Artist Profile: The Grouch and Eligh

Recently there has been an influx of hip-hop artists outspoken about their battles with addiction and subsequent recovery. Macklemore got real on the track “Otherside,” while Eligh of The Living Legends devoted an entire album to his recovery process in 2010’s Grey Crow.

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Album Review: Thee Dang Dangs – For The People

Infused with the sounds of where the desert meets the ocean, Denver’s Thee Dang Dangs ride above the noise of surf and psych rock on their new album For the People. This four-piece garage fuzz band gives the Colorado music scene something else, something equally dark, and even reminiscent of Karen O’s work on David Lynch’s album Crazy Clown Time. Ok, there is a lot of noise on For the People and if you were going to put a label on it, call it shoegaze surf rock. But this album fills those shoes with sand and not the kind from the beach.

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Film Review: The Lego Movie

legoThe Monomyth. You have seen it in action if you’ve ever watched a Star Wars movie, seen an episode of Community, or read through The Hobbit. Commonly known as The Hero’s Journey, it’s a structure that many myths and stories follow, often unintentionally. Summed up by mythologist, lecturer and writer Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, storytellers such as George Lucas and Dan Harmon have used it to put together their creations, and Hollywood has used it as a guide to screenwriting.

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Album Review: Wildbeasts – Present Tense

With the glut of electronic artists saturating the music market in recent years, it can be frustrating to find something that doesn’t sound like the rest of the crowd. Copy-paste beats, generic hooks, and unimaginative samples can make the electronic landscape boring at best and grating at worst. Artists such as CHVRCHES and Cut Copy have helped break that monotony. The newest release from UK-based Wild Beasts, Present Tense, is another; and it lies far enough on the right end of the spectrum to hang with the big boys of electronica—if they’re not part of that group already. Present Tense makes a strong case for assured membership.

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Album Review: Quilt – Held in Splendor

Who said it was not good living in the past? After Quilt’s first demonstration of their vintage musical savoir-faire in 2011, they kept up the good work with their new album Held In Splendor. Following the same lines and using the good old recipe of psychedelic sixties rock, a decade from which the trio borrowed their haircuts and outfits.

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Album Review: Big Gigantic – The Night is Young

Big Gigantic should be listened to loudly in order to fully embrace the complex jazzy vibe. The intricate Boulder Colorado based jamtronica group Big Gigantic, has just released their new long awaited album The Night is Young February 11th 2014. The album is an incredible piece of art that combines dance, electronica , hip-hop, jam band, funk, and jazz music styles, to create entrancing sounds that build energy and keep the audience fully engaged.

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