Category Archives: Music

Float along with Alina Baraz’s moody, R&B-inspired vocals

Posted on March 9, 2017 | Leave a comment

Alina Baraz makes music that washes over you. Fittingly, her lyrics dip their toes into aquatic themes, as well. On her breakthrough single, “Fantasy,” she sings, “Listen to the waves, let them wash away your pain.”

Read more in the Washington Post.

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How The Manikins Became The Biggest Band in Perth, Australia

Posted on March 1, 2017 | Leave a comment

“The history of rock music is littered with bands who didn’t make it. There are the ephemeral experiments that burned up like flash paper; influential acts remembered only by genre die-hards; and provincial projects that never left home. And then there are bands like The Manikins, a Perth punk outfit that existed for a handful of years in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, who fall into all three of those categories.”

Read more at Bandcamp.

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How Kingdom turned “happy accidents” into ecstatic collaborations on Tears In The Club

Posted on February 28, 2017 | Leave a comment

“Tears in the Club is – if anything – an evocative album title. Are those tears of joy, an outpouring of emotion in a safe space; a state of ecstasy, chemically assisted or not? Or are they tears of pain, when that safe space becomes violent and dangerous, or when those substances turn our body chemistry sour? That duality has long been key to Kingdom’s music, where pneumatic beats and metallic synths coalesce into icy soundscapes shattered by sultry R&B vocals. Depending on his mood, he’s been able to push his tracks either towards agony or ecstasy: hearing ‘Stalker Ha’ at the peak hour is a drastically darker experience than hearing the Kelela-assisted ‘Bank Head’.”

Read more at FACT Magazine.

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Not much ‘dangerous’ about Ariana Grande’s live performance

Posted on February 28, 2017 | Leave a comment

“On her single “Into You,” Ariana Grande tells her paramour that she wants something “a little bit dangerous” and “a little bit scandalous,” perhaps with “a little less conversation.” On the recording, it’s another cutesy come-on in an album full of them. But on Monday night at Verizon Center, those lyrics doubled as shorthand for what the 23-year-old pop star delivered in concert.”

Read more in the Washington Post.

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Hot off ‘Telefone,’ Noname calls up her Chicago poetry for U Street Music Hall

Posted on February 23, 2017 | Leave a comment

“I’m a very reserved person,” Chicago rapper Noname told the magazine the Fader last year. “I typically like to be in the background.” Despite her desires, the 25-year-old talent, born Fatimah Warner, keeps making her way to the foreground. It began with a scene-stealing verse on Chance the Rapper’s 2013 breakthrough mix tape, “Acid Rap,” and continued on a handful of features alongside Chance, whom she met at a teen program through a public library, and other up-and-comers in the Chicago underground.

Read more in the Washington Post.

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See the enigmatic Cashmere Cat, pop remixer extraordinaire

Posted on February 17, 2017 | Leave a comment

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“When Cashmere Cat emerged at the beginning of the decade with his scintillating remixes of songs by Lana Del Rey and Miguel, there wasn’t much known about the Norwegian producer: His real name wasn’t public, and he tended to cover his face in photos. That wasn’t unusual in the underground world of electronic dance music in which he traveled, among other producers who uploaded remixes and originals to SoundCloud and built up an alluring aura with their anonymity.”

Read more in the Washington Post.

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Coup Sauvage and The Snips Preach For a Better D.C. on Heirs to Nothing

Posted on February 9, 2017 | Leave a comment

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“It’s a weird time to be in D.C. The usual winter gloom has been paired with an unusual pall as Donald Trump blusters his way through the first few weeks of his still surreal presidency. The city has already hosted a record-breaking Women’s March and an impromptu protest against Trump’s Muslim ban; more marches and protests are sure to follow. But what is a protest movement without protest music?”

Read more in the Washington City Paper.

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