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Music is weird. Prince Royce is a huge star in the Spanish-language market now eyeing crossover success with English-speaking audiences. The thing is, he was born in New York. Spanish is his second language. English is Royce’s mother tongue, but career-wise, he’s starting from scratch. Well, unless you count that Snoop Dogg collaboration and the army of label handlers stressing over his every move. Somehow, they let me go to vocal lessons with the guy.
Every few weeks I hit KPCC’s Take Two show to jaw-jack about new music for the “Tuesday Reviewsday.” Here’s me talking about two left-of-center albums deserving your ears: Slutever’s Almost Famous, and the Amazing’s Picture You. Stream the talk (with Shirley Halperin) right here:
READ IT ON LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE (in print too)
I’m a coffee geek and a cheerleader for Los Angeles, so I nearly spit out my brew when I realized I’ve been favoring beans roasted by out-of-towners—Verve, Blue Bottle, Heart, Stumptown, Four Barrel. So began my quest to find out the truth about L.A.’s caffeine scene. Is there a homegrown roaster who can finally put my town on the map? Yes. No. Well, sort of. Let me explain…
READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)
Stow your preconceived notions of what makes a pop star. These five young women of color broadcast a message of inclusion, plus have hit singles (“BO$$”, anyone?) and Barbie dolls made in their image. We met up in a Hollywood hotel, then at their dance rehearsals the next day.
Another “Tuesday Reviewsday” hit (pow pow) for KPCC’s Take Two show. This time: Howlin’ Rain’s Mansion Songs and Cotillon’s, er, Cotillon. Listen in via the player below:
Made it into Modern Farmer right before the big shakeup—my editor published this, and walked two days later. This piece is close to my heart, and not just because it features one of my favorite humans, William Ryan Fritch, plus two other dudes I deeply admire: the Books co-founder Nick Zammuto and Monome inventor Brian Crabtree. It’s about the collision of old world and new—the fact that modern technology affords us the opportunity to live off the grid. This means artists and aesthetes like these can set up shop in spaces far more conducive to inspiration than the urban environs. I hope this can evolve into a bigger project for me and photographer Nathaniel Wood, who shot Willow and Jaden Smith about an hour before we road-tripped in his Prius to the chicken-rich farmlands of Petaluma. (Sorry about the dog bite, buddy.) Continue reading
READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)
I went deep with Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman, and Andy Hurley backstage at The Voice before (and after) they performed “Centuries” for the show. Fun fact: three out of four of these dudes were expecting babies while making the new album, American Beauty/American Psycho. Dads abound! Fall Out Boyz II Men, amirite? No? Fine. Photo by Chris Stanford.
Shirley Halperin and I talk about some of our favorite albums from 2014. My picks included righteous works by D’Angelo (also reviewed for SPIN), Doug Paisley, Angel Olsen, and Caribou.
It’s a special year-end list that makes room for Jessie Ware (above), Linkin Park, and Eric Church, and I’m happy to say I spilled positive ink on all three for Amazon’s Best of 2014 albums and songs roundup. Also held forth on such tuneful peeps as Sylvan Esso, Sam Smith, Bleachers, Little Dragon, Chromeo, the War on Drugs, Beck, Charli XCX, Alt-J, FKA Twigs, and ScHoolboy Q, to name a few. Visit Amazon to see what you missed, and why you should care.
Every few weeks, I pop into NPR member station KPCC for “Tuesday Reviewsday” on Take Two. This week it’s The London Sessions by Mary J. Blige and Geocidal from Mike Patton’s Tētēma.
Chris Writes Things 