“One of my earliest childhood memories is of sitting cross-legged on the floor of my family home in East Oxford riffling through a pile of seven-inch singles. They were mostly my mum’s and were eighty percent Beatles though there were others that I remember quite clearly too: “The Ying Tong Song” b/w “I’m Walking Backwards […]
When Americana string band Old Crow Medicine Show began busking on street corners, America’s grunge era was winding down and O.C.M.S. began to usher in a resurgence of folk rock. They have since toured the world, released five studio albums, and have been featured in the 2012 documentary Big Easy Express about their tour with […]
If you’re searching for a sublime way to spend a hot summer evening, the DVD release of Sing Street is a fine solution indeed. Sing Street is “a feel-good, coming of age story written and directed by John Carney (Once, Begin Again) featuring the ultimate soundtrack of the ’80s.” We’ve got a copy of the […]
It’s not often that we rerun a review to support a vinyl giveaway, but Joseph Neff’s June review of John Coltrane’s The Atlantic Years in Mono—for which we have a set to giveaway to one of you—hits all the right notes: John Coltrane’s Atlantic period presents an arresting convergence of circumstances. It was a time of […]
“Do I still prefer digital audio? Yes. And, no. Any medium is flawed. A recording doesn’t, and can never, survive leaving the studio control room in which it was prepared. Have I come to a separate peace with vinyl? Yes. But the real negotiation is with failure. It’s all pointless—like hand gluing a thousand sleeves. […]
“My first experience with records was rather schizophrenic. The music I first remember hearing that actually stayed with me was the Sound of Music soundtrack and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. You couldn’t get two more diametrically opposed albums if you tried.” “I remember sneaking into my older brother’s room while he was […]
Fans have waited over half a decade for this release. (And then some.) Mudcrutch, the band that served as the precursor to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, is releasing their sophomore album entitled 2 this Friday, the follow-up to 2008’s self-titled debut of which Rolling Stone called “a country-rock instant classic.” The new album features seven original songs by […]
It’s both telling and sobering that, upon Prince’s passing, his—what’s the word?—otherworldly, seemingly effortless guitar solo as the outro to George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” performed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for George’s posthumous induction was just…everywhere. The induction jams are moments captured in a bottle. And those moments for the first […]
“My first memory of vinyl is my Grandpa’s collection of old classical albums which I had no appreciation for at the time, but I remember being fascinated by how it all worked.” “My Grandpa use to be quite unfriendly and intimidating when I was young, I was actually terrified of him. I knew he wouldn’t […]
“I love vinyl for many reasons…it’s aesthetically attractive, of course. But also, because it’s something physically real,” the Queen of Burlesque, Ms. Dita Von Teese told us last week. “I like that there is actual attention and focus on experiencing music. It becomes a ritual, which is something that I love. It’s also something to […]
Musician, songwriter, producer, arranger, vocalist—Phil Collins does a myriad of things exceptionally well—but he’s clearly poor at one thing: retirement. A career hiatus doesn’t seem to be sitting well with Mr. Collins. In fact, he’s on stages once again performing as a tour seems to be looming, and he’s gone back through his own solo discography to shed some […]
As our own Joseph Neff wrote mere weeks back, “Those wishing to soak up vibrant Latin roots in a contemporary context have a prime opportunity right in their midst, for the second LP from Brooklyn’s Los Hacheros is complete and on the cusp of release. A five-piece band deeply informed by tradition yet infused with […]
“More than ever, buying records is a method of discovering new music for me, but it’s also the best way of joining the dots across music’s vast history. Picking up a record and looking at who played on it, the label, the year—you start to build up a picture in your mind of how it […]
Record labels often get a bad rap when it comes to artist relations and development—but when the label head is a respected artist and musician himself, fine work flourishes. Such is the case with 30th Century Records, helmed by Brian Burton, who you know as the multi-talented Danger Mouse. To introduce new ears to the his new […]
“As far back as middle school, I would wander around with the same 3 CDs changing places in my Discman—full disclosure, 2 of the 3 were Creed… I was 12. It’s not my fault.” “Even throughout high school and college with the rise of the iPod, internet radio stations, and streaming, I still pretty much […]
