Here’s the thing about the recent hullabaloo over Daft Punk’s new record, Read Only Memories: critics hated the duo’s last disc, 2005′s Human After All. Here’s a mere sampling of what some major publications had to say about an LP that paled in comparison to Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter’s previous records, the rightfully canonized Homework and Discovery…
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First things first: Thank you, dear, self-titled readers. Thank you for having good taste, and thank you for sharing it with the rest of the world as we compiled our second annual Valentine’s Day playlist. Like last year’s, it’s not the kind of thing you play when you’re trying to lay your lover down. It’s a celebration of sadness that we can all appreciate year round, from the knife-drawing masochism of Swans to one of the most beautiful but broken songs Radiohead’s ever written. Have a listen down below, or subscribe here. One other thing: the Nancy Dwyer painting above is not meant as a cruel joke; it’s actually one of our favorite pieces from Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery. Make of it what you will…
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“His mastery of the sitar was legendary, his musicianship superb,” Beatles producer Sir George Martin said after hearing about Ravi Shankar’s death yesterday. “I learned so much from him in understanding the complex rhythms and tonalities of Indian music, and always felt privileged to be a friend.”
To put Shankar’s wide-ranging influence into perspective, we thought we’d share five classic YouTube clips with the legendary musician, including a sitar lesson with George Harrison, ragas alongside his daughter Anoushka and Philip Glass, an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show and an interview from the ’60s…
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Since arguing over whether this year’s GRAMMY nominees are relevant or not is kinda like screaming at your grandmother for not owning the latest 2 Chainz album, we thought we’d skip the snark and get straight to a Spotify playlist of songs we vouch for, guilty pleasures and otherwise. Subscribe/listen/argue below, alongside some of the key categories…
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Five years. Is that all you’ve got, Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival? But seriously though, we’ve gotta hand it to Mean Red Productions for putting together yet another killer lineup of producers and DJs for this weekend’s edition of their annual floor-filling soiree. Invading the Williamsburg area this time around: Gold Panda, Deadboy, Nicolas Jaar, Omar S and, well, the list, it goes on.
Check out flyers for both days below, along with a Spotify playlist and a bonus Soundcloud set we’ll probably be adding tracks to for the rest of the day…
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Photo by Andrew Parks
Since at least a few of you probably listen to Vulgar Display of Power from time to time, we thought we’d share Phil Anselmo’s rather spot-on Halloween playlist for Noisecreep. Having been to the guy’s house before, we can safely say he’s serious about the dark arts—he even has a Pentagram-shaped pool—so if blasting Sheer Terror and Celtic Frost sounds like nice way of easing into the evilest night of the year, you need to press play down below…
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Not ones for spontaneity apparently, The Rolling Stones have posted what appears to be the set list for their 50th anniversary shows in London and New Newark. The hit-heavy selection begins with “She’s So Cold” and ends with “Midnight Rambler.” Check out the full breakdown below, alongside a Spotify-powered playlist of the entire thing for those of us who refuse to pay for $100 tickets or yet another Stones best-of compilation (Grrr!, which is out November 13th through Abkco).
UPDATE: The Stones’ Twitter account has told us that the photo below is from their rehearsals, NOT a set list. “We only decide on set lists an hour before the show starts!” they insisted. Well alright then! That’s more like it…
Now in its ninth year, Seattle’s Decibel Festival is easily one of the country’s leading epicenters of EDM-free electronic music and all things experimental. Here are some of this year’s headliners to give you an idea of what we mean: Carl Craig, Orbital, a DJ set from one of the world’s leading crate diggers (DJ Shadow), and not one but two sides of the ever-evolving Erykah Badu, a live set with her Cannabinoids crew and a rare appearance by the one and only DJ Lo Down Loretta.
Sample all of the above and a whole lot more in our Spotify playlist below (subscribe to it here), which we’ll be adding to and subtracting from according to your suggestions in the comments section, on Facebook, and on Twitter. Be honest; what’d we miss/mess up?
When Rudi Zygadlo moved from Glasgow to Berlin in the middle of making his new album (Tragicomedies, available now on Planet Mu) he avoided the obvious—soaking up the city’s dance scene and furthering the experimental dubstep stylings of his last LP, 2010′s Great Western Laymen. Instead, the producer/singer “listened to a lot of classical music. Taking acid and listening to the Grosse Fuge is far more interesting than listening to contemporary dance music on drugs. Virtually the only gigs I went to were the free lunch time chamber recitals at the Philharmonie on Tuesdays.”
He also read a lot of Greek mythology and post-everything Pynchon, which leads us to “RZ Chooses FZ,” a timely take on Frank Zappa’s cavernous back catalog…
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Well it’s over…again; it being Breaking Bad, which closed the curtain on the first act of its final season tonight. Rather than whine about how we now have to wait a year for the show’s last eight episodes, we thought we’d open the floor to your thoughts on its music. We originally tackled this topic at the end of season four, and have since added 10 new tracks to our ultimate Spotify playlist here.
What did we miss though? Leave a comment below, where we’ll be sharing an ongoing reader-curated set of Breaking Bad soundtrack selections…
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