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Is SXSW Worth It for Young Bands Anymore?

By Tom Hawking on

South By Southwest seems to get bigger and more commercial every year — the queues get longer, the volume of bands on show gets larger, the stunts get sillier. (At least there were no homeless dudes with wifi hotspots this year, though.) There’s been talk online that 2013 seemed to represent something of a tipping point as far as bands’ experiences of the whole strange affair went — the dude from DIIV went off on a spectacular rant about how “here, the music comes last,” and even peace-and-love neo-hippies Foxygen had a hissy fit at one of their fans. All of which raises the question: Is SXSW worth the trouble any more? We asked a bunch of our favorite bands to find out. … Read More

Music

Serenity Now: 2012's Most Relaxing Albums to Get You Through Christmas

By Tom Hawking on

This time of the year can be a strain, to say the least — between finding last-minute presents, the ensuing financial headaches, most likely traveling out of wherever you are to wherever it is you’re from, and dealing with your family when you get there, the festive season can feel less festive than stressful as fuck. But wait, we’re here to help! This has been a fine year for music that’s designed to relax you and soothe a troubled soul, so we thought we’d put together a playlist of the finest such records of 2012 for your tranquility-inducing enjoyment. Click through to listen, and by all means thank us later. If you like. No pressure. No stress. We promise. … Read More

Music

The 15 Most Underrated Albums of 2012

By Tom Hawking on

It’s December, which means the music industry’s listomania is now in full swing. But wait, if on the off chance you haven’t written your own personal end-of-year list, then have a quick look at this one before you start anointing one of the usual suspects — Grimes, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Swans, Fiona Apple, etc. — as the best of 2012. We love all those records, but there are a heap of great albums released in 2012 that we think haven’t gotten anywhere near the amount of end-of-year love they deserve. We profiled some of them in June — read on to find out our selections from the second half of the year, and let us know if you reckon we’ve missed any. … Read More

Music

The 10 Albums You Need to Hear in December

By Tom Hawking on

December is traditionally a pretty dire month for album releases, and this year is no exception — but still, having said that, there’s enough noteworthy records dropping over the next four weeks to at least make our regular monthly “Albums You Need to Hear” post worth writing. It’s not just box sets and fancy reissues, either! The headline attraction this month is clearly the new Scott Walker record, which stands as one of the most remarkable things anyone’s released in 2012 and also a testament to the danger of starting your end-of-year-lists in November, but we’ve also tracked down a bunch of other releases that will do a fine job of bulking out your Christmas stocking. As ever, do let us know in the comments section what’s on your shopping list this month. … Read More

Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Angel Haze, Kendrick Lamar

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. The track you absolutely 100% have to download this week is the new Angel Haze song, which we wrote about earlier this week and which is one of the best (and most harrowing) songs you’ll hear all year. Elsewhere, there’s a track off one of our favorite discoveries of the month — Heathered Pearls’ album Loyal — new stuff from Deerhoof and La Big Vic, an unreleased demo from Daniel Rossen, and… drum roll… the MORODERFEST! Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump. … Read More