Words by Jim My inbox gets annihilated by emails on a daily basis. I almost feel bad for it. PR people from around the globe send us the most random stuff. Seriously, I’m not saying that we are super important and we have PR agents banging our door down, because that’s definitely not the case. [...]

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Words by Jim Growing up, I played a lot of music. I remember countless evenings forgoing homework to practice guitar in my half-lit bedroom, destroying my hearing frequency by frequency. My band in high school “practiced”, but that’s just what we called it. Too young to play bars, too few places other than basements and [...]

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Words by Jim Chemistry, in music, is that undefined element that when present, heightens a band’s overall potential, and when lacking, is utterly crippling. History is pretty clear when it comes to this. You can have the best musicians in the world, but if there’s no chemistry between them it’s the equivalent of them playing [...]

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Words by Jacob Barron And now, a list of things heard on “Intro,” the first song on M83‘s most recent, gorgeously overblown album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, in chronological order: low foundational groaning, dancing 80s synths, spoken-through-a-desk-fan spoken word, quotes that sound like they were taken from the voiceover in a Terence Malick movie (The [...]

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Words by Vicki Artist: Real Estate Album: Days Released: October 18, 2011 Label: Domino If you’re super into indie music, or anything, really, it helps to have friends who share your obsession. I’m lucky to have several, one of them being my friend Annie D. Annie wrote me an e-mail on March 25, 2010 (Gmail [...]

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Words by Jim Big Hurry’s latest release begins with the clapping of hands and an eery summarization of their career as a band: “Hey, we started right on the very bottom / We worked our way right out / I got right back down on my bended knee”. Fitting words for a group that’s progressed [...]

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Words by Jacob Artist: Feist Album: Metals Released: October 4, 2011 Label: Interscope/Cherry Tree The critical dust currently settling on Feist‘s fourth solo album, Metals is that it’s a willful rejection of big money commercial success, and I know what you’re thinking. It’s only her third solo album right? That’s what I thought too, but [...]

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Words by Brendan Artist: Donora Album: Boyfriends, Girlfriends Released: September 27, 2011 Label: Rostrum Records I’ve been thinking a lot about this album over the last couple of weeks, listening to it straight through or putting certain songs on repeat, dissecting lyrics and moods, yadda yadda yadda. The problem is this: I’ve forgotten to have [...]

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Words by Will Released: September 20, 2011 Label: self-released & produced Wanna know a secret? (A secret you probably already know.) Growing up is shitty. It really sucks. It’s awkward, uncomfortable, and whatever other crappy adjective you can think of. I remember when I was growing up (because I am definitely not a finished product [...]

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Words by Jacob Barron Released: September 13, 2011 Label: 4AD Some albums are great because they ebb and flow between fast songs and slow songs, loud ones and quiet ones, grandiose and intimate ones. They tell a story of sorts, whether they’re organized according to some conceptual framework, or they just work together to tell [...]

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