Since their third studio effort It’s Blitz (2009), gutsy New York threesome Yeah Yeah Yeahs have remained all-too-quiet on the music scene. The four-year silence was broken, however, when the group announced the drop date of its fourth album, dubbed Mosquito (yes, for the insect), two weeks ago on their site. The YYYs have also pledged to play a slough of new dates, including the two weekends of Coachella. When asked about the record, which has been in-the-works since…
Introduced in 2010, the Nordic Music Prize is presented annually to the artist who has come out with the best album of the last calendar year. Having been created in order to raise awareness of and unify the Nordic music scene, the award is presented only to artists from Nordic countries, and is decided upon by a panel of both Nordic and international music moguls. Presented by WiMP (the Norwegian music player, not the…
His album is lengthy and poetic and sounds like the product of a boy and his guitar, and his album art looks like expired film from the 70s, screaming of fading childhood and bittersweet memories… I found him while working my way through links upon links to artists recommended by other local artists on BandCamp.com. Though Toys in Void was on a few different lists, it seems the only things noted about him are that…
Seeing as winter is close at hand here in the Northern Hemisphere, I feel it is high time to talk about an album that was dropped at the beginning of summer. After a nearly three and a half year break from the studio, punchy Canadian foursome Metric has returned with Synthetica, an 11-track step towards what seems like the slow but sure collision of new-wave psychedelia and haunting indie eloquence. When I first tuned in to Synthetica, it…
The sound of the nineties… the raw, rough-and-tumble, ultra-defiant and overly-angsty sound of the nineties…is more than alive in Eugene, Oregon. It is here that garage/alternative quartet Sol Riot has taken shape, going on to take the entire Eugene scene by storm. Recently, the band has released a fresh EP, entitled Start a Riot. Recording right now with Justin Pizzoferrato (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.), the group also expects to release its first full-length album, which is…
Album title: Neck of the Woods Release date: Tuesday, May 8, 2012. Tracks: 11 (you can find the tracklist here) Rating: 9/10 After a good three years and some odd weeks, Los Angeles alternative band Silversun Pickups has released its third true studio album to date, Neck of the Woods…which does just about everything but disappoint. In all honesty, I had no doubt this album would be quite tops,…
Ever heard of Dover, Delaware? You know, the capital city of that first U.S. state, located just under Pennsylvania and New Jersey and cut off from Maryland by one clean eastern border…The one with Dover International Speedway, Silver Lake, a quaint, down-home feel… And Firefly Music Festival? In late July of this year (the 20-22, to be exact), more than 30 of the most prominent indie/alternative artists of today will be meeting up in Dover,…
The headline says it all, folks. Canadian indie/alternative twin-duo Tegan and Sara have officially come back from their year and a half off, and are expected to enter the studio in the middle of this month. Having not toured since a year before the release of their three-part short film series Get Along in November of 2011, this installation can be expected to deviate slightly from the latest Sainthood and even more (most likely) from…
A year ago today (and, believe me, this is still terribly hard to type), monumental Detroit garage rock duo the White Stripes officially decided to break apart. The raw, bluesy two piece cut the chord on February 2, 2011, ending the more than 10 years of life their only child had so voraciously acquired. In all honesty, this was to be expected; it would have been selfish to force the electric pair to continue, especially once…
Left to Right: Chris Hudson (drums), Wade MaVv (lead vocals/guitar), and Chuck Holiday (bass.).
Hailie Hay