Tanlines, “Brothers” Is it just me or has the internet had a lot of fun things to offer this week? It seems like every few hours, there’s some great link to a funny or horrifying story. 2012 seems to be picking up. With all the quality the internet was offering, it’s sort of surprising/no wonder [...]

My Morning Jacket, “Outta My System” find it on Circuital I have to say, it’s pretty refreshing to have someone look back on their life of crime and drug abuse gladly. I mean, I’m not endorsing it, but there’s something kind of ridiculous about people like, say, Motley Crue talking about how insane and fun [...]

Frente!, trailblazers in annoyingly punctuated band names, were best known for their beautiful, fragile cover of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”, and had a lot of chart success in their native Australia and indie success in the US with the album that followed up that single, Marvin The Album. But as much as I loved [...]

Los Campesinos!, “By Your Hand” find it on Hello Sadness (2011) It’s a stressful time for us music obsessives. The end of the year means a sudden panic of trying to catch up with the music of the last year before the next year’s new releases start flowing in. And while most of what I’ve [...]

2011 was a real chicken-and-egg kind of year in music. Was there really less amazing music or did everything sound a little duller because it was a difficult year for me personally? Was there less sonically interesting music in 2011 or was it because I cut way back on listening to music with headphones? Was [...]

Lana Del Rey, “Video Games” find it on Born To Die Remember the episode in Parks and Recreation where Leslie gives Ann a bunch of books to research and includes Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom only because “I’m dying to talk to someone about Patty”? That’s kind of how I feel about “Video Games”. It’s a song [...]

My guesses about the future are almost always wrong, and here’s one of them: I always thought that digital music would lead to big changes in how albums were constructed. I figured that bands that stuck to a pop or rock sound would go mostly with singles and more frequent, smaller releases, and that full [...]

AlunaGeorge, “You Know You Like It” find it on You Know You Like It (2011) Okay. Now this is more like it. Dubstep with a purpose, neosoul that’s really just neo, and top-shelf, quality pop without the unnecessary sugar. There’s at least four solid hooks in here, and while the vocals verge dangerously close to [...]

Stevie Jackson, “Just, Just So To The Point” get it on (I Can’t Get No) Stevie Jackson (2011) Pity poor Stevie Jackson. Sure he lives the life of a globe-trotting rock star, but he’s always been in the shadow of Belle & Sebastian’s primary songwriter Stuart Murdoch, one of the best and most beloved songwriters [...]

Florence + The Machine, “Shake it Out” get it on Ceremonials Every now and then, a band comes along that makes you use the phrase “every now and then, a band comes along”. Florence + the Machine (does anyone know the sum of that equation? I’m bad at math) is one of those bands, but [...]