Show Preview: The Morning After Girls at the Viper Room, Thurs. Jan. 29

Goddamn do I hate the cliché of the snarky blogster. And now, thanks to The Morning After Girls, I’ve become one. See, there’s good news and bad news: The good news is that all indications from new music on TMAG’s myspace page are that after six years, they might have finally realized their 60s pop-meets-shoegaze mission statement. After […] […]

Artist Profile: Vapor Mache is ready to glitch your brain.

I could almost boast that I saw the evolution of glitch in front of my very eyes. Despite my own history making ambient music influenced by FSOL, Can and Pete Namlook, I claim absolutely no contribution to this movement, but I can say I was there. I think it had something to do with people who had the tools, the pedigree and the fact that they were making jingles, and so had hundreds if not thousands of bits of audio that they reassembled into micro-edited music-concrete. But the difference here, that made it something beyond experimental noise for the “advanced music appreciationist” was that it SLAMMED. This stuff was groovy, sexy and could stand up by anything the Neptunes could throw at you. […]

Artist Profile: Phoenix Rising

Phoenix Rising out of the Bay Area brings us a neo-classical, lyrical style that is both haunting and refreshing for its very defiance of stereotypes. Beautifully recorded, their latest release Ascension has as much to do with Lisa Gerrard and Penguin Cafe Orchestra as it does with Deuter and Enya. […]

Google Shuts Down Video, Big Labels drop DRM and Indie 103.1 R.I.P

There is a lot to report in the music world this week, major changes, shifts in policy and the death of what may have been one of the best radio stations ever. […]