyday Art
By Logan Lockner
We take photographs every day. In the past seven hours I
have taken at least 25 and received almost as many, and this
has been an entirely unremarkable day — remarkable only,
perhaps, in how uninteresting and pedestrian it was. As any
reader with an iPhone can likely guess, the majority of these
photos were taken, sent or received and then ostensibly deleted (if not already insidiously captured in a screenshot) by
Snapchat.
In The New Inquiry earlier this year, social media theorist
Nathan Jurgenson celebrated Snapchat as an inaugural manifestation of temporary photography, which he suggests “is in
part a response to social-media users’ feeling saddled with
the distraction of documentary vision. It rejects the burden
of creating durable proof that you are here and you did that
... By leaving the present where you found it, temporary photographs feel more like life and less like its collection.” In this
sense Snapchat and the genre of temporary photography it
represents would seemingly refute — or at least a resist —
Susan Sontag’s indictment of the medium in her 1977 book
On Photography. She writes, “Life is not about significant details, illuminated in a flash fixed forever,” and then insists,
“Photographs are.”
In our current moment, however, as many of us are
equipped with Snapchat and Instagram and HDR cameras
that we carry within a single device in our pockets, questions about the significance of a photograph are more difficult to answer than ever before. A primary
issue is the sheer volume of photographs one en-
counters on a daily basis, the inundating visual presence of the archive
we are all collectively constructing.
When he wrote Camera Lucida in
1980, Roland Barthes was primarily reacting to photographs as received cultural objects: “I see photographs everywhere, like everyone
else, nowadays; they come from the
world to me, without my asking.”
Over 30 years later, this is still the
case; unbidden images erupt without interruption on the multitude
of screens we encounter, usually
from the first moment we wake until — beside the faded
screens of our iPhones — we drift back to slumber.
Sontag claims that a photograph “turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed” and goes as far as to
call photography “the most irresistible form of mental pollution.” Today these comments can easily be dismissed as the
needless worries of a 20th-century Luddite, but in some ways
our present technological moment goes beyond any apocalyptic future Sontag and Barthes could have foreseen. The
tyrannical impulse to photograph, to fossilize particular moments of life, to separate significant images from insignificant ones, has enlisted us all in its service. It is effectively
impossible to not be self-conscious about photography in
the 21st century. Our best available defense against the
omnipresent gaze of others — some of whom we know,
others of whom may be entirely foreign individuals or
institutions — is to return, or at least threaten to return, our own photographic gaze.
On a Monday night earlier this year, the Low
Museum in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward hosted a 4x6
photo swap. The event’s description on Facebook
read:
“There is no requirement for the photographs
other than the standard 4x6 size. Everyone's
prints will be placed on a large platform together.
Bring as many as you want
View as many as you want
Take as many as you want
FREE”
I printed four
photos of
my own to
bring to the
swap, all of
which
were originally taken on
my iPhone.
Upon arriving at the Low
Museum, I joined
the small circle of
people
gathered
around the square
platform in the center
of the space. I sheepishly removed the four
photographs from the
brown paper bag I carried them in and shuffled
them into the pile of 4x6s
littered across the platform.
Almost instantly another one of the participants snatched up a photo I had deposited, a snapshot of
a sleeping friend of mine awash in cool blue light and entirely
hidden save for a foot protruding from underneath a blanket.
This stranger had never met my friend, had no idea of the
emotional or even physical context in which the photo was
taken, and yet he crooned, “Oooh, I love this one,” and greedily claimed it for himself.
Naturally I knew this is how the event would proceed,
but I couldn’t help but feel — as Sontag says in On Photography — violated, as if I had offered to a complete stranger
some secret knowledge of that earlymorning moment I had surreptitiously
shared with my friend. Despite this
initial revulsion, I also suddenly felt
an irresistible sense of kinship with
this stranger. He too had seen that
this moment I captured was special
and worth saving.
Of course, I also gathered photos: one of a glamorous old woman
on Madison Avenue in the early
1990s, one I was told was the exterior of a Pakistani temple, one of
the Majestic Diner on Ponce.
When I held a photo of another old woman, this one framed
in a close-up with platinum hair,
dangling earrings, and beetle-like
sunglasses, a girl standing beside
m e
said casually,
“That’s my grandmother.” It was
comment offered in passing, not particularly possessive, and yet I couldn’t help but wonder what minute
transgression or affirmation I had committed by selecting
this particular photo. Was it that this old woman reminded
me of my own grandmother, that the backyard landscape
behind her could have been that of my childhood? I would
never know this woman or her name, and yet I felt entitled
to the spirit of voyeurism that allowed me to slip the photo of
her into my brown paper bag.
Exchanging personal snapshots with strangers around a
square platform is a surreal transaction of intimate impulses
and unspoken memories. It seems egregiously rude but also
completely natural.
Exchanging photographs with strangers is, after all, what
we do every day.
~DJ spotlight~
Audio Vista
Name: Grayson Ball
Description: Discovering new music, playing a lot of unsigned bands and artists I find
on Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
Year: Freshman
Major: Undecided; maybe Chinese and Creative Writing
Hometown: Decatur, Ala.
Top Five Albums of 2013:
1. Endless Fantasy - Anamanaguchi
As always, Anamanaguchi delivers all the fun and nostalgia of chiptunes and takes them
above and beyond what anyone could have predicted for the genre.
2. Afraid of Heights - Wavves
This album feels like a fun weekend out with your best friends, and don’t we all need that?
3. Bravocat - PengoSolvent
This album is chaotic, overwhelming and absolutely fabulous.
4. Tales of a Grass Widow - CocoRosie
Tales brings all the eerie majesty of CocoRosie and adds an intensity and accessibility that I
have not found in previous albums.
5. Rarities, Unreleased Stuff, and Cool Things - Teen Suicide
Rarities is a melancholy and beautiful last hurrah for a great band.
38
[Top Fives]
Top Five Late-Night Joints
By Alexa Cucopulos
1. Majestic Diner
Have a midnight craving for some
blueberry pancakes and bacon? Just
feel like enjoying a milkshake frothing with whipped cream and topped
off with a candied cherry? Majestic
Diner is the place for you. This 24hour diner has a vintage 1950s atmosphere and serves diner staples
like burgers and shakes, as well as
menu originals like the scrumptious
baklava sundae soaked in honey and
piled high with vanilla ice cream. It’s
situated right next to the Plaza Theatre, making it ideal to take a date
for a late-night dinner and movie.
1031 Ponce De Leon Ave. (404) 8750276. majesticdiner.com
2. Waffle House
(Cheshire Bridge location)
A great southern staple, Waffle House’s fat-drenched food, dubious
health conditions and cross-section of inebriated people from all over
Atlanta just add to its endearing charm. But there’s one particular Waffle
House that’s a must-visit when you start feeling those 2 a.m. cravings for
defrosted hash browns and trans fat soaked waffles: the one on Cheshire
Bridge Road in uptown Atlanta.
The employees here are extremely friendly and even memorize your order if you frequent Waffle House nightly (like myself). Not to mention, the
strip clubs and sex stores nearby lure in some interesting characters, making this House not only a great place for late-night dining but a perfect
site for people-watching. Hit up this establishment to make some sketchy
friends and enjoy some questionable (yet undeniably delicious) food.
Pro Tip: Order the hash browns extra crispy.
2264 Cheshire Bridge Rd. (404) 634-9414.
wafflehouse.com.
3. El Rey del Taco
It is my firm belief that everyone should have access to tacos at all hours of the day. This is where El Rey del Taco
steps in and provides delicious (and cheap!) tacos all night long. The service may be a little slow, and it may be a bit
of a drive, but the food is worth the wait. Every taco comes with sautéed vegetables and an assortment of titillating
sauces. Also, two words: free salsa.
5288 Buford Hwy, Doraville. (770) 986-0032. taqueriaelreydeltaco.com.
4. Pho 24
5. Murder Kroger
Like El Rey del Taco, this is also
a bit of a drive. However, this joint
is great for some cheap but delicious
Vietnamese food. Open 24 hours,
you can get your fill at any time.
They serve everything from pho
soup to Vietnamese sub sandwiches. Pho 24 is the ideal late night joint
for broke college students looking
for a cheap but filling meal. (Their
avocado smoothie with tapioca is a
must have.)
4646 Buford Hwy. (770) 710-0178.
pho24nowopen.com.
By day it’s just another Kroger, but by night it’s the infamous “Murder
Kroger.” This is the only known Kroger in all of Atlanta that keeps a police
officer out front at all hours of the night. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but really, if you feel like witnessing some drug deals, knife fights or
teenagers having sex in a car, this is the place to go. Located on Ponce de
Leon, this is the perfect spot to adventure to after your hip concert at the
Masquerade (located just behind the supermarket) or if you just feel like
having a brush with death. No one is actually sure if anyone has been murdered there, but its ambiguous past and poor lighting add to its enigmatic
aura.
Disclaimer: Murder Kroger is best experienced between the hours of 2
and 4 a.m.
725 Ponce De Leon Ave. (404) 875-2701.
kroger.com.
39
Top Five Songs for
Freshman Year
By Sloan Krakovsky
1. “Missed the Boat” — Modest Mouse
We all hear about the amazing party side of college, but the aspect we seem to miss is that loneliness we feel
when one of our old friends texts us. Modest Mouse taps into some feelings we might not want to admit about college, with: “looking towards the future / we were begging for the past” (we all know we’re a little homesick).
2. “Life Is Hard” — Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Once we’ve admitted our homesickness and, yes, even the difficulty of college, we’ve got to think about what
we’re going to do with that knowledge. Edward Sharpe advises, “yes, life is hard. Come celebrate!” College can be
hard, but we can channel that by “trying to smile from [our] heart.”
3. “I Found You”
— Alabama Shakes
You know that feeling when you
make a new, genuine friend? You and
your roommate click, you have a genuine laugh with someone in your Orientation group and the heavens open up
and rainbows shine down on you? This
is that song. “It took a long time to find
you … but I finally found you.” Finally.
4. “Changes”
— David Bowie
(From the “Shrek 2” Soundtrack)
“Changes are taking the pace I’m going through...” As freshmen, our surroundings have changed considerably,
but also our own lives are changing. Just as Shrek discovers his true “prince” self on the outside, we’re all discovering our real selves on the inside. “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!”
5. “Live Like A Warrior” – Matisyahu
Need a little encouragement? You’ve realized you’re lonely, celebrated that fact, found a friend, and discovered
you’re changing. Now you need a little encouragement. Put behind the bad days you’ve had and “Today today, live
like you wanna / Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire / Live like a Warrior.”
40
Top Five Girl Power Tunes
By Brigid Choi
1. “Run The World (Girls)” - Beyonce
While a lot of the songs on this list are underground, banned from radios or rare tracks, this one was one of
the hottest dance songs ever. The beat is insanely catchy, even if it isn’t an entirely original beat (heavily sampling
“Pon de Floor” by Major Lazer), and the dance to go with it is just as difficult and impressive as Beyonce’s usual.
The most powerful lyrics on the track are: “Boy, you know you love it, how we’re smart enough to make these millions / Strong enough to bear the children / Then get back to
business.”
2. “Woman Is the N----r of the
World” - John Lennon and Yoko
Ono
As you can guess, the use of the N-word was controversial,
not to mention the lyrics, “Woman is the slave of the slaves”
and “We make her paint her face and dance.” The song was
Lennon’s lowest-charting US single in his lifetime, and it most
definitely increased fans’ antagonism toward his wife. Besides
the lyrics, the track is beautiful, with a smooth saxophone and
Lennon’s usual post-Beatles vocal reverb.
3. “Rebel Girl” - Bikini Kill
girl / Come and be my best friend.”
Even if the song lacks an original melody and chord structure, it still packs a punk-rock, riot grrrl punch. That crazy,
screamy singer Kathleen Hanna incorporates into her lyrics
the sisterhood that so tightly binds the feminist community
when she says, “Love you like a sister always / Soul sister, rebel
4. “Women Is Losers” - Janis Joplin
Out of all the female classic rock singers, it’s strange to realize that only Janis Joplin has a song that’s explicitly
feminist, and even then, it’s a rare track that sounds like it was born out of a jam session. In a groovy 12-bar blues,
Joplin chants, “Women is losers … women is losers…”
5. “Kropotkin Vodka” - Pussy Riot
I felt obligated to include a Pussy Riot song, considering all the hype surrounding them. Even though their
songs mostly attack Russian President Vladimir Putin, this song makes sure to label his supporters “sexist Putinists,” opening with, “Occupy the city with a kitchen frying pan / Go out with a vacuum, get off on it.”
41
~DJ spotlight~
First and Goldblum
Name: Ryan Goldblum
Description: Talking to various guests about sports,
movies, music and anything in between.
Year: Junior
Major: Film Studies
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Top Five Albums of 2013:
1. Yeezus — Kanye West
Kanye West makes albums reflecting where he is in life, and this album is a journey through
his anger, a reflection of his troubled road to the top and finally, the peace he has found
through his new life. The result is unequivocally the best album of 2013.
2. The Civil Wars — The Civil Wars
The Civil Wars album comes after the band itself was plagued by fights and differences, and
the result is a soulful folk album, that shows us the frustration and eventual positivity that
came from the partnership's own turmoil.
3. The Bones of What You Believe — CHVRCHES
The Scottish natives are now unquestionably a known entity here in the US, thanks to this
album from one of the most popular electronic groups in the world.
4. Trouble Will Find Me — The National
The National continues to build on their indie rock and folk foundations, and the band hits
their stride on this album.
5. Born Sinner — J. Cole
J. Cole's second studio album is incredible not only for the strides J has taken as a rapper but
also for launching into deeply personal subject matter and making it relatable, all behind
some incredible beats.
42
Top Five Songs to Remind You of Home
By Denton Williams
1. “Holy City” - Sequoyah Prep School
Maybe it’s the slight country fused with the alternative genre that makes “Holy City” a nostalgic hit. Maybe
it’s the references to running away and starting over, saying goodbye to your friends and always having that one
person to help you pick up the pieces that trigger the images of the summer sun. No matter what the ingredients
are, “Holy City” definitely sends your mind driving your car back home.
2. “Light Outside” - Wakey!Wakey!
Short but sweet, this track is all about finding comfort in someone special. Whether you’re snuggling the whole
day away with that one person as they wear your oversized button-down or exchanging some of your deepest,
darkest secrets, seeking them out when you’re most vulnerable, “Light Outside” embodies all of the days indoors
with your favorite person — in your house or theirs.
3. “Good Life” - OneRepublic
It’s certain that this song has incredible meaning to anyone who hears it. In the entire world of roughly seven
billion people, no matter where you, your family, and your friends are located, you’re all still connected. Your
heart is your home, life is good and OneRepublic proves it with this drunken-night-in-London-inspired song. At
Emory, we all come from places across the country and even the world, so stop to think about dispersing in the
future but still being close. That is good.
4. “Counting The Ways” - Kate Voegele
Take a walk by the river, through the woods or down the street while listening to “Counting The Ways,” and
I dare you to try not to think of home. Homesickness will catch up to you, and you’ll find yourself wanting to be
surrounded by everyone you care about most. Don’t worry, it’s okay to cry. Just be sure to do Kate justice by belting out her song while you sob.
5. “The House That Built Me” - Miranda Lambert
Miranda, Miranda, Miranda, what on Earth have you done? Why did you create possibly the saddest and most
nostalgic song the music world has ever seen? Knowing from experience, this song is perfect for listening in your
dorm room or study lounge mid-semester when the stress of school is peaking. And for any of the proud, nocountry-music-ever individuals out there, “The House That Built Me” might as well be a picture book of your own
lives, and you’ll surely end up imagining your kitchen smells and sofa cushions if you listen. Please do.
43
Top Five Epic
Guitar Solos
By Brigid Choi
1. “The Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock 1969 – Jimi Hendrix
Halfway through the song, Hendrix terrorizes the familiar tune with his trademark use
of feedback and whammy before slipping right back into a clean melody, pulling away every once in a while to tune his guitar when he plays an open string.
This raucous rendition of the national anthem began as a symbol of the Vietnam War;
now, it can represent any disillusions of the American government, the American dream
or the destruction that American forces can bring to other countries, even if it is highly
doubtful that there will be another Woodstock at which to play this.
2. “Stairway to Heaven” – Led Zeppelin; Guitarist: Jimmy Page
Yes, it’s tiring to hear beginning guitarists play the opening riff to this
song, but I don’t think I’ll get tired of listening to the solo that appears halfway through it. Page’s balance between melody, catchy riffs and shredding
has gone down in history, not to mention the fact that the double-necked
guitar was invented specifically so that Page could shift between the opening and the solo.
3. “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Guitarists: Allen Collins, Steve Gaines
Of course, I had to include the most requested song on the radio, and
the song yelled out by fans when a band asks for requests. With two guitars
battling it out, the ridiculously epic solo takes up half of the nine-minute
song.
4. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – The Beatles
Guitarist: Eric Clapton
Clapton’s inclusion on this Beatles record momentarily united the
quickly-disintegrating band during their White Album years. With sleepy
slides and vibratos, Clapton shows listeners and guitarists that not all guitar solos
have to be fast in order to be great.
5. “Cliffs of Dover” by Eric Johnson
I’ve placed this in fifth place for those who argue that the lack of vocals means that there’s no solo, even if there
is a repeated refrain. Because of Johnson’s high gain and reverb, the tone of his guitar sounds light rather than a
guitar’s typical scratchy whine. That effect along with the bouncing bass line gives the song a uniquely cheerful
atmosphere.
44
Top Five Antique Shops
By Alexa Cucopulos
1. Paris on Ponce
While you may not be able to afford much in this store, I highly recommend visiting just for the experience. Paris on Ponce’s huge venue is filled
with a myriad of different rooms, each one thrusting you into a different
vintage realm. They’ve got everything from Victorian-era clothing to 60s
mod furniture, taxidermy raccoons to headless mannequins. They even
provide a party venue that looks like it came straight from a David Lynch
film: an entirely red room furnished with burlesque mannequins, fauteuil
chairs and grand pianos. This place is great if you feel like investing a bit
of cash into an artful antique or simply if you feel like walking around and
having a surreal experience. Bring someone with you who you want to get
to know better! There are some great conversation starters in here.
716 Ponce De Leon Place. (404) 249-9965. parisonponce.com.
2. Kudzu Antiques
4. Highland Row
Antiques
With its multifarious collection
of knickknacks both big and small,
Highland has any desultory object
one could ever need: $5 wigs, old
china dolls and light-up bar signs.
This place has such a cross-section
of items ideal for movie directors
and set designers. It is the WalMart
of the antique world, if you will.
628 North Highland Ave.
(404) 815-8830.
highlandrowantiques.com.
Industrial, retro, funky — you name it, Kudzu’s got it! This is a great
5. 14th Street
shop to pick up some original artwork for reasonable prices, as well as
Antiques Market
unique furniture pieces for decorating an apartment or dorm room. The
“Zu” is conducive to browsing, especially with their endless selection of old
Although this particular market
books, vintage records and niche collectables. Come here to find the physimay be rather inaccessible to colcal embodiment of the eccentric: everything from cow cheeseboards to gilege students in its high prices and
ant domino lights. (And Bradford Cox is rumored to be a big fan!)
museum-like atmosphere, it’s still
2928 E Ponce De Leon Ave., Decatur. (404) 373-6498. kudzuantiques.com.
worth taking a gander. 14th Street
has some of the most refined and
3. Last Chance Thrift Store
elegant antiques in all of Atlanta,
provided by some of the best dealers
Although it’s known as a thrift store, Last Chance has some useful and in the area. The woodwork, detailaffordable antiques, especially from the 90s. If you’re looking for some ing and custom finishes on many of
kitschy items to use as embellishments to your apartment, this market has these pieces are truly awe-inspiring.
a huge selection of old television sets, record players and other outdated I would recommend dressing in
technology. The seemingly mundane thrift shop also gets unintentionally your finest khakis and visiting with
surreal with its weirder antique selection for the more daring shoppers: family to get some interior design
dismembered mannequin parts, mutilated figurines and unsettling animal ideas and examine a myriad of rare
sculptures to name a few. Go on a day when you have some time to kill be- European collectables.
cause you may have to do some digging!
530 14th St.
2935 N Decatur Rd., Decatur. (404) 296-1711.
(404) 325-4600.
lastchancethriftstore.com.
14thstreetantiques.com.
45
~DJ spotlight~
Highz N’ Lows
Name: Irene Byun
Description: Taking over the frequency every Wednesday 1-2 p.m. to play an hour of tunes in sync with the
beat of my week in the form of indie/alt, electro-pop,
EDM and disco.
Year: Junior
Major: Biology
Hometown: Dublin, Ohio
Top Five Albums of 2013:
1. Settle — Disclosure
This is my favorite album of the year, or maybe of all time. Disclosure is the perfect duo of
funky beats and smooth vocals to keep you boppin’ your head. Every single song is phenomenal and it would be a mistake if you don’t buy their album now (shameless advertisement).
2. Needs — Giraffage
He’s Asian, he’s brilliant and he created this album that makes you feel like you’re dreaming while you’re awake ... in the best way possible.
3. Body Music — AlunaGeorge
Aluna Francis is an electro-pop goddess. This album has so much variety and keeps you
mesmerized with accented vocals and interesting rhythms.
4. True — AVICII
I know, I know, it’s AVICII, but shush because instead of smacking us in the face with some
drops, he made this beautiful, steady, bumping album that almost convinced me that I
could start listening to country music. And don’t even lie — you’ll always belt out “Wake
Me Up” with your friends no matter how many times you hear it ‘cause it’s just that good.
5. Phantogram — Phantogram
Phantogram comes back with a couple songs to sample their new highly-anticipated album. Not only are all the songs catchy after the first listen, but the lyrics just kill me.
46
[Album Reviews]
Washed Out
Paracosm
Sub Pop
The aptly-titled second album from
Perry, Ga.’s Washed Out, aka Ernest
Greene, presents us with a world filled
with chillwave grooves and dream pop
journeys, accompanied by the best
production the artist has worked with
thus far. Paracosm marks a slight deviation from the purely electronic sounds
Washed Out has used in the past with
the addition of new instruments like
violins (“It All Feels Right”) and pedal
steel guitar (“Paracosm”), which lend
themselves well to his more organic
sound while still keeping his trademark
trippy electronica. The best example of
his new sound is standout track “All I
Know,” where an acoustic guitar serves
as background for the synthesizer and a
beautiful piano-cello duet delights during the instrumental breakdown. Paracosm is a concept album about Greene’s
envisioned fantasy world. To fully appreciate the album, listen to it in its entirety as the songs transition seamlessly
into each other. Washed Out has come
a long way since his first cassette-only
High Times EP in 2009, making this his
best album to date.
— Max Goodley
Arctic Monkeys
AM
Domino
Not all British indie-rock bands age
gracefully, but Arctic Monkeys’ fifth album defies the odds. With an infectious
and upbeat sound, this album perfectly
mirrors the band, explicitly stated with
its initialed album title, AM. Coming
out of the post-punk revival in their
hometown, these band members have
evolved into a new, distinctive garage-
48
The Knife
Shaking the Habitual
Rabid
Best termed as a surrealist rendering
of an apocalyptic wasteland, Shaking
the Habitual thrusts its listeners into
desolation, mimetic of Dante’s Inferno as it lures us deeper and deeper
into its sordid and cryptic universe.
Tracks such as “A Cherry on Top” and
band funk sound. One of the Monkeys’
new tracks, “One For The Road,” has an
echo-sound throughout that resembles
fellow English alt band Muse, clearly
incorporating all elements of (an AM
track’s) “mad sounds in your ears” that
the band’s fans have anticipated. The
Monkeys even wow audiences live, after having just played at Atlanta’s Music
Midtown, with an ultimate stage presence, as the band dressed to the nines
in suits. Whether on a track or on stage,
Alex Turner’s vocals are undeniably
contagious.
— Maddie Lampert
The Dodos
Carrier
Polyvinyl
One of the best things about the Dodos
is their showcasing of Logan Kroeber
and Meric Long’s obvious technical talent. The music is dense with intricate
guitars and pounding rim-shot drums,
and Carrier, released this August, holds
“Oryx,” elicit a sense of claustrophobia through purposeful cacophonies and persistent background dissonance that drone like a swarm of
lethal insects. The album oscillates
between long, relentless tracks (upwards of 19 minutes), and short yet
poignant snippets of noise. The work
is irascible, moody and antagonistic
in its capricious temporality. Lead
singer Karin Andersson is a muse for
different demons; her vocals range
from raw undulations to venomous
shrills as she casts spells upon the audience in “Full of Fire” and “Raging
Lung.” The album dissociates us from
our psyches and alienates us from the
familiar in its chilling creation of a
depraved hell. Ultimately, Shaking the
Habitual taunts the audience and coerces them into delirium — not just
embodying madness but inducing it.
— Alexa Cucopulos
to the same pattern. However, it’s the
softest of their albums, illustrating a
more somber sound than usual. According to the band, this is because of
the recent death of a friend, which is
apparent from much of the subject material and even the song “Death”. You
won’t find the beautifully built, punchy
moments of their earlier albums, which
makes Carrier slightly less interesting
to the ear, but the folksy-experimental
sound that made fans fall in love with
them still stands strong.
— Julia Howard
Thee Oh Sees
Floating Coffin
Castle Face
The album cover offers a quite accurate
description of the sounds contained
within Floating Coffin. It’s a hodgepodge mixture of sweeter, mellower
tracks reminiscent of the strawberries
on the cover, but it’s not without its
fangs, which are shown in full force on
the album’s punk tracks. The San Francisco-based band seems to be bridging
a gap between the all-out punk sound
of their early records and perhaps a
more overtly psychedelic, subdued future to come. The record has tracks that
are guaranteed to melt your face (“Toe
Cutter – Thumb Buster”), space you out
(“No Spell”) and finally bring you back
home calmly and softly (“Minotaur”).
Thee Oh Sees are without a doubt a very
exciting band, and it’ll be interesting to
see where they go after releasing such a
fantastic, original record this year.
— Jacob Eckert
of Montreal
Lousy with
Sylvianbriar
garage rock and country-tinged folk
that constituted the sunny San Francisco sound. The album's heavier and
livelier cuts ("She Ain't Speakin' Now,"
"Hegira Emigré") are consistently delightful, while its folksier tracks are decent but unimpressive, with the one exception being "Raindrop in My Skull,"
sung wonderfully by new collaborator
Rebecca Cash. After spending the last
five years cultivating a sound that mixes
funk, glam and prog-rock, Lousy With
Sylvianbriar feels like a real change, but
it suffers the fate of so many "transition
albums:" it's not quite enough of anything. But of Montreal maintains their
creativity and shows that if you can't
quite sound new, you can at least stay
interesting.
— Rhett Henry
focuses on the oldies style of French
electronic music. With Alex Kapranos’
drawl of a voice, the tracks sound like
they were produced by David Bowie.
The retro atmosphere of the record,
eliciting images of girls roller-skating
down neighborhood streets, doesn’t
distract from Franz Ferdinand’s characteristic songwriting style of eerie,
almost dissonant harmonies. Kapranos
takes a step back from his creativity in
lyrics (the lead single “Right Action” is
arguably meaningless) and instead directs his energy toward the short, catchy
riffs that scatter across all 10 tracks.
With its fun, pop feel, Right Thoughts,
Right Words, Right Action may be Franz
Ferdinand’s most accessible album yet.
— Brigid Choi
Polyvinyl
The new album by the Athens, Ga.
band poses a curious question: can you
make a 60s-style rock album that actually sounds new? Sylvianbriar is a gushing love letter to the Summer of Love,
eschewing stereotypical notions of late
60s music as freaked-out psychedelic
and instead focusing on the heavier
In his first album since 2011’s XXX,
Danny Brown has crafted one of the
most harrowing, personal statements
likely to be heard in 2013, rap or otherwise. At its core, Old is a record
about drug abuse, beginning with
stories of the junkies he encountered
as a child to his own history as a drug
dealer and, finally, as a rapper famous
for his Molly usage. The drug-fueled
party tracks of the album’s Side B are
immediately exhilarating but take a
darker turn upon closer inspection:
Brown throws up in hotel bathrooms,
gets too fucked up to speak to his
daughter and constantly glances over
his shoulder at the problems he’s running from. Like XXX, the threat of
overdosing looms over the album,
culminating in his wish to live long
enough to see “his influence on this
genre of music.” Vividly detailed and
Franz
Ferdinand
Red Room
Vanguard
Funk is back in style. While Franz Ferdinand’s previous album Tonight: Franz
Ferdinand was heavy on synthesizers and production, this latest record
Danny Brown
Old
Fool’s Gold
sonically diverse, with everything
from traditional boom-bap to UK
grime, Old may very well be this year’s
best rap album.
— Ben Crais
Kanye West
Yeezus
Roc-A-Fella/
Def Jam
The album is an experiment for Kanye
West in the fusion of beauty with profane, utilizing industrial rock and
avant-rap. But does it work? The album
succeeds sonically with its fast-pace
and incredible hooks but fails lyrically
through and through. Tracks like “On
Sight” have the most immature and
cringe-worthy lyrics for what seems
like shock value: “Black dick in your
spouse again / She got more n---as off
than Cochran.” West spends so much
time trying to prove to the world he’s
an artist, but you can’t take someone seriously for lyrics we expect from Odd
Future circa-Goblin. And the album is
rushed, so rushed to meet the deadline.
When you listen, count the number of
“uhs” that West uses to fill up space in
each song. This album has the potential
to be a more accessible Death Grips and
Clipping, but due to its hastiness and
West's desire to shock with more than
abrasive sounds, the album fails to ascend to the godhood that West aims for.
— Zachary Issenberg
49
The
Shadowboxers
Red Room
Vanguard
While the Shadowboxers got their start
performing right outside my window
on Emory’s McDonough field, they’ve
surmounted their black jumpsuit talents with debut album Red Room. This
album is 14 songs of smooth-talking
boys that you can’t help but bounce to.
When you get down to it, all the songs
are about being in love, out of love or
between the sheets, and they want everyone to know it. The band draws
from Maroon 5 musically, and, as
they’ve said, they’d like to open for Maroon 5 (even though the Shadowboxers
would completely steal the show, especially with “He’s on the Move”). Whether you’re zooming down the highway
at night with streaks of street lamps in
your rearview mirror or you’re sweating through a shirt on a too-hot summer day, this album is the soundtrack
you want to be living.
— Sloan Krakovsky
King Khan and
the Shrines
Idle No More
Merge
King Khan and the Shrines have been
around for well over a decade, but
they’ve never really gotten the credit
that they deserve. The band’s unique
blend of funk, alternative rock and big
band never seemed to catch on, and the
band became overshadowed by King
Khan’s other projects. Now, with their
eighth studio album (and the first in
five years), King Khan and the Shrines
have made yet another attempt to promote the musical niche they’ve gladly
filled. Idle No More doesn’t introduce
anything too new for the Shrines. The
album’s style is more geared towards
50
Nine Inch Nails
Hesitation Marks
Columbia
After a five-year hiatus, Trent Reznor
has finally returned to work on his
main project Nine Inch Nails, which
has been well-anticipated by fans and
non-fans alike. Reznor wasn’t sitting around though; in the interim,
he and his friend Atticus Ross scored
two original soundtracks, including
“The Social Network” (which won an
Oscar for Best Soundtrack). Marking
alternative rock, likely as an attempt to
leech off of the success of King Khan’s
other ventures. Regardless of its lack
of innovation, the album still has its
strong points. The music is tremendous
fun, like all King Khan and the Shrines
albums, and great to dance to. If you’re
already a fan of any King Khan projects,
this new album will likely impress. But
if you were expecting this band to do
something new, sadly, they still haven’t.
— Robert Weisblatt
Melt-Banana
fetch
A-Zap
While review sites are calling this the
end of a hiatus, Japanese band MeltBanana’s new noise/dance punk hit
makes leaps and bounds in production that seem to be made with years of
practice. The album explodes with the
violent “Candy Gum” and doesn’t let
Reznor’s return to Nine Inch Nails and
industrial rock, Hesitation Marks is intensely reflective, fast-paced, strippeddown and characteristically dark. The
familiar elements of self-deprecation
still persist, but in a more mature, nostalgic tone than his previous angstladen projects. “Came Back Haunted”
sounds like a track off of Year Zero
(2007), while “Everything” sounds like
the closest to thing to a radio single
Reznor’s ever written. The standout
track, “Copy of a,” reflects the things
Nine Inch Nails does best in a new
way — steady-paced, slow-built electronic (and heavily percussive) beats
with vocals intensifying every minute.
The album closes subtly, with the instrumental “Black Noise” in a manner almost diametrically opposed to
the instrumental opening track “The
Eater of Dreams.” Ultimately, Hesitation Marks is a fortunate sign of more
(great) things to come from Reznor.
— Neil Sethi
up until the end of electro-influenced
“Zero”. While a shift from their accustomed style, the album serves as both
the best of Melt Banana’s work in terms
of quality and accessibility for new fans.
If you’ve no idea what noise punk is,
this is as great a start for you as you’re
going to get.
— Zachary Issenberg
Earl Sweatshirt
Doris
Columbia
In his first significant release since 2010’s
Earl, an electrifying, precocious tape
revolving almost entirely around rape
and murder, Doris finds Earl Sweatshirt
returning to the spotlight matured, but
with mixed results. This time around,
Earl oscillates between depressive confessionals about relationships and unsolicited fame (“Chum,” “Sunday”), and
nocturnal, menace-laden tracks remi-
niscent of earlier work (“Hive,” “Centurion,” “Guild”). Earl is best on his own
or with partner in crime Vince Staples,
but too often are his songs weakened by
cronyism, whether it be a feature from
the non-starter SK La’ Flare, an uninspired Tyler, the Creator, or the lazily
imitative Mac Miller. Earl remains an
immensely talented lyricist, stringing
together internal rhymes with ease, but
the presence of stunning concept songs
like “Hive,” and “Chum” leave his many
skill-for-skill’s-sake verses disappointing in comparison. Doris presents an
artist in mid-evolution, preternaturally
thoughtful, but frequently unfocused
and adolescent.
— Ben Crais
Diarrhea
Planet
I’m Rich Beyond
Your Wildest
Dreams
Infinity Cat
This band is so skilled at what they do
that they’ve been able to make a phrase
as revolting as “Diarrhea Planet” become synonymous with “unabashed
fun.” I’m Rich... shows the Nashvillebased punk group at their highest level
of accomplishment, churning out song
With EDM hitting a critical mass in
the past few years, originators like
Daft Punk have been left out of the
recent mix. After taking an eight-year
hiatus, they’re finally back, and they
haven’t lost their touch. Interestingly
enough, Random Access Memories
finds the group distinguishing themselves from their contemporaries by
incorporating disco, prog-pop and
soft-rock. Tracks like summer hit
“Get Lucky” or the electro pop-based
“Doin’ It Right” find the group in familiar dance territory, and the sevenminute long “Touch” takes listeners
on a vast sonic journey. Die-hard fans
may find the tempo of Random Access
Memories too low for their liking, but
the album is intentionally a personal
one. The influences of this legendary
after song of insanely high-energy,
frantic punk classics. In all reality, the
record is just a teaser of what you could
get by going to one of their live shows
and seeing these renegades party harder than you ever could in your wildest
dreams. But despite the euphoria and
excitement of their live experience, this
record comes closer than any of their
previous efforts to matching that standard. If you like disorganized, energetic
punk and have yet to hear this record,
then that needs to change ASAP.
— Jacob Eckert
Oneohtrix
Point Never
R Plus Seven
Warp
to where we lose sense whether the
voices are real or generated, and the
driving polyrhythms and harmonic
sensibilities sound like a circa-4000
AD Steve Reich. Lopatin’s first record
out on legendary label Warp Records,
R Plus Seven is process music wrapped
within the moment, the tones elegantly
traversing frequencies and dynamics.
But it’s not without bite — the computer’s next step is never predictable.
R Plus Seven is truly symphonic; once
we immerse in the mainframe’s soundscape, we’re hooked until the end.
— Mateusz Nawara
The Mountain
Goats
All Hail West
Texas (reissue)
Merge
New Yorker Daniel Lopatin, aka
Oneohtrix Point Never, has pioneered
his own brand of “ambient” electronic
music — vastly different than the usual
fare that presents underwater jet engine
sounds, uninspired meditative drones
and boredom. Instead, we have the
beautiful song of a sole computer in a
post-human world. Massive Gregorianesque choral arrangements are warped
Daft Punk
Random Access Memories
Daft Life/Columbia
duo become apparent in this album,
and listeners can explore another side
of Daft Punk that we may have otherwise not cared to listen to.
— Sanai Meles
Some things are meant to be on repeat.
All Hail West Texas (2002) was the last
album recorded on an old, fragile Panasonic boombox, the same boombox
that created the Mountain Goats’ lo-fi
feel. Newly remastered in 2013, the album includes seven never-released bonus tracks. Listening to John Darnielle's
lyrics is like ripping your heart out and
watching it beat in front of you, the rawest emotions you will ever experience.
His alternative version of “Jenny” and
additions of tracks like “Tape Travel is
Lonely” and “Answering the Phone”
provide more staples for the Mountain
Goats, returning to common themes
of blind infatuation, frivolous spending and existential crises. Darnielle
tells multiple stories of seven people in
the dry Texas heat, worshipping Satan,
metal music, falling in and out of love
and reconciling boredom through substance abuse. I thought a reissue would
negatively impact me, reminding me
of what I felt about love as a sad, lonely
teenager. The emotions that boiled inside me when I first listened to these
songs for the first time are indescribable, but there's a sense of closure when
you revisit the best and worst times of
your past. All Hail John Darnielle.
— Priyanka Krishnamurthy
51
Jack Johnson
From Here to
Now to You
Brushfire/
Republic
The release of Jack Johnson’s sixth solo
album marks a reversion in his music to
the acoustical tunes that characterized
his debut. Although in the past Johnson
changed the pace of his music through
electric guitars and quicker riffs, in this
new work, he returns to his surfer roots.
Hailing from Oahu, Johnson began
making music after suffering a head injury that ended his surfing career. Today, he’s an environmental activist and
family man, the father of three children
who serve as lyrical inspiration. From
the upbeat “Tape Deck” about the antics of his teenage band to the slower
ballad for his wife “I Got You,” Johnson
creates a relaxed album that transports
the listener to Hawaiian shores. There’s
nothing unexpected about From Here
to Now to You, but for some artists, the
expected is just right.
— Laura Flint
Drake
Nothing Was the
Same
Cash Money
For someone known for emotional
honesty, Drake’s songs are surprisingly
generic. Aside from album highlights
like “From Time” and “Too Much,”
much of Nothing Was the Same revolves
around nondescript brags and whines
that find Drake spouting such cringeworthy lines as “Next time we fuck, I
don’t wanna fuck, I wanna make love.”
In this vagueness lies Drake’s wide appeal — his nondescript lyrics about
lost love and overcoming adversity are
so banal that almost anyone can find
something to relate to. All this might
be excusable if he were a great rapper
or singer, but he is neither of these;
52
Janelle Monae
The Electric Lady
Bad Boy
Janelle Monáe is a living human treasure. Her sophomore album is a sweeping R&B space opera overflowing with
matchless talent and imagination.
Whereas her debut album The ArchAndroid was impressive in its scope of
represented genres, Monáe here hews
closer to a triad of funk, soul and R&B.
his music often succeeds only off the
strength of frequent collaborator Noah
“40” Shebib’s production. Nothing Was
the Same feels like a victory lap for
someone who doesn’t yet deserve one,
an album guaranteed to sell because
“it’s that new Drizzy Drake” — another
tired concoction of petty bragging and
tired nice-guy tropes.
— Ben Crais
AlunaGeorge
Body Music
Island
On the surface, London-based AlunaGeorge’s debut album is sexy. Producer
George Reid’s beats are seductively
subtle and complex, and Aluna Francis’ lyrics explore complex themes in
the guise of songs directed at lovers —
past, present and future. For example,
the album opens on a close with “Outlines,” the singer’s look at a fading relationship. This isn’t an album you’d listen to with your friends. There are too
many conflicted, romantic emotions at
Don't mistake this as meaning she's
limited her sound; in fact, Monáe has
deepened her mastery of these genres
while still managing to draw on influences that make ridiculous descriptors
like "spaghetti western sci-fi jazz" and
"doo-wop punk" totally comprehensible. The Electric Lady’s list of featured
artists is a who's who of R&B greats
and rising stars, from Prince to Solange, Erykah Badu to Miguel. Monáe's
own talents as a singer have improved
over her already beautiful debut skills,
and the few times she raps show that
she's better than most out-and-out
rappers in the game today. The Electric Lady is an album of the highest
caliber, rich with uplifting messages of
liberation and love and featuring performances that are roundly excellent.
Every human being should listen to
this album.
— Rhett Henry
play — love and hate, the challenge of
getting over someone and the release
of telling somebody, finally, to hit the
road. It’s something to be listened to by
yourself or, maybe, with a significant
other. Don’t mistake “emotional” for
“depressing,” though — Body Music is
anything but. It’s groovy and a little ambient, and you’ll find yourself inadvertently nodding along. As Francis coos
on the album’s second track, you know
you like it.
— Nick Bradley
Clap Your Hands
Say Yeah
Little Moments EP
Self-Released
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s fourth album, Little Moments, is a two-song/
two B-sides EP, not too dissimilar from
the band’s 2005 debut album. One of
its new songs, “Only Run,” has the
same mash-up styled, multi-tracking
introduction as its early popular track,
“Satan Said Dance.” While typically
criticized as “whiny” (and still in that
category) Alec Ounsworth’s vocals are
consistent and blend well in this progressive album. All four tracks in this
work have an inventive succession of
melodic sound, significantly less harsh
than previous albums. While the band
may have lost two members in the last
year, CYHSY continues to garner the
spotlight of music blogs and indie fans.
This album creates the perfect unity
of mellow, unpolished and futuristic
sound for American indie rock.
— Maddie Lampert
Boards of
Canada
Tomorrow’s
Harvest
into brand new territory, an area that’s
very shadowed and even frightening at points. The record sounds like
the soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic
world, with its bleak atmospheres and
alien noises absolutely begging the listener to experience the album in the
dark, alienated from any signs of humanity. It’s hard to pick single songs as
standouts on the record since it’s such a
cohesive album experience, but Boards
of Canada’s newest effort forces the listener to pray that the band doesn’t enter
another period of hibernation anytime
soon.
— Jacob Eckert
Crocodiles
Crimes of
Passion
Warp
It came as quite a surprise that, after eight years of inactivity, Boards of
Canada suddenly announced that they
were dropping a new record in 2013.
Perhaps it’s even more surprising that
despite this window of inactivity, their
new release is just as astounding as
anything they put out in their heyday.
Fortunately, Tomorrow’s Harvest doesn’t
simply feel like a recycling of BoC’s old
material. Rather, it pushes the group
After a rough year stuck in bed, Will
Wiesenfeld (aka Anticon pop star
Baths) releases his third album with
a sharp turn towards the morbid.
Cycled samples of his falsetto provide
a heavenly chorus that juxtaposes the
often dark nature of the lyricism. Loss
of faith in self and the world, dissolution of relationships, suicide, absolution of the self into self-servicing; the
album is about human nature in the
real world and gives us the comfort
that we’re not the only ones feeling
down about it. The depravity marked
in the lyrics of “Miasma Sky” and
“Worsening” are all the more realized
by how light and refined the music
surrounding it is. It’s an album that
brings to the part of our consciousness we loathe and hide away, and
their infectious charm with satisfying
substance — the album’s strong melodic
guitar choruses and clever hooks consistently draw in the listener throughout its 34 minutes. Despite a lingering sense of a repetitive feel, Crimes of
Passion manages to maintain a healthy
enough level of variation to remain interesting and engaging. From the fuzzy
saxophone interludes of "Heavy Metal
Clouds" to the beautiful ballad "She
Splits Me Up," the album does not fail
to deliver dependable enjoyment.
— Alex Jalandra
Belle and
Sebastian
The Third Eye
Centre
Matador
French Kiss
If Crimes of Passion could be described
in a single word, the choice would undeniably be "vibrant." Whether or not
you're a noise pop enthusiast, it's clear
that this catchy album is full of lighthearted, genuine energy. Its catchiness
is far from the bubblegum pop variety,
however. Crocodiles manage to back
Baths
Obsidian
Anticon
it does so entirely without cynical reproach.
— Zachary Issenberg
Does the new Belle and Sebastian album The Third Eye Centre represent a
change in direction for the Glaswegian
darlings, arguably the most charming—or, to some listeners’ callous ears,
obnoxious and predictable—champions of British melancholia since Morrissey and Marr? Is it likely that Stuart
Murdoch and company have managed
to convert skeptics to their book club
for art school dropouts? Would a single
Belle and Sebastian fan want either of
these previous inquiries to be answered
in the affirmative? Assuredly the response to all three of these questions is
a resounding no. For all their remixing
and rarity, the tracks on The Third Eye
Centre undeniably bear the trademark
gestures of Belle and Sebastian. “Suicide Girl,” originally featured as a bonus
track on the band’s most recent studio
album, Belle and Sebastian Write About
Love, jauntily recounts a melancholy
case unrequited love. “Love on the
March” channels baroque pop by way
of bossa nova, and Richard X’s remix
of “I Didn’t See It Coming” pays more
explicit tribute than usual to Belle and
Sebastian’s New Order-ish new wave
influences.
— Logan Lockner
53
Pusha T
My Name Is My
Name
Def Jam
At its best moments, My Name Is My
Name is a potent vision of dystopian
coke rap with Pusha rapping with measured intensity over electronic-tinged
tracks that evoke sleek clubs and hellish
nights of crime. Unfortunately, these
moments are few and far between. The
bulk of the album’s midsection is a bewildering mess in which Pusha trades
the uncompromising tone of the first
few tracks for a strange turn towards
R&B (courtesy of a Kelly Rowland feature and production by The-Dream).
“Hold On” arouses further bafflement as
executive producer Kanye West moans
in auto-tune throughout the songs duration, pushing himself past the point
of self-parody. Pusha T is no longer
the rapper he once was in the days of
Clipse, but over forward-thinking production like “Numbers on the Boards,”
he succeeds on atmosphere alone. Everywhere else, he sounds hackneyed
and out of place.
— Ben Crais
Steve Gunn
Time Off
Paradise of
Bachelors
For my money, Steve Gunn’s latest effort is the best thing to come out of
2013. Although he’s currently a very
under-the-radar name, he’s on the
rise, being an off-and-on guitarist in
Kurt Vile’s band, the Violators. Time
Off is a collection of six phenomenal
folk songs, drawing inspiration from
the avant-garde instrumental works of
John Fahey and Jim O’Rourke. Though
the guitar is certainly Time Off’s most
prominently-featured
instrument,
the vocals add a necessary element of
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Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic
Zeros
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Vagrant/Rough Trade
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros used to remind me a little of the
Manson Family, which is to say that it
always looked and sounded (endearingly) like they had just crawled out
beauty and accessibility to the record.
Gunn’s gifted musicianship and composition skills illuminate the truly flawless work, from the intricate artistry of
opening track “Water Wheel” to the
mystical-sounding, long-winded closer
of “Trailways Ramble.” To put it bluntly: buy this record. You will not regret
it, and this artist seems to have nowhere
to go but up.
— Jacob Eckert
The Weeknd
Kiss Land
XO/Republic
After releasing three critically-acclaimed mixtapes (House of Balloons,
Thursday and Echoes of Silence) in 2011
and later remastering them in 2012,
Ontario’s The Weeknd has released his
debut album Kiss Land. The album’s
production includes orchestration,
which adds positively to the sound
by giving it an epic feel and an added
layer of depth. Too bad the quality of
the songs do not match the production
value; most of the tracks are uninspired
of the Mojave Desert. On their first
two albums, their sound was jangly
and full of gospel soul. But the band’s
latest release lacks the foot-stomping
feel that set Alex Ebert and his band
of minstrels apart, leaving them
sounding more like the Brady Bunch.
The music isn’t bad, per se. It just
feels uninspired — like it was written
to sell vinyl records at Urban Outfitters. The too-simple instrumentation
is unimaginative, and the inauthentic hippie lyrical tropes on tracks like
“Let’s Get High” are played out, leaving Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic
Zeros feeling downright long-winded.
A creative title might’ve distracted
the listener from the album’s lackluster content. On the other hand, the
album cover will look great on your
wall.
— Nick Bradley
and sound somewhat dull (“Love in the
Sky”) compared to his worthier songs
“Wicked Games” and “High for This”
from the House of Balloons mixtape.
The melodies feel safe, and the lyrics
aren’t on the same level as his mixtapes,
with the exception of a few songs that
are definitely among some of his best
work, like single “Belong to the World”
and the title track. Kiss Land is a disappointing album overall but only because The Weeknd has written better
material and has sung with more gusto
on his mixtapes than he does here.
— Max Goodley
ASAP Ferg
Trap Lord
RCA/ASAP
Worldwide/
Polo Grounds
With the release of ASAP Mob’s Lords
Never Worry mixtape last summer,
ASAP Ferg distinguished himself from
the rest of the crew with his jagged flow
and distinctive vocals on tracks like
“Work” and “Persian Wine.” Now, his
debut album Trap Lord finds the Harlem native establishing himself as an
artist in his own right. Ferg’s menacing
presence and varying flow on “Fergivicious,” “Shabba” and “Work (Remix)”
provide for a compelling listen, as well
as songs like “Hood Pope” and “Cocaine Castle”, where he takes a more
harmonious approach while describing
the harsh realities of ghetto life. In each
case, the dark, tense production compliments him well. While not a game
changer like that of ASAP Rocky’s Live.
Love.A$AP, Trap Lord similarly pushes
the sonic boundaries of rap and leaves
listeners hopeful for what the “Fergenstein” has in store for the future.
— Sanai Meles
ute to Bolan in entirely new way. Rather
than transforming Bolan’s glam-folk
style into his own, Segall infuses the approach into a new set of tracks that are
written with emotion and care. The titular opening track marks a major transition for Segall from heavy thrashing
to more traditionally melodic folk rock.
The entire album is a sign of maturity.
An angry, wild, off-the-rails sound initially propelled Segall to the height of
the alternative rock scene, but, as this
new album confirms, he takes great
strides towards creating a new sound
by rethinking his old influences.
— Robert Weisblatt
Ty Segall
Sleepers
Fuck Buttons
Slow Focus
Drag City
In 2011, garage-rock guitarist Ty Segall
confirmed that T. Rex’s Marc Bolan was
one of his primary influences by releasing a fantastic EP of Bolan covers entitled Ty Rex. The EP paid tribute to Bolan’s legacy by giving lo-fi garage rock
incarnations of his classic songs. However, with Segall’s Sleepers, he pays tribWhirr's latest EP succeeds in capturing
the essence of traditional, melancholic
shoegaze, but Around’s excessive homogeneity leaves a little something to
be desired. With the exception of the
coarse transition from the slow, wistful opener "Drain" to the (rather out
of place) energetic intro of "Swoon,"
the seamless progression of the songs
does an excellent job at immersing the
listener in a depressive wall of sound.
This is the virtue of Around's repetitive
nature — its steady flow allows listeners to melt into its gloomy soundscape
and bask in the melancholy for nearly
half an hour. However, Whirr seems to
be playing it a little too safe with their
strict adherence to the structural formula of a classical shoegaze song (albeit a tried-and-true formula). With
that being said, Around provides a
ATP
Fuck Buttons have made their name
through the outstanding noise soundscapes constructed on previous efforts like Tarot Sport (2009) and Street
Horrrsing (2008). Unfortunately, their
new album seeks to bridge the gap between these noisy atmospheres and a
more commercial sound, leading to
Whirr
Around
Graveface
consistently beautiful and haunting atmosphere — the kind that’s perfect for
laying in bed late at night and reflecting on life.
— Alex Jalandra
the mediocre mixture of these two opposing forces that is Slow Focus. Tarot
Sport seemed to indicate that Fuck Buttons would continue with a more distorted, turbulent sound for their future,
so it’s a shame to see them adding an
unnecessary element of accessibility to
their sound. Slow Focus is by no means
a bad record, and it’s still undeniably
the work of the very skilled Fuck Buttons, but it’s ultimately a disappointment to see where the band has taken
the sound. Hopefully they will continue
to develop the very focused blasts of
noise displayed in their earlier records.
— Jacob Eckert
Mount Kimbie
Cold Spring
Fault Less Youth
Warp
In Mount Kimbie's sophomore album,
the London duo of Dominic Maker
and Kai Campos breaks through conventional themes of electronic music.
Though the album was entirely produced on a computer, you're still able to
feel the rhythm and beats of the drum
and bass. There’s a kind of intensity to
the beats as they sporadically follow an
organized rhythm, each intricacy tied
to the next. The album contains two
notable collaborations with British musician King Krule, a homage to James
Blake's collaboration with RZA (“Take
A Fall For Me”) on his recent album
Overgrown. Its minimalism coupled
with somewhat unintelligible lyrics creates an ambient/post-dubstep vibe (another James Blake shout-out). Mount
Kimbie is finally taking more risks,
attempting to really define the sound
they represent. Tracks such as “Home
Recording” and “Break Well” contain
built-up drops and a variety of instrumentation. Mount Kimbie is changing
the direction of modernist music, and
I can't wait to see where they end up.
It may have been a Cold Spring, but
Mount Kimbie's sound is hot, hot, hot.
— Priyanka Krishnamurthy
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