Author: Clark Lamson

Features, Music, Print

Prinzhorn Dance School— Home Economics

June 24, 2015

In the early 2000’s, Suzi Horn had numerous jobs that brought her close to music: “I had worked in music venues all my life – behind the bar, in the coat room, on the door – but never played in a band. Then I met Tobin.” By Tobin, she means Tobin Prinz, the other half of the uncategorizable experimental rock outfit, Prinzhorn Dance School. The two began tooling around with the spare instruments Prinz had scattered about his flat, specifically the drum and bass. As Horn puts it; “We didn’t set out to start a band – and now it’s ten years on.”

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Music, Print, Reviews

Album Review: Deerhoof – La Isla Bonita

June 18, 2015

Imagine Speed Racer has just collided with a cargo train full of toxic sludge and candy. Dead and injured are everywhere, fire wrecks the countryside, as a shambling, stumbling figure emerges from the carnage. It’s the entity known as Deerhoof! Candy coated and chaotic, Deerhoof is here to lay waste to your musical comfort zones. They come armed with a 20-year discography, and minds that pump out frenetic, frenzied noise. Basically, you don’t stand a chance.

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Music, Print, Reviews

Album Review: A Place To Bury Strangers – Transfixation

After some much needed down time the trio reformed with a new and refreshed outlook on the project and proceeded to lay down the most raucous addition to their discography yet. On February 17th, APTBS released their new album, a perfect representation of why we need pop music and all its predictability. Transfixation exists, if only as a measuring post against the aural insanity that is Transfixation.

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Music, Print, Reviews

Album Review: Dark Bird is Home— The Tallest Man On Earth

June 16, 2015

In late 2006, Kristian Matsson charmed listeners with his debut selftitled EP The Tallest Man on Earth. The sounds present were mournful, bluesy, folkloric, and odiously recorded. Despite the tinny quality present in the tracks, Matsson’s command of sound was clear. Almost two years later Matsson released his full length debut, Shallow Grave, which traded in the Ozarkian twang for a sweeter folk bend, and redolent, flowering lyrics. Now, at the tail end of nearly a three year break, The Tallest Man on Earth returns with his fourth record, Dark Bird is Home.

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Music, Print, Reviews

New Music Monday: Sharon Van Etten — I Don’t Want to Let You Down

June 15, 2015

For me, the best artists (musical or not) are the ones who are growing from project to project. Whether the development is a growth in the boundaries of their particular sound, or an emotional one, which garners tasty new morsels of insight, it’s important to me that the struggle is present. It makes the music feel more genuine, more organic. Last year, when Sharon Van Etten released Are We There, we glimpsed into the gnarled and fraught mental scape of a woman on the edge of love. Now, in her new EP, I Don’t Want to Let You Down, we visit Van Etten on the same heart break, now with room enough for perspective.

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Music, Print, Reviews

Album Review: Kamasi Washington— The Epic

June 9, 2015

If you’ve never heard the name Kamasi Washington, there’s a reason for that. It’s because up until now, he’s had no solo records outside a few small self releases. Like Kishi Bashi, Washington has supported many a musician. His first national tour was with Snoop Dogg, and he joined Raphael Saadiq for his first international tour. Before releasing his new record The Epic, he lent his skills to records like Flying Lotus’ You’re Dead! and Kendrick Lamar’s masterful To Pimp A Butterfly.

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Music, Print, Reviews

New Music Monday: Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment — Surf

June 8, 2015

If you were confused this week about reports of a new Chance The Rapper album, don’t worry, you weren’t the only one. And even if you and I are the only two who were, I’ve got the facts here: while Chicago born kid dynamo Chance The Rapper does have new content out, it is not his highly anticipated follow up to Acid Rap. The new album is credited to Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment. What is The Social Experiment? Beginning as Chance’s band on his “Social Experiment” tour, the four person group (Chance The Rapper, Donnie Trumpet, Peter Cottontale, and Nate Fox) are now some sort of songwriting/production/band amalgam, and have released their new album, Surf.

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