PBS Digital Studios’ new series has begun to chronicle the travels of the Beat Making Lab to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Panama, Senegal, Fiji, and beyond, offering two-week crash courses in music production.
Armed with a looper, an afro, and a keen sense of improvisation, comedian/musician Reggie Watts thrives on the explorative nature of live performance.
Murs-fronted and Darryl Jenifer-backed rap-punk group The White Mandingos has debuted another video, and it has a lot to say — lyrically, but also visually.
Electronic artist William Bensussen, better known as The Gaslamp Killer, drops an ominous beat for “In The Dark,” album closer for 2012’s Breakthrough and all-around solid choice for “night-terror soundtrack” material.
Jim Jarmusch has a very particular sensibility in his films. It stands to reason that his music with lutenist Jozef van Wissem would have a parallel. We talked to them about their collaboration.
NK: Nothing to Be Gained Here (Triple Crown, 5/21/13)
As music lovers, we await those rare projects that combine familiar and new elements in unique, indescribable ways. Comprised of singer/guitarist Ryan Hunter (Envy on the Coast), bassist Michael Sadis (The Rivalry), and drummer Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan), NK is one of those projects.
Art-metal ensemble Sleepytime Gorilla Museum closed its doors in 2011. Now three of its core members have grabbed a few cohorts to offer the presumably bizarre Free Salamander Exhibit.
Kvelertak: Meir (Roadrunner, 3/26/13)
The lads from Norway’s Kvelertak like their rock loud and heavy, and the video for their self-titled band anthem seems to confirm what has been suspected for decades now: loud and heavy rock bands just have more fun on tour.
Hot on the heels of the release of sophomore album Meir, Kvelertak offers its take on the classic “tour footage”-style music video, complete with scorching party-rock riffs and copious amounts of alcohol consumption.
Filed under today’s “total downer news,” the 2013 Sound and Fury Festival (presented by No Sleep Records) has been cancelled, with festival organizers citing “unforeseen circumstances” and “massive financial risk.”
Hitting theaters last November after a Sundance debut, The Comedy is a “hipster”-driven character study that steeps in irony, reflected first and foremost by its title. We talked to director Rick Alverson about how he chose the music for his sub-cultural soundtrack.
Coheed and Cambria: The Afterman: Descension (Hundred Handed / Everything Evil, 2/5/13)
Coheed and Cambria’s Amory Wars might be one of the most ambitious conceptual undertakings in modern music. Spanning the majority of the group’s musical output and expanded in the form of both graphic and prose novels, it’s an epic space opera about a group of planets held together by lines of energy known as the Keywork. Conceived by front-man Claudio Sanchez, the story is also currently being adapted for a feature film by Mark Wahlberg.
Ceramic Dog: Your Turn (Northern Spy, 4/30/13)
Guitarist Marc Ribot is a man so prolific that it’s impossible to assign him a genre. Whether rock, jazz, world, or experimental, his music always bears the mark of a master.
Ceramic Dog, his outfit with Shahzad Ismaily and Ches Smith of Secret Chiefs 3, plays a brand of guitar-driven experimental rock that speaks to the body. Your foot taps, the distortion wails, and before you know it, you’re sunk into the voodoo haze of an auditory bayou.