As Jamie Lidell started into his Neumos set Monday night, he recalled the Multiply tour, where at his Neumos stop back in 2006, he wore a leopard print suit that was blistering hot on stage. Here, he was dressed more akin to an R&B Dr. Who, with a dark full body coat over a simple v-neck. But t…
A superstar in his native Italy, rapper Jovanotti, otherwise known as Lorenzo Cherubini, is making strides in the U.S. with a recent move to New York and a new retrospective, Jovanotti’s Italia 1988-2012, released by ATO Records. You definitely don't need to be fluent in Italian to appreciate his h…
"It's not a perfect record, but then you wouldn't want it to be" - The Quietus' Emily Mackay hits the nail right on the head in her review of Palma Violets' debut album 180: the London quartet's most endearing quality isn't their pop-sensible hooks, psychedelically-tinged guitar hooks, or their sha…
Aaron Beam, bassist for Portland’s Red Fang, once told me that he believed the long-standing punk-versus-metal dichotomy died when Metallica’s 1984 sophomore album Ride the Lightning came out. I believe he is correct, and the fact that Oakland, California’s Neurosis formed in 1985 only provides mor…
This Friday, Scottish band Belle and Sebastian are releasing the first EP in a series of three that they're calling How To Solve Our Human Problems. Today the band has shared a video for the previously released single "I'll Be Your Pilot" via TIDAL. Frontman Stuart Murdoch explained in an intervie…
Today is our last day in Rennes filming bands during Trans Musicales. We woke up early and headed back to the Rennes Museum of Fine Arts and started setting up for our last two bands of the week.Trans Musicales. We woke up early and headed back to the Rennes Museum of Fine Arts and started setting …
Oh man, oh man. Last week, Sub Pop released the deluxe 10th anniversary edition of the full-length debut of Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary, on lush triple disc vinyl, pulling together all three of Wolf Parade's lead-up EPs and packaging it all in a glorious tri-fold of awesome. The same w…
Angela Conway, the force behind A.C. Marias, doesn't seem to have been particularly prolific as an artist, but what she lacked in quantity she more than made up for in quality - as evidenced by the KCMU gang's high regard for One of Our Girls, the sole A.C. Marias full-length. Conway collaborated e…
KEXP can never get enough of Sóley. The charming Icelandic songstress has a knack for covering a deep emotional range and some occasionally morbid subjects in the most disarming and endearing way. In fact, we've recorded her six out of the past seven years we've been covering Iceland Airwaves, and …
It's hard to describe our anticipation for the full-length debut from Mr. Silla. We've featured Sigurlaug Gisladóttir, a longtime member of Icelandic band múm, with her own project for the past few years -- recording her first in her own Reykjavik studio in 2011, then during our broadcast at Icelan…
There's only one thing that's remained constant on the weird, mystical journey of Seattle experimental hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces: progressive thinking. Everything else is up for grabs. Where their debut EPs were bombastic and shocking in their odd use of sampling and jazz rhythms in a bass-heavy …
Canadian synth-pop band TRUST have been doing some phenomenal work in the studio in the past year. When they dropped their debut LP, TRST, back in 2012, the dark, pulsing melodies and cryptic vocals drew quick comparisons to their brooding, gothic counterparts on the scene like Crystal Castles. The…
Pigface is yet another band that I should have been all over in my high school years, as a fan of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Big Black, Foetus, and all things tinny and discordant and rhythmic and yelly. I know I was aware of their existence, but did I know their debut full length album, Gub, featu…
What does the passing of time sound like? That's the question that Santa Barbara retro synth-pop band Gardens & Villa seem to be asking often on their sophomore record Dunes, out this week on Secretly Canadian. We first met Gardens & Villa back in 2011 with a self-titled LP decorated with j…
