HUMANS’ Condition
October 17, 2012
HUMANS, comprised of Robbie Slade and Peter Ricq, asks listeners to traverse the oft-shaky bridge between electromechanically produced sounds and handmade guitar and vocal melodies—but smart production and skillful instrumentation weave a strong net to fall on.
Thomas Sadoski: The News from the Newsroom
August 21, 2012
While he is currently most famous for his role as the hot-tempered, ratings-chasing executive producer, Don Keefer, on HBO’s The Newsroom, Thomas Sadoski is also a theater veteran.
Exclusive Video Premiere and Interview: ‘Ghost I / Ghost II,’ Rococode
June 28, 2012
In a musical milieu in which “pop music” often functions as an epithet, Vancouver four-piece Rococode doesn’t shy away from the moniker. The band’s satirically titled first album Guns, Sex, and Glory is a kind of love song to itself. Equal parts sophisticated uptown polished pop princess and downtown grunge prince, the record is a seemingly mismatched couple that brings out the best in—well, itself, placing more approachable, pop-driven songs beside darker offerings without compromising either’s authenticity.
Cory Branan Focuses
June 22, 2012
Nearly a decade after his first release, much-lauded singer-songwriter Cory Branan is back with all bite and no bark. Six years in the making, Mutt’s pedigree may be a mystery, but with Tom Waits-like melodies and Tom Petty lyrical acrobats, its lineage is abundantly clear. Some tracks are bread-and-butter Americana; others are downright whimsical. All feel utterly lived in—a musical equivalent to worn leather where buttery smoothness rewards initial discomfort.
Girl Power at the Peace Love & Misunderstanding Premiere
June 5, 2012
In a room with feminist icon Gloria Steinem and unimpeachable heartthrob Chace Crawford, where’s a young, empowered woman to turn? Owing largely efforts of many women in attendance, luckily most of us need not choose between intellect and aesthetic. Last night Forevermark and The Wall Street Journal presented the premiere of IFC Films’ Peace Love & Misunderstanding to benefit The Women’s Media Center, co-founded by the film’s star Jane Fonda.
Simian Mobile Disco Wants More
May 23, 2012
After over a decade of poking at the border and years of occupying the fringe, electronic music has officially entered the American mainstream. Sperry Top-Siders are as ubiquitous at festivals as glow sticks, and rock-star DJ personalities have replaced those hidden behind a club-sweat haze having originated across the pond.
JBM on Rising from the Ashes
May 22, 2012
If Bon Iver scored Into the Wild, it would sound a little bit like JBM. The solo project of singer-songwriter Jesse Marchant, JBM’s brand of fireside balladry separates him from his peers.
Exitmusic’s Passage is No Secret
May 22, 2012
Exitmusic feels like musical Instagram. Everything is slightly overcast and distorted, but thoughtfully so, with skillfully applied lo-fi elements enhancing the duo’s deeply saturated ambient post-rock anthems.
Exclusive Song Premiere: ‘Summer Jams,’ Alekesam
May 11, 2012
Today, we bring you breaking news from Sal Masekela that doesn’t involve a Kardashian. The former Daily 10 on E! host, X Games host, and professional surfer is adding another entry—musician—to his eccentric CV.
NYC Ballet’s New Elements of Style
May 10, 2012
George Balanchine’s Symphony In C gets a rebound this spring: the New York City Ballet has partnered with Swarovski to introduce newly designed costumes with the brand’s signature accents.
Casting Call: Exile on Main Street
May 4, 2012
Self imposed tax exile, excessive and uninterrupted drug use, leachinghangers-on, and several unstable lovers sounds more like a recipe fordisaster than formula for one of the most revered rock albums inhistory. But seeing is believing, and a Virgin-produced feature film, based on David Greenfield’s literary account of the conception and creation of Stones’ album Exile on Main St., might just make us believers.
Public Excess: Anna Dello Russo x H&M
May 3, 2012
Fashion editors comb through arsenals of accessories to find their favorites and make them our favorites, but why not trust their discerning eye to conceive the pieces themselves? This seems to be what H&M was thinking—today they announced their latest collaborative collection with industry authority Anna Dello Russo.
A$AP Rocky’s ‘Goldie’ Video: Neighbors in Paris
May 3, 2012
In the vein of Kanye West and Jay-Z’s musical Parisian romp, A$AP Rocky and the A$AP Mob briefly expatriate in the NSFW video for the transparently titled “Goldie,” determined to engage in typical expat activities. Chief among them are smoking, drinking, and cruising the Champs-Elysées in a decidedly more petite version of the tricked-out rides of their peers.
Casting Call: The General
April 27, 2012
Variety has reported a biopic of George Washington has gotten the green light and will be directed by Darren Aronofsky, who shifts his attention from Black Swan to lame duck.
Exclusive Song Premiere: ‘Even the Blind,’ Echo Lake
April 10, 2012
A propos of Easter, we’re thrilled to premiere a song today that features an organ working overtime and vocals with choir-girl charm
Young Magic is All Over the Map
April 6, 2012
Melt is a rhapsodic map of the globe as interpreted by Young Magic’s members—a kind of sonic cartography drawn with peaks and valleys, quietly deep oceans and urgently moving streams, and little margin for error. Indonesian-born Melati Malay met members Isaac Emmanuel and Michael Italia in New York and revisited the potential for collaboration in hometown Australia. Ten countries later, Melt was created in a Brooklyn warehouse.
Casting Call: Braveheart
March 30, 2012
Once again, one instance of historical revisionism is to be revised by another, as news of a Braveheart television series broke last week. The 1995 film earned Mel Gibson an Academy Award for directing, revived the historical epic in film, and reawakened Scottish nationalism.
Exclusive Song Premiere: ‘Starry Eyed,’ Wishes & Thieves
March 27, 2012
We’re pleased to premiere an Ellie Goulding cover that isn’t an oppressive dub-step rendering that leaches the femininity or affect out of the British crooner’s brand of indie-pop. Brooklyn four-piece Wishes & Thieves added a cover of “Starry Eyed” to a 7-inch available today on the heels of Lighthouse, their much-lauded freshman EP.
Up High and Down Low with La Sera’s New Double Video
March 26, 2012
La Sera, the solo venture of Vivian Girls bassist Katy Goodman, offers a two-for-one deal with the release of “Real Boy”/ “Drive On,” a video within a video directed by Travis Peterson for two tracks off September’s Sees the Light. Part one is more Barnum & Bailey, part two is more blood and brutality.
Lana Del Rey’s ‘Blue Jeans’ Video: Croc and Roll
March 19, 2012
If the video for “Blue Jeans” picks up where the one for “Born to Die” left off, Lana Del Rey’s heavily tattooed beau has resuscitated her, cleaned her up, and filed an insurance claim for the incinerated vehicle we were left with.