While their name might evoke images of seniors engaging in dangerous or illicit activities, the sounds from their previous records featured heavy, lush instrumentation, and a moody melody. Hailing from our beloved capital city, I am speaking, of course, of Shady Elders. The follow up to the No Favors EP has arrived: The Night Air EP.
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Second only to folk music, hip-hop is the paramount storytelling genre of all time. It builds on the abilities of funk and blues, two great predecessors. Most typically, we see it used as a poppy-hit-machine, though at its most realized, hip-hop is an outlet for feelings of rage, frustration, and oppression. While hip-hop stars are most often characterized as hyper-aggressive chauvinists, when used correctly the genre allows them to rise above and to tell their stories.
Born in Germany and raised in North Carolina, J. Cole grew up in a house with a folk-hippie mother and a hardcore gangsta rap loving father. As such, his sounds are blended and nuanced. His new album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, is without a shadow of a doubt, his best release yet. This is the most sensitive we have seen the J. Cole character to date. He’s frightened at the state of hip-hop and the world he lives in. The album is a call to action that is partially piggybacked from Jay-Z’s Magna Carta… Holy Grail; “We need to write the new rules.”
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Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner, Brian Rosenworsel, Luke Reynolds, and Joe Pisapia make up Guster, a Tufts University-birthed pop outfit, which began when Miller, Gardner, and Rosenworsel met Freshman year. Evermotion is their long awaited 7th studio album, and it’s just the dose of cheer that I needed, full of atmospheric charm, and stellar melodies.
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After months of posturing, Kanye West’s ravenous fan base have been chomping at the musical bit for something new. The details up until now have been vague at best, and frustratingly stingy. Sources close to West including funny-man Seth Rogen and musician Theophilus London have generated whispers of secret and smoky listening parties, and a rough cut of the rumored single “All Day” was briefly (as in hours) featured on Instagram. Apart from that, fans only had repeated promises that the album was finished, and waiting for release. Well, folks, it’s 2015, and there’s no new album, but we do have a new single.
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Nostalgia. One of the more relevant feelings in the age of “10 Things Only 90’s Kids Will Get” listicles. It’s an itch that might be scratched by watching Even Stevens, The Goonies, or old Warner Brother’s cartoons. Or maybe listening to oldies music. The clean cutting guitar of the Beach Boys, the cajoling croon of Frank Sinatra. There’s something in the sound that evokes a warmth for a better time, or at least a different one. Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward make up the duo known as She & Him, a group that has built their music largely on the back catalogs of American music.
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Run The Jewels has never claimed (or wanted) to be anything other than themselves. To the auteurs behind this project, Killer Mike and El-P, Run The Jewels is more than a title, more than a catchy hook. It is a call to arms; take to the streets, and raise hell. You’re in, or you’re out. The effect is so encompassing, that their 2013 debut began with the song “Run The Jewels,” making that “Run The Jewels,” on Run The Jewels, by Run The Jewels. The sequel, aptly titled Run The Jewels 2, is a tactically precise release that feels like it answers all questions early critics had, while simultaneously doing whatever the hell they want. If they’re careful, there will be much more to see from them in the future.
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At the release of this article, it has been nearly 4 years since The Decemberists released a new studio album. This is not uncommon for the group, who have taken multiple-year breaks before. The longest break prior to this was taken in between the albums The Crane Wife and Hazards of Love, the latter being the groups paramount release (at least from my perspective). One can only hope that time away is just what the group needs as they prepare to release What a Beautiful World, What a Terrible World.
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Greta Morgan Salpeter (better known simply as Greta Morgan) began playing piano at the tender age of three. With a classical pianist for a mother, Morgan has many fond musical memories, especially with her father:
“My Dad is tone deaf, but he loves music. So he always took us to musicals, and I actually remember dancing with him to motown in front of our juke box as kids.” You can sense the importance of these memories in Morgan’s voice
Music continued to be a fierce passion into her teens.
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