Alt-J, who just released their first album An Awesome Wave made major waves (pun intended), recently dropped a single, “Buffalo,” and it sounds exactly the same as their other stuff…which is great. Dungeonesse is a new dance-pop group from the curiously named record labelSecretly Canadian, with echoes of soul and disco. Definitely groove-worthy.
Scattered Trees has created a nearly perfect pop song with “Four Days Straight.” It will probably (definitely) get stuck in your head, so be warned. On the more serious side, Listener provides a beautiful, angst-laced spoken-word-folk song called “Wooden Heart.” It gives me shivers every time I hear it.
It’s getting chilly outside, so start dancing to keep yourself warm! Start by checking out Angel Haze, a young hip-hop artist from New York that has a flow better than most anyone rapping today. Move on to Dizaraeli and the Small Gods, who are pioneering a new genre called “folk hip-hop,” which takes influences from British rap and Gypsy punk and makes them into something even more awesome. If you’re a Girls fan, check out their ex-lead singer Chris Owens’ new solo project, which continues exactly where Girls left off; country-tinged indie. Scrubious Pig also remixes a Grimes song in No Nimbus—definitely worth taking a listen.
Halloween lands smack in the middle of the week, so we obviously have to celebrate it both weekends, right? That means twice as many costumes as past years…good thing I just got my 12-variety-pack of mustaches in the mail today!
In the holiday spirit, I’ve included a few spooky classics, though there are still plenty of new tunes to dig into. I also just had to include two tracks off the soundtrack for the upcoming film The Man with the Iron Fists featuring RZA and all his best hip hop/kung fu magic. It comes out November 2, and features RZA’s entire posse on the soundtrack, including The Black Keys, Kanye, Wiz Khalifa, and Wu-Tang.
Also remember to check out WGTB’s review of the week, a close look at The Mountain Goats’ new album, Transcendental Youth.
Ever wondered what Samuel L. Jackson sounds like… remixed? Thanks to Australian producer Pogo, now you know! Famous for his reworks of Disney classics, Pogo took on Pulp Fiction this summer. Its good enough that even if you haven’t seen the movie its listenable. Compton hailing independent rapper Kendrick Lamar, set to drop his second studio album on October 22, let loose a single, “Backstreet Freestyle”… and it’s a banger.
Remix Your Weekend is Vox’s age-old feature on newly released songs and upcoming concerts in the D.C. area. From now on, this feature will be brought to you each week by a different writer from WGTB’s blogThe Rotation.
October means pumpkins, sweaters, and… midterms. Whether you are cramming formulas and theories into your head or cramming beers down your throat to blow off steam, throw on the playlist of the week and life just might be a little more tolerable.
Deadmau5 has a new song about the possibility of being served coffee (something that should excite us all!) and Detroit’s Danny Brown has collaborated with Purity Ring to produce a remix worthy of a study break.
Get into your homecoming groove by listening to the latest and greatest to come out of the world of music. All you day-drinkers out there might want to pay particular attention to the track “Doses and Mimosas.” If you like what you hear on this list, tune in to WGTB’s “The Discovery Channel” on Sunday from 10-11pm.
A lot can be said for music that tells a story—immediately and distinctly engaging like a novel, often accompanied by an interesting moral. However, when an artist uses sound to convey emotion without the aid of anecdotes, the achievement is not only more impressive but also much more potent. Beach House is a veritable master of this trick—their music illustrates the indescribable melancholy for the magic of love lost. Their new album Bloom is a poignant ode to youth and dreams, revealing how brief, yet stunning, existence can be.
The duo behind Beach House, French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally, have been together since 2004 and produced four albums. They use a simple set-up—an organ, slide guitar, and programmed drums—to curate a lush sound-space that appears much larger. Their last album, Teen Dream, was so close to flawless that I worried Bloom might disappoint, even if it was a masterpiece. Instead, the group has matured (or bloomed, so to speak) into something even better.
Summer is here! After wiping away the tears of seasonal affective disorder and compulsorily playing Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”, you know it’s time to break open that long yearned for, sun-baked music you’ve been dreaming of during those dreary winter months. Los Angeles-based Best Coast, led by Bethany Cosentino, is a solid place to start. Although their new release, The Only Place, failed to dazzle, the group’s first album remains an unblemished example of blithe summer pop.
Best described as lo-fi surf pop, the band received a lot of attention in 2010 when they released their debut album Crazy For You. The album echoes with 50’s and 60’s aesthetic, evoking imagery of Chevy wagons laden with surfboards and tanned, skinny, long-haired, blonde boys. Cosentino described the sound as “California beach music with elements of the Ramones, 90’s alternative stuff, and early Beatles drumming.”
The group excels at writing simple, straightforward, pop songs with fuzzed out guitars and light lyrics. Cosentino sings about ephemeral topics, mostly boys, boredom, and the summer. There’s plenty of music out there to help you unravel all those complicated emotions inside you, but as Pitchfork put it, when “you’re lonely and bored and sitting there thinking about how you wish your cat could talk… Best Coast is there.”
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's weekly newsmagazine. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
A lot can be said for music that tells a story—immediately and distinctly engaging like a novel, often accompanied by an interesting moral. However, when an artist uses sound to convey emotion without the aid of anecdotes, the achievement is not only more impressive but also much more potent. Beach House is a veritable master of this trick—their music illustrates the indescribable melancholy for the magic of love lost. Their new album Bloom is a poignant ode to youth and dreams, revealing how brief, yet stunning, existence can be.
Summer is here! After wiping away the tears of seasonal affective disorder and compulsorily playing Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”, you know it’s time to break open that long yearned for, sun-baked music you’ve been dreaming of during those dreary winter months. Los Angeles-based Best Coast, led by Bethany Cosentino, is a solid place to start. Although their new release, The Only Place, failed to dazzle, the group’s first album remains an unblemished example of blithe summer pop.
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