by A.R. Canzano When I listen to Ibeyi, I imagine myself floating along on a slow-moving river illuminated by campfires at twilight. On the shore, two women are singing. They might be ghosts, and they sing spirit-songs. Ibeyi is the name of Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz, a pair of 20-year-old French-Cuban twins based in Paris. […]
by Benjy Steinberg According to family lore, I became a jazz-head at age two. My parents had taken me to a bar and grill in L.A. that happened to have a jazz trio as its house band. I spent the entire meal fawning at the saxophonist. Maybe it was the music, or maybe just the […]
by Teddy Sokoloff When Kendrick Lamar released To Pimp A Butterfly in March of 2015, I was infatuated by it. It’s infusion of jazz, neo-soul, and funk motifs complements a canonical hip-hop sound that Lamar started in with his album Section.80. What impressed me most about the album was how wildly different it was from […]
by Ebony Bradwell I am who I say I am, not who you say I am. That is the power of music. It moves us like a life force that controls our movements. It urges us to action whether we own it or not. Music is the constant that shapes our lives. The standard of […]
by Allison Primak When I grow up, I want to be Jenny from the National’s album Trouble Will Find Me. When I was younger, it was the Plain White T’s Delilah; later, it was Vampire Weekend’s Hannah Hunt. For me, these songs have soundtracked more than a few self-indulgent moments—late nights spent in friends’ rooms […]
by Nick Grewal The Carrboro, North Carolina-based record label Paradise of Bachelors is hitting its stride. Its recent slate of releases is strong, and together these records indicate a more coherent and specific vision than many of its competitors in today’s indie label ratrace. Think vintage 4AD, but exchange the ethereal goth music for refined […]
by Christopher Cappello In 2006 my parents purchased R.E.M.’s CD compilation …And I Feel Fine, a collection of hits and b-sides spanning the band’s six-year tenure with the independent label I.R.S. Records. Disc two features a live performance of the song “Life and How to Live It,” recorded in the Netherlands on the band’s 1987 […]
by Daniel Tenreiro-Braschi AM When the Arctic Monkey’s fourth LP AM won Best Album at the 2014 Brit Awards, the British band’s lead singer, Alex Turner, gave a cool look to the camera, puckered his lips slightly, and stood up to swagger towards the stage. “That rock’n’roll, eh? That rock & roll. It’s always waiting […]
by Charlie Bardey You probably remember it like it was yesterday. You probably think about it every day. You probably spend every second of every day thinking about it. You probably are literally incapable of thinking about anything else. That’s right—I’m talking about the magical moment you lost your virginity. It happens for each of […]
by A.R. Canzano In the contemporary music culture, the ukulele has become inexorably associated with the Quirky. Zooey Deschanel, as the Quirky’s poster child, wears polka dots and strums. Ingrid Michaelson strums, too—and sings about sweaters. She rhymes words like “honey” with words like “money” and “funny.” Like the sweaters in her songs, the ukulele […]
