(Photo: The War On Drugs)
Perhaps we’ll remember 2011 as the year we returned to "the song." Yes, I know, music is almost always based around songs, but those elusive mysteries with actual choruses, verses, bridges (remember those?) and emotions seemed kind of rare for awhile. Whether in the loose slacker forms of Kurt Vile, the Petty-meets-experimental vibe of The War On Drugs, Drake making the club sound like some hellish, inescapable monster, Cass McCombs turning even further into stark emotional honesty or PJ Harvey reminding us that she is incredible and singular, it seems like songcraft has finally beat back the slew of by-the-numbers bedroom recordings.
During the infancy of ‘indie’, back when it was something that individual fans felt that they could ‘be proud of’, a Grammy nomination was met with astonishment and validation. However, in the post-Arcade-Fire-wins-the-night-and-validates-indie era, it seems like random ass indie bands will get nominated every year, and no1 really cares, and we all already know that ‘indie went mainstream’. Gonna be a weird era, but we will still see the same tweets/half-assed ‘thought pieces’ about ‘what indie means’ & other gimmicky over-analysis of ‘the most coveted prize in American music.’
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In the past few years, Bon Iver mastermind Justin Vernon has gone from cabin-ridden loneliness to Hawaii with Kanye West to some of the biggest stages in the world, and it’s been his unique voice that paved the path. "Calgary," the first single off the second Bon Iver LP, the double self-titled Bon Iver, Bon Iver out June 21 on Jagjaguwar, finds his songwriting at a new peak.
Tyler the Creator is a horrorcore rapper who is being marketed towards indie white ppl. But I guess all rap is marketed towards white ppl, which is why Eminem is widely considered the #1 rapper of all time. Anyways, the New York Times had to ‘profile’ him bc they basically do that with any buzzworthy noun/entity… restaurants, humans, dogs, events… Sorta wish they would just ‘chill out’ and stop being a newspaper and just sorta ‘riff’ on news that other outlets reported.
2K10
U WERE A REAL SHIT STORM
U WERE RLLY MEANINGFUL
I LEARNED A LOT ABT MYSELF
I LEARNED A LOT ABT INDIE
I LEARNED A LOT ABT BUZZ
I LEARNED A LOT ABT SLUTWAVE, RAPEGAZE AND PITCHFORK
I LEARNED A LOT ABT ALT BREASTESES
I LEARNED A LOT ABT MEMES, JARED LETO, AND BEST COAST DESCHANEL
I LEARNED A LOT ABT _______
Every year there are so many buzzbands that are available to ‘buzz about’/align your blog’s brand with by covering them on a regular/daily basis. Some artists are ‘good’ and ‘deserve hype’, but other bands sorta represent how hollow/forced the buzzosphere can be.
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The closer we get to the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the closer Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Friday releases reflect his old steez. Talib Kweli and Consequence both had appearances on The College Drop-Out and "Chain Heavy" is a nice refresher to Ye’s old style, even if we’re gassed whenever Ye spits with Big Brother and up-and-comer, CyHi Da Prynce.
I have always wondered what it will be like to work at a cutting edge Web 3.0 company. I would have a chill office with tons of zany toys and gadgets on my desk. I would have free food and drink, free dry cleaning, and maybe even a ‘happy ending’ tug job lounge.
MGMT, who recently played their largest headlining show anywhere in the world with a sold-out, 9,500 capacity gig at Morrison , Colorado ’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre, have just released their latest video, It’s Working, another visual foray into the world of intriguing imagery.
Link: http://www.nme.com/news/mia/51033
M.I.A. is ‘the greatest shit talking female’ in the history of the post-indie blogosphere. It seems like she ‘really understands’ who to ‘talk shit about’ to get headlines. I feel like her latest decision to ‘call Justin Bieber an inauthentic ass hole’ was probably a solid move because he is just a tween and can’t defend himself. He is just a spoiled American who didn’t live in a 3rd World country and didn’t witness people getting blown up every day on his walk 2 school.
Photos from a recent FOE gig - a friend of our friends Hold Your Horse Is - she’s gonna be big!!! Read the gig review after the jump.
Shots of North Carolina’s folk-rocking Avett Brothers’ stop in Glasgow - 22.08.11
Read the review of the gig here.
Take a look at the acts and art on offer at this year’s Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Included are the likes of Fight Like Apes, Lykke Li, Sea of Bees and Seasick Steve. Photos from our own...
Good time with Bad Guys. Photos from the May 29th gig at the Old Blue Last. Read the review by the Bad Guy himself, Stuart London after the jump.
Artrocker.com exclusive: for fans of White Lies and Crocodiles we’ve got some fresh pictures from their UK show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this month, courtesy of Alessandro...
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