F

Flavorwire

Lower Dens

Music

10 New Tracks You Need to Hear This Week: Grouper, The xx

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means that this week is nearly over and it’s nearly time for the holidays — woo hoo, etc. — and also that it’s time to survey the various new tracks that caught our fancy this week. (If you missed our post last week, we’re temporarily replacing our regular MP3 post with a more general roundup of new music, as downloads are few and far between at this time of year.) Anyway, this week we get into the festive spirit with, um, a new track from Grouper. There’s also The xx covering Wham! (you’ll NEVER GUESS which song), a couple of new-ish Burial tracks, rather excellent remixes of Lower Dens and Sky Ferreira, a couple of gloriously misanthropic Christmas anthems, and more. Click through and get listening, gentle readers. … Read More

Music

10 New Tracks You Need to Hear This Week: Lower Dens, Oneohtrix Point Never

By Tom Hawking on

With the release schedule pretty much all wound down for the year, the stream of downloadable tracks has also largely dried up. Over the next few weeks, we’re therefore replacing our regular grab-bag of free MP3s with a more general roundup of new tracks that we reckon are worth hearing, downloadable or otherwise. Never fear, though — the downloads will be back in January! In the meantime, click on through to see what’s been floating our boat this week in terms of new music — there’s a pretty awesome Lower Dens remix, new stuff from Widowspeak and Foals, a free Oneohtrix Point Never rarity, Marnie Stern vs. Infinite Jest, a shitload of Lawrence English’s field recordings, why we love Bear Ceuse, and more. Click through and get listening! … 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 Best Baltimore Bands Right Now

By Tom Hawking on

We raved earlier this week about how much we’ve been enjoying Nootropics, the new album from Lower Dens. The record’s out this week, and should definitely be on the shopping list for anyone with ears. It’s also the latest of many excellent records to come out of the ultra-fertile city of Baltimore in recent years — we don’t generally buy into city-based hype, but it’s clear there’s something good happening down on the Maryland coast, and has been for quite some time. So with a bit of help from our resident Baltimore music expert, we’ve compiled a list of the best Baltimore bands right now — suggestions are, as ever, welcome. And no, Good Charlotte are not included. … Read More

Music

10 Albums You Need to Hear in May

By Tom Hawking on

We mentioned last month that May and June were both looking pretty fine as far as album releases go — and indeed, there’s a heap of goodness to choose from as far as interesting new music to listen to this month goes, so much so that it was a struggle to get our regular list of worthy upcoming albums down to its habitual count of ten. But still, we’ve picked out ten of the best after the jump — everything from Sigur Rós to K-Holes — and also rounded up all the other releases of note over the coming month. Let us know what’s on your list! … Read More

Music

5 Albums to Stream for Free This Week: Animal Collective, Rufus Wainwright

By Tom Hawking on

Welcome back to another edition of our regular Monday stream-a-thon, wherein we hunt down the best and/or most notable records to preview for free over the Internet. This week we’ve been absolutely hammering the new Lower Dens album, which we’re happy to report is now streaming for your listening pleasure. There’s also the recording of Animal Collective’s experimental performance at the Guggenheim last year, a somewhat reflective return from Rufus Wainwright, Damon Albarn “doing” opera, and a new album from Santigold, just the four years after her debut. Click through and listen to your heart’s content! … Read More

Music

Flavorpill Fix #9: Sleigh Bells, Gil Scott-Heron, Lower Dens, Braids

By Judy Berman on

In its first season, our original music web series The Flavorpill Fix has brought you some of the past year’s best new music, from episodes hosted and curated by Marnie Stern, Titus Andronicus, and Xiu Xiu to an entire show animated by Japanther. If you’ll allow us to pat ourselves on the back about it, we’re pretty freaking proud of ourselves — and especially series director/co-producer/editor Sean Ruch and our host, Flavorpill NY managing editor Leah Taylor.

For our season finale, we’re going out the same way we kicked off, with a compilation of live songs and music videos by acts we love. Check out selections by Braids and Lower Dens from Flavorpill’s own CMJ showcase, as well as videos for Sleigh Bells, Gil Scott-Heron, and Mia Doi Todd (directed by Michel Gondry). Fun fact: The dog in the Sleigh Bells clip belongs to none other than Flavorpill’s own Nate Hageman. As always, New Yorkers can tune in to watch The Flavorpill Fix every Wednesday night at 10:30pm on NYC life, channel 25. … Read More