Battling is a fundamental aspect of emceeing, one of the four essential elements of hip-hop. An underground ritual that rappers engage in to develop their wordplay skills and increase their stature, battles are often pressurized situations, in which the rappers ad-lib against other MCs, spitting rhymes off the top of…
Hide your daughters/little sisters: Nat Motte and Sean Foreman are preparing to drop their third third full-length on eager hindquarters everywhere. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Foreman says they’re tentatively shooting for a June release date. After a 10-day writing session somewhere here in Colorado, they’re in LA working…
The Haiti earthquake happened months ago, but there are still people in our community reaching out a helping hand. We’ve posted all the benefits we’re aware of that have been organized by local artists and cultural organizations that are pitching in to help. And rest assured, we’ll continue to add…
Our first encounter with South African Internet sensation Die Antwoord saw us categorize them as just another bizarro novelty for the Freaky Friday canon. But then a funny thing happened — as we dug a little deeper, we started to kind of like it (well, some us did — we…
The art of freestyle can be ugly and difficult for even the most seasoned rappers. A necessary evil for street cred, if not lyrical exercise, it’s the easiest way to separate the the Pros from the Joes. The battle that took place last night at the Walnut Room emphasized the…
There’s probably a specific type of hell for people like me: I who can name drop a Belle & Sebastian song off the top of their head, can toss their songs onto mix tapes, have owned the majority of their catalog for several years without ever once even thinking about…
Michelle Caponigro’s backstory reads like something you’d see on Behind the Music. After moving to Denver a decade ago from La Crosse, Wisconsin, Caponigro joined a jam band called Purple Buddha, but found that artistic context a little stifling to her creativity. Adopting the stage name Chella Negro, Caponigro subsequently…
I remember banging around the streets of South Nashville, shirtless, in a pair of Umbros and some beat-up Air Jordans with my head shaved and a fucking rat tail down the middle of my back,” recalls Justin Townes Earle of his less than glamorous childhood. “I don’t ever want to…
It might be hard to believe that Nick Oliveri has a soft side. The maniacal former member of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age — and current leader of the vicious Mondo Generator, as well as an occasional member of the Dwarves — has long been infamous for his…
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was poised to become the next biggest thing after the Arcade Fire back in 2005 when the band’s widely praised, self-titled debut was released — a dizzying possibility that seemed to come as much of a surprise to the act as anyone else. As it…
Listening to the music of the Growlers is a bit like listening to oldies radio before that format was taken over by music from the ’80s rather than being dominated by classic pop songs from the late ’50s through the mid-’60s. There’s a touch of rockabilly, a hint of early…
Before piano rock became all the rage on pop radio in the last decade, Billy Joel and Elton John had already created the template. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, the music of Joel and John was so pervasive on radio and anywhere else music could be heard that you’d have…
The character of Jeff Suthers’s songs has been cinematic in nature going back to his time with Volplane. This, the first of four new Orbiteer releases, has Suthers using sound like a painter uses oils and acrylic, similar to Stan Brakhage’s manipulation of film and the way Kenneth Anger utilized…
Synthesizers and yelping are all the rage, and while those things are present on Artificial Heart, the Sunset Curse is about more than the zeitgeist. The first thing you notice about Heart is that it’s easy on the ears. A line of lush keys, eight-bit bleets and don’t-stop drum lines…
Sometimes luck and trouble go hand in hand; other times it takes a bit of both to balance things out. While the folks in Tequila Mockingbird had a few troubles and struggles during the two years it took to make their third, fittingly titled disc, it might have been a…
You know how there are certain institutional brands whose mere association serves as an unspoken endorsement? The renown is such that even a slight mention implies quality. In music, for instance: Matador’s releasing the record? Oh, then it’s gotta be good. Or: That guitarist is playing Orange and wearing a…
Battling is a fundamental aspect of emceeing, one of the four essential elements of hip-hop. An underground ritual that rappers engage in to develop their wordplay skills and increase their stature, battles are often pressurized situations, in which the rappers ad-lib against other MCs, spitting rhymes off the top of…
Quick: When you think of classical music, what are the first things that come to mind? Okay, time’s up. We’re gonna guess you conjured up images of stoic academicians playing stodgy, archaic music by dead guys for a roomful of well-heeled intellectuals within the impeccable confines of a sterile music…
In a world gone mad for hard-charging electro bangers and other fist-pumping, brain-bleed-inducing insanity, Jamie Jones is a breath of fresh air. His tracks and mixes work slower tempos and subtle grooves into brooding, slow-burning slices of understated funk. His style is based in deep house and classic techno, with…
American Idol fans who visit the show’s website right now in search of which 24 contestants have been chosen to compete for the chance to become the next American Idol will notice that Lilly Scott and Haeley Vaughn’s mugs are conspicuously missing. But that’s only because the program is still…
As music critics — and people who generally think about, talk about, listen to and make music — the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, “What are you listening to right now?” The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy…
You’re The Black Eyed Peas. You spent an eternity on top of the Billboard last summer and the label has given you carte blanche for the videos on your upcoming singles. What do you do? No need for what ifs — that is exactly what happened, and the Peas elected…
