“It’s all about energy; when you catch a flow, you’re maybe starting out with a couple words and a contact or a rhyme but you literally catch it. You can feel the energy building,” Kaila Love said when asked if one could learn freestyle. Like her response, her energy caught Read More…
Those behind the scenes in music rarely get properly recognized. This isn’t the case for Grammy Award-winning audio engineer Young Guru, who has engineered and mixed seven of Jay-Z’s 11 solo albums, as well as music from several other high-profile musicians. Guru kept mum about Jay-Z’s forthcoming album. “I can’t Read More…
This past weekend welcomed the month’s First Friday festivities, and, as usual, hundreds of Bay Area socialites came out to celebrate art, music and good vibes throughout downtown Oakland. One of the city’s very own arts and culture magazines, Wine & Bowties, brought Syd tha Kyd to The New Parish Read More…
Following seven years of relative dormancy, the Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer have released Shaking the Habitual, an explicitly political record that forces listeners to adapt to its uncompromising, unconventional and seemingly inaccessible terms. The dense, sprawling work, with its politicized lyrics, industrial sounds and chilling ambience, is Read More…
If there’s one problem plaguing the creative output of NYC trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and rest assured, there is likely more than one problem), it’s that they don’t have much to prove anymore. After ascending to notoriety with their gritty, minimalist debut Fever to Tell, they managed to conjure up Read More…
The Flaming Lips have become something of a flanderized band. That is to say, much like Ned Flanders from “The Simpsons,” time has turned them into a caricature of what they once were. With each new release, this group of esoteric psychonauts becomes more exaggeratedly esoteric and psychonautical. Their 2009 Read More…
The turntable has been used as an instrument since the early days of hip-hop in the 1970s. The days of analog vinyl scratching have evolved into the digital era, in which physical records are no longer needed. French turntablist group C2C have brought together an eclectic collection of sounds spanning Read More…
SCORE. The word can mean success. It can be the written copy of a musical composition. And starting April 12, the word will refer to the SCORE Berkeley program that is to engage students at Willard Middle School and — the program’s directors hope — enrich their lives. The concept Read More…
James Blake has always been somewhat of a musical dichotomy. Since his debut release nearly four years ago, Blake has been carefully straddling the line between the UK post-dubstep scene and his own pop music leanings, a feat evidenced by arguably his most popular single to date, the wobbly, earth-shaking Read More…
There are few words to properly describe the power of Chicago-based artist Angel Olsen’s music. Olsen’s ability to manipulate her voice — which at one moment seems almost effortless and at the next unbelievably powerful — is reminiscent of a 1920s radio personality. Her lyrics are painfully honest, and her Read More…
