With Humble Praise
Apr 09, 08 | 6:48 pm by Andi Agnew
April 9, 2008
One of the last times I visited the church I grew up in, I noticed the words to the songs and hymns we sang were projected onto a screen, and the songs were a bit different than the sometimes-stuffy hymns that I remembered singing. Having gone to several “contemporary” worship services in Memphis, Jackson and other cities, I knew that projector screens in the church meant “contemporary” worship. Even my small church back home had adapted to this newer, younger style.
She, Him and the Destroyer
Apr 09, 08 | 6:42 pm by Zach Thomson
April 9, 2008
“All a dagger can ever be/ is a ship against the sea/ turning to snow. ...” So goes an elevated line from Destroyer’s 2004 release, “Your Blues.”
Dance the Night Away
Apr 02, 08 | 6:13 pm by Lindsey Maddox
April 2, 2008
You’re sure to feel compelled to dance upon hearing Latinismo’s vibrant, pulsating tunes. Combining traditional Latin music—like salsa and merengue—with rock and jazz, the band surges forward with the bold vitality that has made Latin music and dance popular in recent years.
[Ear To The Beats] Sacrificial Rewards
Mar 26, 08 | 7:08 pm by David Dennis, Jr.
March 26, 2008
“How come … you don’t make it precipitate?/ You know, make rain when you can make it thunderstorm?”—Andre 3000
Pop Perfection With a Twist
Mar 19, 08 | 6:26 pm by Lindsey Maddox
March 19, 2008
Some albums are inextricably tied to a place or scene, so that when you listen to these albums, where you want to be is in that moment. When I listen to The Helio Sequence’s “Keep Your Eyes Ahead,” I want to be in the car driving down Pacific Coast Highway—on the way to anywhere—piled into the car with my closest friends. The Helio Sequence provides the perfect backdrop for those carefree, road-cruising moments. I always seem to remember these moments, sometimes more than the trip’s destination.
[Rob In Stereo] Not for Posers
Mar 12, 08 | 6:46 pm by Rob Hamilton
March 12, 2008
Let’s talk about the co-option of holidays. The one you always hear people complaining about is Christmas. But a holiday that has been subtly, though nearly as thoroughly co-opted is St. Patrick’s Day. The villains are the guys prancing around in their “Kiss Me I’m Sh*tfaced!” T-shirts, telling people how many beers they’ve had. We can only guess these are the people who scream out “SPRING BREAK!!” to remind a crowd of college kids in Cancun where they are.
[Rob In Stereo] Are These the Good Times?
Feb 27, 08 | 7:37 pm by Rob Hamilton
February 27, 2008
As a child of the ’90s, I find something exciting about an impending release by an alternative rock band still around from that era. “These Are the Good Times People,” the new album from the Presidents of the United States, is such an event. Even if you didn’t love the band when they first blew onto the scene, you have to admit that there was something about the song “Lump.”
[Ear To The Beats] Combating the Dry Season
Feb 27, 08 | 7:25 pm by David Dennis, Jr.
February 27, 2008
“I dare ya to drop an album! Please, do it!”—Memphis Bleek
Bringing it All Back
Feb 20, 08 | 5:24 pm by Lindsey Maddox
February 20, 2008
Icelanders—from exquisitely fair Nordic families to punk kids with brightly colored hair and nose rings—trekked through their country’s rolling hills bundled in multiple layers and blankets to see the band, Sigur Rós perform. Word-of-mouth had brought the fans to one of the 15 cities in which the group was giving free concerts. Sigur Rós was finally able to give something back to their native Iceland after an exhaustive tour promoting their album “Takk.” Choosing disparate and largely makeshift venues both indoor and outdoor, they performed in cities as large as Reykjavik—with a crowd of almost 25,000—and as small as a former fish factory in a town of only two residents. Sigur Rós captured the two-week tour on film, and named the resulting documentary “Heima,” meaning “homeland” in Icelandic.
SYNTHAR’s ‘Evenings and Weekends’
Feb 20, 08 | 5:19 pm by Patrick McKinnis
February 20, 2008
Queen’s 1975 album “A Night at the Opera” boasts “No synthesizers!” in the liner notes. In complete contrast is local band SYNTHAR, whose name alone alludes to their use of synthesizers, and oh buddy, they aren’t afraid to use them. Made up of Johnny Bertram of Jackson, Matt Basinger of New York City, Andrew Best of Stanford, Calif., and Joel Hartse of Shaoxing, China, SYNTHAR sequences the drum hits, twists on the oscillators and cuts in the filters on their new album “Evenings and Weekends.” SYNTHAR even breaks out a vocoder (voice encoder) when so inclined.
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