With every new cultural trend, a counter-trend inevitably evolves to rebel against it. We are living in an era when the most popular music is beaten to a shiny, shiny Auto-Tuned pulp. It is no surprise, then, that many of those making music outside the mainstream have shifted into reverse and record on old, obscure equipment that submerges the music in a bath of clipped sound and fuzzy distortion. Some of these artists choose lo-fi for practical reasons -– studio time is expensive. But in this day of cheap recording equipment and open-source software, it’s not hard to sound professional, even recording out of a bedroom. More and more artists are choosing lo-fi as an artistic statement, and using its limitations to their advantage.
However, there comes a time in most lo-fi artists’ careers when it makes sense to move on to less fuzzy pastures. This transition can be a difficult one, often diminishing a band’s intimate, retro charm and angering a fanbase dedicated to the old sound. (Dylan going electric, anyone?) But sometimes it works out. After the jump, we’ve complied a list of artists that navigated the passage from lo-fi to hi-fi with grace and ease. We’re not gonna lie: we love the early stuff. But as their production values escalated, their music kept pace, and for many of these artists, their best work is surely still ahead of them.
The holidays are upon us, with their frantic wrapping, decorating, shopping, backing, and general pine-scented commotion. But, of course, you need some music to listen to while you’re yuling those logs and decking those halls. Luckily, this year we’ve got a handful of new holiday gems from artists like Beach House, Best Coast, and — of course — Kanye West. Crank these nouveau carols, and don’t forget to right click + save as to download them, or scroll to the bottom for the whole mix.
We haven’t even made it a full week into December, but we’ve already been bombarded with musical Best of 2010 lists. The yearly ritual certainly risks growing stale long before Christmas — meaning that list makers are going to have to step up the novelty level. So we admire the folks at MySpace Music for enlisting Vahalla Studios to create 50 minimalist album covers to accompany their top 50 albums of 2010. We may not agree with the entire list, but we are loving the art. Check out 10 of our favorite covers after the jump.
Last weekend in Baltimore, the city’s young and energetic population was treated to Whartscape, the annual independent music festival put on by Dan Deacon‘s multi-disiplinary crew Wham City. Lacking the huge lines and other inconveniences that usually characterize similar Brooklyn events, Whartscape was a refreshingly stress-free weekend in what was essentially a parking lot with some very clever stage setups (the smaller stage was literally in an alley). Sunday’s performances, which included Beach House, Future Islands, and Celebration were unfortunately delayed and moved inside because of rain, leaving us New York-bound and wanting more. But that didn’t stop us from getting some excellent video footage of the festival. Check out our two-minute Whartscape roundup, featuring music by Smart Growth, after the jump.
When we asked readers yesterday if Gwyneth Paltrow was the mainstream’s Zooey Deschanel, we got an interesting response: a yawn. It turns out, many of you are sick of hearing about Zooey at this point. And frankly, we’re beginning to agree. Which begs another question: Who has enough style and substance to become the next Queen of the Indies? We’ve got 10 solid nominees after the jump.
Slate ran a piece earlier in the week about a computer program that is “writing great, original works of classical music,” and then posed the question to their readers: “Will human composers soon be obsolete?” This got us thinking, what would the world be like if Terminator-esque robots replaced our favorite bands with “post-human” counterparts? What would we write like if we were replaced by blood-thirsty auto-bloggers?
Earlier this week the announcement that Vampire Weekend, Beach House, and Dum Dum Girls would all be performing together this summer at Merriweather Post Pavilion (among other venues) may have gotten us a little bit too excited. The combination of these three massive indie bands all playing on the iconic stage that legends from Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin have graced (and that Animal Collective, of course, named their critically-acclaimed album after) has convinced us that this may just be the most “epic” concert of the summer. And that got us thinking: Could we come up with a concert that was even more epic in scope?
With all the coverage Greyson Chance, the mini-Justin Bieber who covered Lady Gaga and instantly scored a record deal, has been getting, you’d think no one under 16 had ever posted a song cover on YouTube before. But today, we spotted a video of a group of ambitious middle schoolers performing their rendition of Deerhunter’s “Nothing Ever Happened,” and something occurred to us: A whole lot of youngsters seem to be so into indie rock that they’re posting their very own covers of songs hipsters love.
1. Greyson Chance — the 12-year-old whose talent show performance of “Paparazzi” went viral earlier this month — has signed a record deal with Interscope, Lady Gaga‘s label. Watch your back, Biebs. [via NYP]
2. Emerging playwright Annie Baker (who we interviewed here) has scored the Obie Award (think: Off-Broadway Tony) for new American play for a pair of works: “Circle Mirror Transformation” and “The Aliens.” [via Variety]
3. Artist Justin Lowe (whose faux meth lab took over Deitch Projects last summer) is going to recreate CBGB‘s iconic bathroom for Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum museum. [via WSJ]
4. Brace yourselves indie rock fans: Vampire Weekend. Beach House. Dum Dum Girls. All together on a north North American tour, beginning in August. [via P4K]
5. Christina Aguilera has posted an official statement on her website saying that she has “absolutely nothing against Lady Gaga” or any other female in the biz, for that matter. [via Vulture]
1. After Katy Perry ripped off their album title, Beach House is threatening to record a song called “I Kissed a Girl.” [via Vulture]
2. Some news that will make our prepubescent male readers happy: Playboy plans to unveil a 3D centerfold in their June issue. [via AP]
3. In the wake of Gang Starr rapper Guru’s death, someone has hacked into his former partner Solar’s email account. What they found suggests that he is just as evil as some people have always suspected. [via Sound of the City]
4. Coming soon to a theater near you, a Beatles zombie movie, Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion, based on an illustrated novel by Alan Goldsher. We look forward to finding out who gets cast as the band’s arch nemesis — a zombie-killing Mick Jagger. [via Spinner]
5. Chuck Klosterman’s upcoming release isn’t a new book. It’s a set of 50 cards intended to inspire debate and conversation among friends. [via Paste]
