Pop music in the new century - what's it all about? Sliding up from out from under, from the old heart of the Bay Area...from out of nowhere even - it's a special new band. Hands up for the sweet and sour popsicles of PEACERS, whose self-titled debut melts stickily on July 17th!

In the hands of PEACERS, it is BAKED - a vanillan cake with sweet sooty icing. Shades of the Bratish invision: compressions and crushes, bone-shakes and glutinous thinks,... (read more)

There's so much that comes to mind when we think of Jim O'Rourke's music! It brings to mind such heroic images as deep and wide analog soundstages, the durability of physical formats like LP and CD, and the all-round weakness and fallibility of the digital music-sphere! For decades, as digital has empirically ascended the gastro-body of our international music gen-pop and burrowed itself, hearing aid-style, adjacent to the ear-bud canal, O'Rourke fans everywhere have held their breath in anticipation of a file with the... (read more)

In September of 2014, the world was ushered into Bonnie "Prince' Billy's magnificent album, Singer's Grave a Sea of Tongues.While this new record was absorbed and adored by fans and critics alike, we couldn't help but notice that something was missing from the conversation, something that not even the most astute punter and/or journalist seemed to decipher and/or fully explicate. It involves weird science; issues with wormholes and historical contexts, and thus, a video has been prepared and is now being provided, featuring... (read more)

TO THE NEVER ENDING WORLD

Demon! Beast! We fear you going away - but in the meantime, when will you leave? Maybe we don't even CARE what we’ll stand on if you're not there. But......ffffffffffffffffff.....until then, we're here. You're here. The world exists. With its billions. We're not a world-denier. There are many facts and truths and commonly-held beliefs, many pleasant realities that we're ready to argue over. There are totally things that we know better about than everyone else out... (read more)

Something Shines is still fresh on everybody's turntable, it's pop sensibilities enmeshed with over- and under-tones of love, politics, and the nature of being. Laetitia Sadier delivers melody with such effortless tranquility, the subject, regardless of poignancy, is scrumptiously digestible and fit for any snack or meal. As ever, excessive spins lead to longing for live engagement,  so why shouldn't the Something Shines tour continue? While America cries for more Laetitia live dates (only one provided in recent memory - satiating the locals of Minneapolis),... (read more)

Sir Richard Bishop has been on the road for weeks now, rippling waves of guitar freedom outward and into the ear-chasms of human beings (and likely some extra-terrestrials among us - you know who you are) across these United States like his hair's ablaze! With fresh copies of Tangier Sessions (fire retardant, of course) flying from the merch table, Sir Rick takes no prisoners in the club, leaving even the most casual listener bedazzled by what critics have called his "jewel-like solo guitar virtuosity." All... (read more)

Earlier this month we announced with great excitements that in addition to the KILLER musical mindfuck of an album that is Hexadic, Ben Chasny has been working on a book based on the very system that birthed his masterpiece of strategic chaos! His book, entitled The Hexadic System, is not simply a manual; it touches on the legacies of ritual magic, combinatorial thinking and  the science of music using algorithmic patterns! Now this is all thrilling for you intellectual types, but what of... (read more)

New York, early 80's, very early. Studio 54 is hosted by a hologram, the Mudd Club is already an institution, and The Clash's first appearance in New York is in a giant casino, with a full-sized Zeppelin at the door. Not exactly a receptive pond for the next wave of adventurous music. Some names did pop up, harkening to a past of lofts and all-night concert events. In the late 60s and early 70s, Philip Glass, Tony Conrad, along with John Cale and LaMonte Young,... (read more)

Don't let their name mislead; Masaki Batoh's new band The Silence is anything but silent! Perhaps they're named as such because they leave the listener speechless from the seamless weight of sound coming forth from their new, self-titled LP? Their music is an ambitious, effortless integration of psychedelic rock excitements from a combination of eras and sounds, all marching forward bedecked in fresh, new 21st century raiment via all-analog recording techniques! We all know seeing is believing, so go ahead and watch the... (read more)

2015, and the silence has been broken with Simple Songs. Jim O'Rourke is ready to talk to you again. First, he wants you to know he's not dead-yet. But you're not, either-and really, what have you done lately? Certainly not made your first pop album since 2001-and even if you had, it probably wasn't any good. Meanwhile Simple Songs is more than just a first of anything since whenever! It's an amazing record of musical song entertainment-because Jim O'Rourke knows what he wants and... (read more)