Woozy keyboards and spacey guitars dominate The War On Drugs latest effort, Slave Ambient. It’s an engaging, fluid listen that effortlessly melds Bruce Springsteen’s earthy songcraft with Spiritualized’s intricate atmospherics. Songwriter Adam Granduciel, 32, has been making records for years, but this much-lauded LP is a real breakthrough, garnering both greater critical acclaim and larger [...]
For the pleasingly named “ReFresh,” a show that falls smack dab in the center of the August doldrums, Long View’s big, cool space is arranged to feel like a glass of ice-cold water. The show, touted as “new work by some of the gallery’s best,” features appealing pieces that don’t fall under any particular theme, [...]
During the lull right before a show, straight off the highway and with time to kill in a new town, there are very few things a tired, traveling musician can muster up the energy for. Some rushed tourism, maybe, or a bite to eat.
And record stores. On previous tours, Philadelphia indie-rock troubadour Kurt Vile spent [...]
Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Domino
I'm pretty sure I tried to call Merriweather Post Pavilion "Record of the year" back in January, when I reviewed it, but City Paper managing editor Andrew Beaujon argued that this statement might be a tad premature, given that '09 still had 11 months left to go. But here we are in [...]
Kurt Vile plays slow, murky, and sloppy rock. His backing band, the Violators, looks like a gang of b-listed stand-up comedians. They seem weird and awkward. But Vile is no slouch. Neither are the guys in his band, for that matter. People (well, music critics) have been paying a lot more attention to the Philadelphia-based [...]
Atlas Sound/Panda Bear: "Walkabout"
If you were among those who downloaded the half-finished version of Atlas Sound's (aka Bradford Cox) new record, Logos, after he accidentally leaked it a several months ago, well, shame on you. Luckily, Cox went back and changed a few things. Apparently "Walkabout," a collaboration with Animal Collective's Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), [...]
And I here I was, thinking that this weekend was going to be as dead as this Rick Ross in-store. But no, turns our that the second annual DNA Test Fest will be kicking-off tonight over at Velvet Lounge. Curated by the guys who run WMUC's DNA in the DNA radio show, the fest skews [...]
Lovitt Records Showcase: I had been looking forward to this showcase all week, since it was a chance to visit with some D.C. folks and familiars—Lovitt being a local record label, and all—in a city with better than average Mexican food. Also, I heard there was going to be free Vitamin Water, but it was [...]
Kurt Vile: God Is Saying This To You... (Mexican Summer)
Believe it or not, ambient music and classic rock have at least one thing in common. Both of these genres are capable of tapping into the vastness and romance of the American landscape–you know, the fruited plain, the templed hills, the Jersey Shore. This basically [...]
