The Retrospective

Photo Credit Ellie Gould
It’s been about a year since I first heard the enchanting song “Starry Eyed,” written and performed by new UK sensation, Ellie Goulding. Back then, I wouldn’t have guessed that Goulding’s music would experience so swift a rise to the top, but that’s precisely what’s happening–and how! The song’s debuted at #4 [...]

Photo Credit Caitlin Schiller
Some artists rest and regroup before shows, but Los Angeles quintet Local Natives took straight to the stage of Madrid’s packed-to-the-gills Moby Dick after a 2,000 km drive from Rome. Van time and a dizzying array of European cities aside, Local Natives really ought to’ve been too wiped to muster much above [...]

Photo Courtesy of Generationals
What’s so great about novelty? Sure, it’s exciting to encounter something that seems alien and challenging. There’s an undeniable sense of satisfaction that arises from discovering those little bits of culture that jolt their respective mediums forward. Just as crucially, it’s exciting to feel like you’re being jolted as well. But at [...]

Nobody does self-flagellation quite like Spencer Krug. Come to think of it, the same can be said of everything Krug does. Depending on whom you talk to, Krug is either the most ambitious, daring songwriter in contemporary indie rock or a self-obsessed drama queen, regurgitating the same faux-poetic images from album to album. [...]

Photo Credit Krob
Guillermo Scott Herren has a lock on the rolling beats and sinewy electronic grooves he’s perfected through a career that spans more albums and side projects than there are backpacks at one of his shows. He’s one of the best known names of the glitch-hop movement, which encompasses everyone from Ghostly International’s scratchy [...]

You know that saying, “If at first you don’t succeed then, try, try again?” British rapper Example, who’s been on the grind these last five years making a name for himself, has done just that. Born in London as Elliot Gleave, he adopted the name “Example” as a sly nod to his own initials. Gleave [...]

Photo Credit: Alicia Adams
There must be something beautiful and dangerous happening inside the mind of Francis Farewell Starlite. Having experienced his live shows only through a few video clips here and there, I was ecstatic to hear that he would be gracing the stage at San Francisco’s Red Devil Lounge. Although I had no idea, [...]

Our man Theophilus London is at it again, starting 2010 off strong with the release off his new video for the single “Humdrum Town” which is one of our favorite tracks on This Charming Mixtape. We caught up with him last month in NYC during the Wired event and talked a bit about his new [...]

The first thing you see when you pop over to MOG.com is a hyperbolic statement: “MOG is where your music listening dreams come true. All of them. Weird.” However, when I started playing with MOG a few weeks ago they were saying, “Better than Pandora, Last.fm and iTunes. Combined,” right up front. I don’t know [...]

Just as you’re finished eating the last of your holiday leftovers and and trying to get the sound of Auld Lang Syne out of your ears, you realize that we have indeed come to the beginning of a brand new year and darn it, a new decade! Greetings 2010! To start the year off right, [...]