Category: unsorted

Feature: Ambient Beatsmith Matthewdavid’s ‘Outmind’ Tells the Story of his L.A. Experience

Matthewdavid at home with amidst his machines.

It was an honor to shed some light on one of the hardest working L.A. music-makers that I know, the inimitable and truly interstellar Matthewdavid.

It was a balmy spring afternoon and the day’s woozy effect seemed magnified within the cozy, white, hillside backhouse in Highland Park. Through an open window, sunlight and breeze streamed into the home recording studio of Matthew McQueen, a.k.a. Matthewdavid, who at 26 has amassed a laundry-list of extant titles: artist, engineer, label head, local promoter, radio host/DJ, digital content manager and, in his words, “interstellar cross-collaborator” …

Read the entire article, a true labor of love, over at the L.A. Times.

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Review: Beck Meets Thurston Moore on the Unplugged Psych Opus ‘Demolished Thoughts’

Thurston Moore, "Demolished Thoughts"

Beck produced Thurston Moore’s latest, and it seems strange that the two mop-topped, baby-faced ambassadors of alt-rock hadn’t met on record before. But Demolished Thoughts was worth the wait. An album of deeply psychedelic unplugged love songs, it’s the Sonic Youth singer’s most surprising solo outing yet …

Surprise! You’ll have to head over to The A.V. Club to read the rest.

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Review: EMA Plumbs the Depths, Hurts Listeners So Good with ‘Past Life Martyred Saints’

EMA, "Past Life Martyred Saints"

The former Gowns and Amps For Christ member spins her previous projects’ art-damaged electric folk into a spare vehicle for the blues. It’s no coincidence that her first single, “The Grey Ship”—a Viking-inspired dirge about being carried away in a funeral boat—was backed by a 16-minute Robert Johnson cover. Buzz-building move that it was, her extended take on “Kind Hearted Woman Blues” readied listeners for this impossibly bleak, physically taxing, depths-plumbing experience …

But it’s the right kind of pain. Find out why — read on at The A.V. Club.

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Review: Odd Future Overloard Tyler the Creator Defies ’em All with his Second Album ‘Goblin’

Tyler the Creator, "Goblin"

Even as more of the world watches and Diddy lurks at his door, it still would’ve been surprising if Tyler, the Creator had made a run for the mainstream on his second album. And by kicking off Goblin with a defiant seven-minute intro, the Odd Future overlord solidifies his place as America’s favorite young nihilist, dismantling the next-big-thing rep that he’s been building. As he debates a “therapist” (Tyler himself, his voice distorted), the MC/producer claims, “People excited, thinking shit is so tight / Getting cosigns from rappers I don’t even like.” For a newcomer …

Spilled a bunch of ink over this album for Spin. 50K in the first week. Wow.

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Review: Austra Gets Close on ‘Feel It Break’

Austra, "Feel It Break"

Dark, sexy, and cryptic, Toronto’s Austra hits the holy trinity of synthesizer music on Feel It Break. “I came so hard in your mouth,” coos onetime opera hopeful Katie Stelmanis, “I saw the future / It was dark.” Bolstered by crystalline keys, Eurodance pulse, and layers of Kate Bush-like yips, it should be enough to knock a goth geek on his back …

But, well, it just isn’t. Find out why — read the full review at The A.V. Club.

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Review: New York’s Gang Gang Dance Get Murky, Drug-Addled and Danceable on ‘Eye Contact’

Gang Gang Dance, "Eye Contact"

As a proudly underground entity, Manhattan’s Gang Gang Dance seemed bent on creating one long celestial psych jam. But for 2008’s Saint Dymphna, they pared down the dubby dance experimentation and reaped the rewards (namely, a record deal). Less woozy and intoxicating than its predecessors, that album was a gateway drug into what now turns out to be an even wilder and murkier milieu …

Dive deep into the murk via Spin (the review appeared in print too).

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Q&A: Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold on Day Jobs, Recording and Why He Isn’t a Prophet

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Robin Pecknold will see you now ...

I had the estimable pleasure of speaking to the man behind what will surely be one of the year’s most highly acclaimed albums and, as it turns out, he didn’t seem so convinced of its greatness. Fleet Foxes main brain Robin Pecknold is humble to say the least, which is why I had to ask him how he wound up with the role of “Prophet” credited to him in the liner notes of Helplessness Blues. Read our talk to find out why that was a stupid question, and also to read the man’s thoughts on life, work, death and George Lucas.

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