Crooked Beat Record Store Makes The Jump To Record Label
When customers walk into Adams Morgan record shop Crooked Beat, says owner Bill Daly, they come looking for local music….
Category: Music
A Session With Pure Bathing Culture
Watch as the Portland electronic-pop duo strip it down to the bare essentials for us in NYC.
D.C. DIY Space Dougout Goes (Somewhat) Professional
For two years, shows at D.C. house venue Dougout have been as straightforward as they can be for a DIY…
First Listen: Raz Simone, ‘Cognitive Dissonance’
This swinging-for-the-fences album feels like a plea for connection and sounds like a brooding hit.
First Listen: Tycho, ‘Awake’
Awake is like a soundtrack to a sunbaked road trip, capturing the inexplicable nostalgia one feels while imagining a new life in a new town.
Music Takes Center Stage In Oscar-Nominated Documentaries
For this year’s Academy Awards, three documentaries — 20 Feet from Stardom, The Square and The Lady in Number 6 — use musicians’ lives and experiences to frame some very big ideas.
First Listen: Calle 13, ‘Multi_Viral’
The controversial Puerto Rican rap duo returns with its most introspective album to date — and guests including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
First Listen: Diane Cluck, ‘Boneset’
Cluck’s songs unfurl in curlicues, not straight lines, as her voice contorts to mystical effect. On Boneset, she frequently channels the deified California songwriter Judee Sill.
First Listen: Nothing, ‘Guilty Of Everything’
The Philadelphia noise-rock band’s debut full-length hits like a profoundly thoughtful, beautifully crushing wave of droning distortion.
Song Premiere: Jungle, ‘Busy Earnin”
Hear the new single by the hotly tipped London collective, from its upcoming full-length debut.
First Listen: St. Vincent, ‘St. Vincent’
Every defiant growl, jaded vocal fry and distorted guitar lick on Annie Clark’s fourth album flirts with the avant garde, yet uses an accessible, if inventive, musical vocabulary to do so.
First Listen: The Notwist, ‘Close To The Glass’
The German band’s collage-based sound brims over with buzzing, springy, playful urgency. Bathed in electronics, Markus Acher’s softly accented vocals land like late-night affirmations from a trusted friend.
First Listen: Death Vessel, ‘Island Intervals’
Joel Thibodeau’s eerily high voice sounds equally suited to basement-bound laments and celestial explorations. Island Intervals finds him splitting the difference and exploring the tension between those extremes.
First Listen: Beck, ‘Morning Phase’
Beck’s latest creation is more than a mere sequel to 2002’s brooding masterpiece, Sea Change. It provides a glimpse of new frontiers in letting go and moving on, told by someone who wasn’t thinking quite this way before.
First Listen: Lost In The Trees, ‘Past Life’
The music Ari Picker makes with his band is masterful at eliciting sweeping emotional responses, and at ensuring that a single emotion never dominates any one piece. Past Life isn’t melancholy, and it isn’t upbeat. It’s both, and everything else besides.
First Listen: Angel Olsen, ‘Burn Your Fire For No Witness’
The singer’s new album is the musical equivalent of a deep, questioning stare from a lover. These are delicate songs, with lyrics stripped to their essence.
First Listen: AJ Davila, ‘Terror Amor’
The garage-rock band Davila 666 is on a break, but its singer has a tremendous new solo album. Terror Amor stays close to AJ Davila’s garage-rock/doo-wop/punk roots, but dares to play with fun new elements.
First Listen: St. Paul And The Broken Bones, ‘Half The City’
The band’s music doesn’t just mimic the soul sounds its members love; it regenerates the tradition. Half the City is the first major recorded statement from a band already growing into greatness.
First Listen: Lydia Loveless, ‘Somewhere Else’
The 23-year-old country-rock singer’s fine new album thrives on her iconoclastic vision. Along the way, the invokes the name and spirit of everyone from Steve Earle to French poet Paul Verlaine.
How A Stressful Night For Miles Davis Spawned Two Classic Albums
On Feb. 12, 1964 a high-stakes gig and some backstage tension led to a singular performance caught on tape.