The Neighbourhood have tried to recapture some of their initial musical potency with their third studio album, and while I felt like it was a solid effort overall, it still felt a bit contrived when compared to everything else out there and at this point I'm not sure what they could do to regain that initial spark.
Enter Shikari brought every bit of expected energy and then some. The crowd’s energy was easily that of a group twice the size, and the exchange between the band and crowd was a true spectacle. For this photographer, it was almost enough to set my camera gear aside and wade into the pit. Check out our collection of photos from a fantastic show at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.
The High Divers took the crowd at D.C.’s Hamilton Live by surprise and didn’t stop for their entire 60 minute set. Playing a mix of unreleased songs off their new album and favorites from their 2015 album Riverlust, their feel good rock vibes, infectious energy, and larger than life sound made a fan of this concert photographer.
While Django Django's previous efforts felt a bit more artsy in intention, the experimentation on Marble Skies feels done with the sole purpose of creating something fun. And it is fun, it's a lighthearted, head nodding romp full of brilliant melodies and earworm hooks. It's almost impossible not to be pulled into their joyous orbit.
U2 have clearly had their ears to the 'streets' and have found inspiration from a number of different sources. The fact that they were able to lean on all of these influences without it sounding contrived is maybe their greatest accomplishment. And as someone who's not a die hard U2 fan, I thoroughly enjoyed their modern sound - it felt relevant yet still very much true to who U2 are. Songs of Experience feels like a true return to form for the legendary band and a worthy (and voluntary) addition to my music library.
Wolf Alice is fiery, fierce, and absolutely captivating on 'Visions of a Life' and pulls it all off with nonchalant indifference that reminds me of the rock from yesteryear. It revels in an intense youthful catharsis full of big payoffs and it keeps me coming back for more.
On it's surface, MASSEDUCTION sounds like a straight up pop album but once you dig a little deeper you'll find something much more delightfully deep and subversive. Everything about MASSEDUCTION feels effortless and I couldn't help but get strong Bowie vibes from her, from everything from the music to the project's aesthetics, and I can't think of any higher praise to give someone who's so clearly all about the true 'art' of music.
Historically speaking, music has had a tendency to follow the binary model of low art/high art. However, more and more artists are moving between these two realms, and sometimes fusing them both within a single work. Take, for example, Adia Victoria. She makes intelligent music that still exists within a structure that will play to the footstompers. It has the danceability of a surf-rock release, but it also has the brains of a Jeunet. She makes smart work for smart people that can be listened to and enjoyed by everyone.
We examine the eccentric life of the cult legend, Captain Beefheart. His life was full of stories about his many idiosyncrasies and while many regard him as a musical genius, it was his paintings under his real name, Don Van Vliet that brought him wide success.
Whether John Fahey intentionally shied away from 'success' is a debatable thing, he himself, in one of his famous quotes said - “from a social perspective, I am looking for friends, not acolytes.” But his musical, visual, verbal, and even eccentric legacy remain, as they should be.
Most of the big names like Greil Marcus, Robert Christgau, and Simon Frith are still around; somewhere in columns in established cultural magazines, books, and even academia. But it seems that their style of integrated cultural, musical and sociological analysis that at the same time deconstructs and reconstructs certain musical work is less and less visible. What has happened?
Smile was to be the title of the 12th Beach Boys album that was to be released anywhere between January and June 1967. It was to be their masterpiece. Actually, it was supposed to be THE rock and roll masterpiece, better than anything The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix or Bob Dylan came up with. But then...it never came out.
Ty Segall pulls out the full arsenal on Freedom's Goblin delivering a 19-track ride that goes all over the place. In lesser hands it might feel disjointed or convoluted but with him it just shows how truly gifted he is and just how in tune he is with the craft of rock. He clearly marches to the sound of his own beat and it's incredibly exhilarating. Freedom's Goblin is one hell of a ride and further proof that he may just be a mad musical genius.
Sonically, Who Built the Moon? is vastly more extensive than his past couple of projects and he sounds like he's got much more of a pep to his step. Noel Gallagher's latest feels refreshingly retro yet inventive and new and in turn makes for a much more interesting listen as a whole. This might just be the second wind he's really needed.
How do you go from a #1 hit and being one of the most successful so-called blue-eyed soul artists and considered the progenitor of power pop by ecstatic critics, to never really making a success story out of it, to a patchy solo career and odd-jobs, then back to being a producer and musical encyclopedia of rock and roll, to almost fully rehabilitating your career by the end? Well, you would have to ask Alex Chilton, the man from Memphis who went through all of that - that is, if he were still with us.
Our collection of photos from a fantastic show at the Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington D.C., headlined by Hideout, Cullen Omori, and Cults.
Does an artist really have to suffer to make great art? This common theory has developed over time due to the sheer number of tortured artists that the music industry in particular, has to answer for. But upon closer examination, that perception can be deceiving.
We talk about the possible demise of Rolling Stone as it's going up for sale for the first time since it's start in 1967. We talk about how we think they've lost their true identity as the counterculture bible and how they could possibly get it back. We finish things by talking about new albums we've been listening to like Jhené Aiko, Rapsody, Queens of the Stone Age, and the Foo Fighters.
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