Yale Daily News - Music

Phoenix, live, rocks French

Jordi Gasso — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 04:34:00 -0500

In September of 2000, France gave us Phoenix; four months later, Apple launched the first version of iTunes. Only recently has Phoenix garnered the praise and attention it has merited; their latest album, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” won the band a Grammy this past January.

Language and sound

Cecily Carlisle — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 04:33:18 -0500

From Modern Love dance parties to slam poetry, we are no stranger to filling rhythms with our own voices and movements. But what happens when these rhythms are themselves a conversation with listeners? The product of DJ J. Period, best known for his work with Kanye West and Mary J. Blige and Somalia’s award-winning hip-hop artist K’NAAN, “The Messengers” sets out to push the boundaries of notation and noise-making, scripture and instrumentation.

AWESOME IS NEWSOM

Cora Lewis — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 04:32:18 -0500

I have no idea how old Joanna Newsom is. Okay, she’s 28. But on her new album, “Have One on Me,” she could be a young girl relating Grimm fairy tales or a middle-aged mother crooning eerie lullabies, or an ageless siren casting spells and howling incantations. Whichever you pin her as, Newsom makes for a compelling storyteller.

Lasman drops sick beats

Erin Vanderhoof — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:20:39 -0500

Two features of Ben Lasman always stand out to me: his wire-frame glasses and his guitar case. The glasses are downright progressive in an age where most people try to one-up each other with bigger and foggier glasses. The guitar case is somewhat self-explanatory — he is into music.

Blechacz’s latest take on Chopin is soul-filled delight

Baobao Zhang — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:17:58 -0500

Rafal Blechacz, whose mop of brown hair reminds me somewhat of a 60s rocker, is clearly the star of the new album “Chopin: Piano Concertos.” His interpretation of Chopin’s music is original and sincere.

THANK GOD FOR DIE ANTWOORD

Chase Niesner — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:18:34 -0500

Where did Die Antwoord come from? The future perhaps, rising from the ashes of a music apocalypse with bravado that could only come from knowing you were the last act standing.

Have y’all some “Genuine Negro” fun

Baobao Zhang — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:17:48 -0500

If American popular music were a winding road, it’d be a highway full of hijacked cars.

Lukewarm Massive Attack

Avinash Chak — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:16:25 -0500

Trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack are back on the shelves with a new sound that will surely let down longtime fans.

Honk if you <3 HADAG NACHASH

Sam Greenberg — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:09:13 -0500

You usually don’t expect to hear Jews rapping when you walk into BAR. But on Feb. 20, prepare to be surprised: Hadag Nachash, one of Israel’s biggest hip-hop groups, is coming to Yale.

Listen to“Teen Dream,” trust us

Everett Rosenfeld — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:08:04 -0500

I have to be honest. I’m all over Beach House’s nuts; I’m possibly the least partial judge of their new album “Teen Dream” at this university, so feel free to take my review with a grain of salt. It’s not just that they are from my home town, Baltimore — by that logic I’d have to be all over Sisqó (“Thong Song”), Yeasayer, Animal Collective, Frank Zappa, Dan Deacon, SR-71, All Time Low, Good Charlotte, and Of a Revolution (by the way, for those interested, that is a rank ordered list, best to worst).

Owl City gets lost in the dark

Erica Blonde — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 03:32:05 -0500

Owl City, the synthpop soloist, dropped a deluxe edition of his “Ocean Eyes” summer album this week. The album included three new songs: “Rugs from Me to You,” “Butterfly Wings,” and “Fireflies (Adam Young Remix).”

“Real Life Color” // the magic man named Sam

Erin Vanderhoof — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 03:29:53 -0500

Every so often a Yalie pulls back a curtain on the singular kind of human potential that shakes up the way we see those around us, providing a glimpse of those talents that tend to remain hidden and futures that may unfold. This time, it’s Sam Lee ’12, who, along with childhood friend Alex Caplow, has released an album called “Real Life Color” under the moniker Magic Man.

Magnetic Fields repel listeners

Everett Rosenfeld — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 03:26:16 -0500

Do you like acoustic guitars, soft-spoken vocals, baroque stylings and lilting melodies? Then listen to Fleet Foxes. If you ever get sick of that and you are looking for a cheap indie folk imitation, then you could try “Realism,” the newest album by The Magnetic Fields.

On WYBC X’s recent initiative

Kenneth Reveiz — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:25:17 -0500

If silence can be sound, then certainly radio can be language, and anyone temporarily donning an imaginative linguist’s clothes could term radio “endangered.” I wouldn’t blame you if the word were to stir in your mind the image of an anthropomorphized WYBC X DJ as a T-Rex with a microphone, headset and playlist — a predator-nomad momentarily settled in New Haven, who possesses a wealth of knowledge and resources, but who exists as if convinced its inevitable, greater predator, the asteroid, will never come.

Muse pushes back against fans

Andrew Everett — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:21:53 -0500

Muse is a divisive band. And this is their most divisive album. What you’ll find in The Resistance is a new feel, because, for the first time, the band produced the whole album. There is unexpected R&B, plenty of orchestral neoclassical and the usual helping of unabashed, insurrectionary epicness. Fans miss their old, raw sound — but they’ve already done that.

A Cutler's tale

Cora Lewis — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:43:01 -0500

For 52 years, musical legends and their followers have walked the hallowed, litter-strewn grey sidewalks of Broadway. Their Doc Martens and Converse shoes tread where so many have tread before, making the pilgrimage to a cultural landmark and musical mainstay of New Haven’s downtown neighborhood. Anyone who is, was, or will be anyone has bought a record here. At least, that is the story scene once would have told. Today, a quieter crew populates Cutler’s aisles, flipping through the hand-written CD dividers. Bob Briar, a Cutler’s employee for 35 1/2 years, admits that what he calls the ‘halcyon days’ of records are gone, but Cutler himself has hope.

A musical haunting

Ilan Ben-Meir — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:02:30 -0500

If the new record by The Mumlers sounds somehow haunted, there’s a good reason why. The band takes its name from William Mumler, a 19th century American photographer who claimed the ability to take pictures of ghosts.

Lagoon Music: Reviews of Songs from the Past

Alexandre Stipanovich — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:54:54 -0500

When “Sussudio” was released in 1985, critics assailed Collins for its similarity with Prince’s hit 1999. Collins responded by saying that he was a “big Prince fan” and that his original version of Sussudio sounded even more like Prince. “Grammy Award for album of the year,” was another answer he should have given instead, perhaps.

Spoon renewed

Sanjena Sathian — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:53:40 -0500

It’s a welcome change to see a modern band harness classic rock and roll, reminding us why we fell in love with the genre in the first place, other than the obvious need to get away from the likes of Ke$ha and Miley. Spoon’s seventh album “Transference” is one of those reminders.

Gospel in the Swift Age

Baobao Zhang — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:52:25 -0500

In the age of Ke$ha, Patty Griffin’s “Downtown Church” sounds fresh as Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” clearing the musk of Restoration decadence.