SAMPLE Spring 2016 by KWUR 90.3 fm

SAMPLE

KWUR 90.3 FM Spring 2016

Dead & Company Concert Review

11/20/15, Scottrade Center Dead & Company, the latest version of the Grateful Dead featuring original members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, took their first tour to the Scottrade Center on Friday, November 20. The band announced their formation and tour in late August after the Grateful Dead’s successful “Fare Thee Well” shows over the summer in Santa Clara and Chicago, which included bassist Phil Lesh to complete the “Core Four” as well as Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and Phish’s Trey Anastasio taking Jerry’s role. While Jeff Chimenti stayed on board for the Dead & Company project, the Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil

Burbridge took over for Lesh and to much surprise, John Mayer took the Jerry role. Like most other fans, I was unsure as to how Mayer’s vocal and guitar-playing styles would fit in with the band, but within minutes of the performance all doubts of his playing abilities and the band’s legitimacy as a Grateful Dead spin-off quickly disappeared. The concert really began hours before its listed start time of 7:00 PM in a small park just outside the venue with the “Shakedown Street” – the food and merchandise market that takes place outside of most Dead shows, set up by the loyal Deadheads that follow the band around from show to show. Hundreds of Deadheads filled the tiny park where dozens of tents were set up selling homemade food, all the tie-dye you could possibly need, and all types of Grateful Dead merch including posters, blankets, shirts, and pins. At around 7:00 fans started to shuffle their way into the venue, and set one began at 7:28 with Shakedown Street, the very song that the traveling marketplace was named after. Bob Weir handled the lead vocals on the 14

by Lance Peterzell

minute jam, but Mayer’s funky guitar playing and soloing throughout nearly the whole song immediately showed us that he knew what he was doing. Brown-Eyed Woman followed where Mayer got a chance to prove that he could also handle lead vocals perfectly well; the cheer of the crowd even made it apparent that almost everyone, in agreement with reviews of the rest of the tour, preferred his singing over original member Weir’s. New Minglewood Blues followed, then Black-Throated Wind which contains a St. Louis reference made its tour debut, but the real highlight of the 73 minute long first set was the Sugaree > Music Never Stopped closer, featuring lots of fiery solos from Mayer. Fans discussed the song choices and the musicianship so far during the 40 minute intermission. Iko Iko, a classic Dead cover, kicked off the second set followed by a long Eyes of the World jam where Oteil Burbridge’s bass playing finally started to shine. Up next was the second tour debut of the night, Let It Grow, and then Terrapin Station, my personal favorite Dead song, with lead vocals split between Weir and Mayer. At the band’s previous show two nights earlier in Nashville, the Estimated Prophet > Terrapin Station duo was left unfinished after Estimated, leaving many people expecting Terrapin to make an appearance in St. Louis. Following

Terrapin was Drums > Space, the trippy jam and staple of most Dead shows led by the two percussionists Kreutzmann and Hart, which although was sufficiently psychedelic, it was also notably lacking compared to the Fare Thee Well versions. This led into a wonderful version of The Wheel, a Looks Like Rain containing a monstrous build, and finally the set two closer of Sugar Magnolia. The band returned for an acoustic encore of Ripple which featured the first full crowd sing-along of the night. After just over three hours of music and a roaring applause, the show finally ended and Deadheads turned to each other to hug and cry after having witnessed, for possibly the last time, another show by their beloved band. While most songs were noticeably slowed down, the band members truly showed off that they can still jam and play just the same as at any point in their careers. In my opinion, the only shortcomings of the night were too much singing from Bob Weir and the lack of particularly strong drumming. All in all, John Mayer exceeded expectations filling in for Jerry and the band played a solid and varied setlist with fantastic musicianship. The classic spirit of all Grateful Dead shows filled the air which made the show a truly emotional experience.

Dead & Company Setlist

Set 1: Shakedown Street, Brown-Eyed Woman, New Minglewood Blues, They Love Each Other, Black Throated Wind, Sugaree, The Music Never Stopped Set 2: Iko Iko, Eyes of the World, Let It Grow, Terrapin Station, Drums, Space, The Wheel, Looks Like Rain, Sugar Magnolia Encore: Ripple

Music Director's top 5 albums Spring 2016

1. Washer • Here Comes Washer • (Exploding in Sound 2. Parquet Courts • Human Performance • (Rough Tra 3. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard • Nonagon In 4. Ty Segall • Emotional Mugger • (Drag City) 5. Bob Mould • Patch the Sky • (Merge Records) by Jerik Leung

d Records) ade Records) nfinity â&#x20AC;˘ (ATO Records)

KWUR Interviews Pope Anas

Eleni, you are the GM of KWUR’s 2015-2016 school year. Let’s just get to it. What are some projects that you’re proud of that you’ve done this past year? Well, number one: online streaming is back.

What’s Mix-lr? Is it a streaming system, does it records our shows, etc? Yeah, it records our shows as one on-going, never ending KWUR stream. It’s not divided *clapping in background by friends between shows, which present * is an issue and that’s something future That set the tone for everything we KWUR has to figure out did because that got people excited in terms of fixing all the again. They could share it with their parts of Unicron that we friends, which is a huge part of being lost. in KWUR. Which are? And how did that get back? What Which are archiving happened? What changed from the shows, scheduling, before? keeping track of credits, Basically, I met with Noah and the wiki. And it actually managed Arvind at the end of last year and the stream but it had the thing I was like “I have no idea how any where we would log PSAs and log of this shit works. Like fucking at our station IDs. Mixlr doesn’t have all. And I can’t figure it out in three that. Spinitron doesn’t have that. months so what’s our best back up So we’re incorporating all these plan?” Then they were like, “Well disparate parts and trying to make Mixlr, you can use this to do it.” up for a custom thing that was built And I said, alright let’s do it. My for KWUR. Nothing will be that whole idea was to get something up customized unless somebody is like, temporarily and then find something “This is how KWUR works so we’re better if we need it, but then the just going to fucking write another school dragged it out for three computer program for it” because months and was like “let’s research that’s the spirit of it. You just kind of all these other options and let’s do a do it yourself. price comparison” and at the end of three months, they ended up going I think that’ll happen. with our original idea. I think it will too. I think it’s just that we had to get things back, functional, before someone could be like “oh, there’s a better way to do this.”

by Katie Shin

[Jerik Leung: There is a better way to do our headlining show.” We deserve every bit of money we’re asking for this.] because we know how to light shit up. So I’m pretty pumped about that. Jerik’s going to make it happen.

Are there any other projects you want to talk about from this past year? I feel like KWUR week is the other major one. We approached it completely differently than we did last year and we got completely funded. SU did not shave a fucking dime off of what we asked for, which sets an amazing precedent. KWUR now can come in there and be like, “you gave us all the money that we wanted and we were 12 people away from reaching capacity at

Okay, describe KWUR’s relationship with the school administration. Especially how it has changed recently. So I think there’s a lot going on with this but basically KWUR has been around for 40 years and that is an effort of KWUR djs perpetuating it, fighting for it, wanting it, and thinking it’s important. Wash U as an administration is scrappy. At the end of the day, they’re trying to elbow their way in and up through the rankings. That means their perspective is not 100% right. They’re trying to standardize

KWUR Interviews Pope Anas

experience in a lot of ways, which robs KWUR of what makes it a haven for people. The whole point of it is that it’s different, right? So if you try to fit it into a box of what the administration thinks is what a student group should be, it loses the thing that makes it a comfort for the people that like it. So that’s kind of a struggle we’re dealing with because they’ve moved us out of the old station to this new media suite, where they’re trying to lump us in with other media groups and act like we have all this shit in common. I’m not saying we don’t but KWUR is different from other student groups. It’s about music. It’s about a deep, concentrated, passionate thing that people share. That’s a huge thing to have in common, but the school is looking at it in the different way, like how is it marketable, how can we engage the most number of people, etc. So they’re defining our success in a way that’s really foreign to the way we would define our success for ourselves, and that’s where all the issues arise. What do you think has to be the right attitude between KWUR and the administration? There has to be some respect for the fact that KWUR has been around for forty years. I’ve read the history of how KWUR was founded. It was one guy who tried for three years, sending memos-- this was before email-- back and forth between people in the administration, CS40,

SU, just trying to make this happen. And when he was finally a senior, he got to have his first radio show. That’s how KWUR was founded. That characterizes our entire existence in context of the university. The people who want to make KWUR a thing are people who care about it so much that they will give amazing, unpredictable, creative, out-of-thebox shit to this organization. The school doesn’t need to be telling us how to be structured, they should just be like, “You have this thing that you know how to do, that you care about enough to make it a success, so you’ll figure out a way to do it because you want it to be amazing.” We’re not just trying to bullshit people into giving us money. All of us want to bring in artists, we want to go to these shows, everyone just wants the admin to be with us on this, you know? It’s not about padding a resume. What we’re doing isn’t going to impress anybody. Everyone on exec wants to do things after they graduate that are not in the music industry. But we just can’t help ourselves because we love music so we have to do this other thing too. The admin should trust that. Also, we’re educated as fuck. Wash U needs to remember that they make us do all this hard shit and study all the time. They should have faith in their own ability to turn us into people who can self-manage.

by Katie Shin [Someone at party: They should trust that their system works. ] If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in charge of an organization, you are already giving so much of your time that they should just be like, yeah, what you say is legit. And we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get paid! That should tell you. [interview gets cut short by a poor dude vomming on the yard]

Andersoon Paak on Tour Life, The Hustle, and Songs to Hook Up To

Eleni: These questions are in no particular order. Katie: Let’s start with a question that you yourself requested. Have you ever been bi? Have I ever been high? Katie: Bi. No. Sometimes when I’m watching porn, I like to see the guy and the girl. I’m not into girl on girl. I like to see someone getting wrecked. But I don’t know, that’s the closest I probably get to that. I’m not artsy enough to be bi. I’m pretty basic. Maybe I’ll get there soon, but I’m still not done with vag.

one is buying music. I don’t know, I mean do your dream. If you really like it, then don’t be chasing money. All the real rappers are broke as fuck, and then they get the respect, and then it turns around. But now, you got to do more than rap. You have to perform, you need your own brand, you have to make beats, you got to be a director, you have to make clothes.

Eleni: Who are the best people you’ve met on tour, where were they, and why were they the best? It’s always the people that come with the good vibes and the drugs. Honestly, tour is such a blur. You wake up and you’re in a different place, but the things that stick out to me are the college vibes. It’s always the smart schools because they come with the eager dude who has the stuff and they’re super smart. We did another college show recently and I was tripping balls during that too. The people who just rap, they’re really good. When rappers are really Eleni: What would be your advice to focusing and not trying to be the next Drake and shit, that’s the kind rappers just getting started? of shit I like. But it’s different, it Don’t rap. Don’t be a rapper. Get always sounds really gutter. into other shit. There are so many rappers. Another rapper? Be a fan. Come support. We need more people Katie: In the interview you did with to support. Everyone is a rapper, no Snoop Dogg on his show GGN, he

by Katie Shin, Eleni Anas, and David Gobel 11 asked what you would be if you weren’t going to be rapper or a musician. You said “leader.” What did that mean for you? I was always meant to be someone who stands out and not follow. I’m very outspoken, and even in my group of individuals, and I feel like in any relationship, there’s a push and pull and people play their roles. I’ve always been more

“it’s my way or the highway.” So in that interview or whatever the fuck that was with Snoop, that answer was on the spot, but I just meant I knew I was someone who wanted to call the shots or do my own thing, carving my own lane, not working for somebody else. I’ll be figuring that out.

Eleni: Do you question that though? Does it get hard? Uh yeah, plenty of times. I question my shit, I used to doubt my shit. There were a lot of yeahrs where there was nobody. It wasn’t picking up like we wanted. We saw all of this happening, but it wasn’t happening as fast as we wanted, so that’s when the doubt comes in. But I was always around people who thought I could make it and told me hang in there. Even when I had nothing, they took me in, let me stay with them, help me with money, until I got on my feet. They were always like, “you’re going to be straight. You just keep doing you. Just don’t change that shit.” Katie: What do you think of us as students right now? Do you feel like we’re young? Yeah, you guys are young, but you got all the ideas. This is where it’s at right now. But you guys are in the preliminary phase because it’s a very controlled environment for you guys right now. You guys are all animals. You know right now what you probably really want to do, but there’s a lot of outside influence. Some of you got parents, all kinds of shit you’re dealing with.

Andersoon Paak on Tour Life, The Hustle, and Songs to Hook Up To

Katie: We know you have a son now. What’s different for you being a dad? What’s different? My focus. You spend a lot of yeahrs living for self, and when you have a child or a family—I have a wife and a kid—you see everything you do has a direct influence on them. Some people run away from that. It affects them. It affects me. Everything I do has direct impact on them, so it takes you out of the everyday mindset of smoke weed and whatever just to get by, and it makes you think, “what does he need?” He needs different things and I need to be doing this in order to get to step B. It makes you think ahead more a little bit, instead of just living everyday like it’s your last. A strong part of me is like that, but I think a lot of comes with your partner and who you partner with for a child. My counterpart is the exact opposite. She’s very namaste, not trying to party, and it’s a balance. I mean my kid had a huge impact on me, but if it wasn’t for her, it would be very fucked up because right now, my 100% focus is on winning at this music thing and killing shows and killing features and making sure every track is crazy. That’s all my mind is based around right now, and I have this son. I know every gig is making it a better situation for him, but she’s actually with him, putting some morals in and putting in groundwork because if I had to take my kid everywhere, I’d be fucked. Just call it quits.

Katie: Before you were a dad, did you like to be called daddy? Yeah. Eleni: Do you still like to be called daddy? Are you kidding me? I mean yeah, I still do. Daddy? David: Now he’s officially a daddy too. I mean yeah, if I earned it. You have to earn the name, shit. What do you guys think? Eleni: Yeah Gobes, do you like to be called daddy? Do you guys have anyone you call daddy? Eleni: No. David: I can’t remember if I’ve ever been called daddy before. Eleni: No? Should we start? Nobody calls you daddy? David: I mean… Sometimes? David: Sometimes. People call me Dave but not Daddy Dave. You’ll get there. Daddy Dave, bro, that’s a proper drummer name. You’ll find one. David: You’ve been on so many tracks recently. I feel like every rapper wants to get you on a track.

by Katie Shin, Eleni Anas, and David Gobel 13 Do you have any projects or rappers Just be honest. You just have to say that you’re working with right now? the rawest thing. I just try to be raw and who I am, because she might want that rawness. She might be Katie: Kendrick??? used to people tip toeing and stuff, and she might just want a dude David: Yeah, like Kendrick... Are who’s like, “I love your eyes, I wanna those blessings ever going to come grab a hold of you and feel all in out to us? your hair.” Just be sincere. I wanna Yeah, I think eventually. It’s definitely do these things to you and I don’t his time right now. want to small talk right now, I just want to have you. Real talk is more David: It’s your time too kind of like, “take all your clothes off.” man. I’m just happy to have a relationship Katie: What’s your favorite thing and be able to pick his brain. Like about a girl? right before I hit the stage, I was Aw man, the brain. Straight up, when talking with him and I asked him, you see that you spark the interest, how do you get that block of time it’s so sexy dude. You don’t have to to write when you’re dealing with a look like nothing. Or if you see what lot of shit. He doesn’t have kids or you’re saying is getting them to like anything but he writes very dense you, that’s my shit. That’s why I was things. And you tour? Like how? never into hookers or strip clubs. I What do you do? And he was just need that spark. Even when you have like, man I just block out time, and sex, it’s kind of over after that. Like I was like dude, that’s it. Because damn, that cat and mouse thing is so, when we were doing albums, that so raw man. It’s so good man. That’s was exactly what we did too. Six to why it’s hard. Some girls give it up eight months, there was nothing, quick, some girls talk and play the no distractions. He’s so heavy in the game. I like that. I like ass and tits paint right now and I’m so heavy in and lips too. the paint that when we get in the same area code, we’re just trying Eleni: What’s your favorite song to to make it sync and have that time hook up to? And we’re going to tell and make music, make it natural. I’ve got some cool stuff coming with you ours. I don’t have a favorite song but Schoolboy Q and his album. More I’d probably put on anything by stuff is on the horizon. D’Angelo’s Voodoo. Any song. Press play. It’s lit. What about yours? Eleni: What do you do if you’re trying to impress a girl?

Andersoon Paak on Tour Life, The Hustle, and Songs to Hook Up To

Katie: Mine’s one of your songs, “Might Be.” I love that song. So thank you for that. Thank you. What’s yours? Eleni: You know “Woosah” by Jeremih? Wow, interesting. What about you bro?

David: I like D’Angelo and I like Brazilian shit. Getz/Gilberto is the classic, but this new stuff, Burier, Cartier, and Kaytranada. Kaytra? You asked me what new shit I had? I’m on Kaytra’s album. David: I love Kaytranada. He’s my favorite producer. He did light weight on the album.

by Katie Shin, Eleni Anas, and David Gobel 15 David: Is he dope? I’ve never met him in person. I have to imagine he’s just one of those stoner producer types. You know Knxwledge? It seems like they’d be similar. To themselves. Introverted. But dude, he’s got some shit. David: He’s improving my life in a lot of ways. So much good shit, so much to dance to. And he’s got raw shit, hip hop shit. He’s going to get a bunch of shit on the next one, but yeah, we just did a video when I was out there last. This album is going to be sweet. Songs to hook up to… Eleni: That should be a whole album that you do. Katie: That’s why girls buy your albums. So they can get wrecked?? Hell yeah, let’s do it.

A Brush of Confusion

It was a dank Parisian evening, warm fog hovering but a few yards overhead that night of July 13th. I was at Camille and Guillaume’s, Appartement 22, 168 rue des Clairat when it happened. Since then the things which I once perceived are something else. My mind hovers between my frozen fingertips. I was once submerged in some world upon which I am now lost. I do not flow through the now, but think in memories, feel in constructs, and all in the space between bluish digits. Yet at the same time, it’s as though some empty part of me has been filled. People are not the same. When I see them I wonder if they’ve visited this place I’ve discovered. Surely nobody could stay here. Could people be fundamentally incapable of experiencing this, or can I just not see them? I haven’t slept, I’m trapped in a fool’s dream, or rather several of them. I hear wisps of air as I gaze down the alley, but only when my breath doesn’t overwhelm me. Surely I was strung along with others across the world in this rare dysfunction. I went to the office yesterday and have no valid reasons to believe my colleagues noticed, but today I am too tired even to expend the energy of ducking them. What are these new lengths? In the body, in the mind, and outside perceived as the rays of a freak. I watched the sun rise today and kept forgetting how long it was taking. I unravel a page of parchment, think of warm crescent rolls, and nearly find instinct to sprint to the bathroom in disgust. I hear a vague crashing tumble behind me to the left, 90 degrees from the focus of my vision. Is my head pounding? What if it were visible? Her face comes to me. A glimmer in the eye swept away between us, but when? I comb my hair and remember the mirror, as well as my mother, bringing me to a shudder. My teeth are too yellowed for my liking. The comb nicks my dulled fingertips, but my hands smooth my scalp against my fine, greasy hair. I smell razor cream, bluish-green. Then a tick in my eye and an imperceptible jerk of the neck, thoughts of sunburn, and a jumbled semblance of a thought feeling emerges as a face, but clearly rendered, hovering, my eyelids vacillating, a yellow aftervision billowing to random points. The face is an accompany to the brush. I find myself escaped from the eye contact of the room, uncomfortably leaning towards the barstools, head dipped to put my ear at the level of Oscar’s voice. An armchair at the

by CJ Hopkins

leftmost edge of my periphery ensconces Lana, who is faced away from me laughing with Jade, Eva and Guillaume, all gathered in the sitting room. Camille is directly to my left standing upright. A vivid pinprick evaporates as I reminisce – not to romanticize this remembrance, which ought to be taken formally. Oscar is in the barstool in front of me and but a few inches to my right, his body parallel to the countertop, facing towards Camille from his upper torso. I hear a jingling at my right from the dining room, which sits with ample food still on the table. The creamy brown towel hooked behind my head becomes a satchel strap. I had pirouetted away from the puggish dog as it trotted to the crowd, and landed at the staircase’s end. Stiffly, the rail supported my body’s frame in its wine-addled anxiety. Again, now Oscar and Camille’s concerns lie strictly with each other, and mine to me. What occurs between is gone, but lingering as I recall the brush. It almost prickles when I hear my inner voice. As the dog trots off between the empty barstool and the laminate coffee table, its head barely above the lowest crossbars of the stool, I step forward, or maybe check over my shoulder first. I cannot piece the movement together. The visuals turn into a punishing blast of light, as I experience a subtle caress of my inner and posterior left thigh. Something to soften my suffered chronic lean. A buzz in my body evolves to a totem pole, I recall a library and its air of aged novels, a shudder to follow the last. I recall the exact pause that tore me from my normal life. It was not a moment of panic, for there was no time for that. The reason the pause flew past was perhaps the continued normalcy of my company. Any tension in the air was merely that of semiformality, preemptive to and flanking the moment, bodies signaling under the rules of dinner engagements. But in another part of me, all was frozen. If Oscar were bearing witness, would not his gaze or countenance had shifted? Or was his mind too pointed to take note? Was he, perhaps, besmitten and absent in a hazy backminded abstraction? Was there an ulterior nature in how Camille held his attention? Yes, there was a sense of reunion as there always was at our mid-sized gatherings and there was surely much to talk about, particularly given Oscar and Camille’s tendency to drift into similar cohorts. But our conscience cannot restrain animal desire totally, cannot subsume the beast but in extraordinary circumstance. I tasted naught of the beast in the room, but for the supple remnants of ham resting on the bone on the distant table. So I

by CJ Hopkins

had reached an impasse in a faux dissection of his personal consistency. But what of Camille? Suspicion being the only route practical, I had implicated her a priori to this examination. I’d witnessed such fatal cleverness few times before, and only by the most unabashedly cunning of emotional pickpockets. Had she revealed her true nature to me in this moment? It seemed inopportune, but the element of surprise did succeed in overtaking me. It was a true paradox. There was a hardening of relations in that purgatorial instant of festive chatter. A tickle of security, an awareness of my innermost being by an intuitively guided hand. But I found the gesture to be stubborn, persisting inexorably, but never pushing to any insecure resistance of mine. This is how the gesture succeeded in making my defilement a lasting matter. Would not another voice in the room had taken account? No, there was no evidence apparent – this was a sleuth’s endeavour. How had she been made to render this her mode of advancement? As always, the presence of Oscar put me at ease with challenge. Could Camille have sensed this and invented this trick to fool our morphed attention? The deeper I permeate any motivations, the messier my mental stockhouse becomes, skepticality seeping in. The reflex was not to look back, but to open my eyes some bit wider, this dilation being played in a sixteenth-note of a move in the social game, slipping silently between us all. Could this all be being done unwittingly? If so, what forces exactly were latent beforehand to manifest this in this moment? Had Beelzebub and Cupid conspired to turn us into fools? Had they miscalculated? I should say it has taken me many sessions to compose my discomfiture, to bring what’s inside out of me and onto this journal’s lined surface. But it is because of, not in spite of this, that I feel I’ve minimized the loss of translation. Even the sessions are disjointed as I find myself abandoning the paper on the kitchen counter as I take another aspirin in a vain attempt to soothe my interior from without. I ache at the thought of people, the friction of conversation too much to bear, suffusing all my encounters. I smell fish, perhaps coming through the neighbors vents, and am nauseated even more deeply, though I tolerate it and do not allow it to impede my activity. This tone was too innocent. I made my last logical deductions. Nothing had changed. Not velocity, not the air, not the content, nothing but this

A Brush of Confusion

sensation. Do not be misledâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;when I now turned, it was still more instinct than volition. I looked over my shoulder as I pirouetted away from the two, looking to Camille who as I ought to have known were I not in that state of justified paranoia was at armâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s length away, making it unrealistic to keep any operation like the one I had fabricated under wraps. Finally, I looked behind me to discover the root of my distress. It was naught but a stray blue-and-green checkered belt. Now, I cry.

Essential UK Grime Tracks Fall 2015 - Spring 2016

With Skepta and Stormzy finishing up successful US tours, grime has never been more relevant in America. If you haven’t been paying attention, here’s what you’ve missed during the school year: AJ Tracey Naila Chase & Status, Wha Gwarn? (Ft. Bonkaz) Chip, Hear Dis (Ft. Stormzy) Darq E Freaker, Spin A Man (Ft. D Double E) Iglooghost, Ell (Ft. Rocks FOE) Novelist, Break In Your House P Money, Straight Bars (Ft. Vortex) RD, DFA Skepta, Man Trim, Take It

by James Drueckhammer

Top Ten NR Albums To Make You Look More Indie Than You Really Are

Alright, let’s face it. Part of the pride that comes along with being a KWUR DJ is that esoteric, hipster vibe that the title bears to other members of campus. As an alternative radio station, KWUR is known for giving artists that would otherwise be inaccessible (or nearly so) a platform to be heard by a wider audience… Even better than that, merely by association, it’s DJ’s are attributed an indie mystique, a knowledge of the Musica Esoterica of the world. What most don’t really know is that much of the stuff that KWUR gets actually has strong mainstream appeal. Just like the REM’s of the world had to get their start somewhere, and some of our current artists utilize a very mainstream sound not far off of top 40 radio tracks. Even better, what most also don’t know is that many of us KWUR DJ’s have a sweet spot for the mainstream, as well. While we hide behind the guise of being a DJ on college radio, those who adjudicate our mainstream violations on air know that we really just aren’t as alternative as the rest. With this in mind, I’ve taken the pleasure of compiling a list of the new release albums the studio has received this year that will simultaneously boost your hipster status and allow you to find solace in a very accessible sound.

1. Circa Waves: T-Shirt Weather 2. Miike Snow: iii

3. Ryan Adams: 1989

4. Coasts: Coasts

5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Multilove

6. Big Grams: Big Grams

7. Andertson. Paak: Malibu

8. Zella Day: Kicker

9. Darwin Deeze: Double Down 10. St. Lucia: Matter

by Landon Bennett

A small garage band from Britain. Basically the quintessential setup for... This band does a great job of making themselves seem more out there than they really are. The jackalope album cover motif is super artsy, distracting people from the fact that these guys are, at heart, pop artists. ESPN uses their tracks all the time, actually. Honestly, this one is pretty obvious. The whole thing is just a cover album of Taylor Swift’s pop blockbuster, with little folk rebranding. The underground name will make you seem in the know, while the easily recognizable tracks prove that you’re really just finding a way to cheat and play T Swift on air. A British indie rock band with synth sounds, basically the quintessential set up for hipster paradise (see: Alt-J et al.) What they don’t know is that these guys are basically the British Imagine Dragons. These guys did a great job of being low key for a while, but with this new album, they hit on the ever-so-popular trend of overpowering synth beats with psuedo-jazzy winds thrown in, providing a much more upbeat and poppy sound. The idea of an indie pop band and a rapper combining seems totally novel and unique, and then you realize that Big Boi of Outkast is the rap act, and the likes of Skrillex and Andre 3000 are featured. KWUR week headliner?? Has to be super indie!!! Wrong. The guy was on the front page of Tidal, which is actually a big deal thanks to Kanye and Queen Bey. When you turn this album on, 9/10 will react with “I didn’t know that Halsey released a new track!” Hell, she got her first break covering Seven Nation Army! See; literally all early 2000 punk pop bands. The dude is just a teenage love song crooner with super sappy lyrics and super catchy riffs. On the surface: a super cool, super low key indielectronica artist. Actually: Kygo mixed with Duran Duran.

The Jolly Tyburn Jig

When you are feeling out-of-sorts, or sad or blue or down, You owe it to yourself, my friend, to go to London town. And gather ‘round the cheering crowd, bow down and doff your wig, And watch the merry dancers of the jolly Tyburn jig. Chorus. Go down, go down to London town, join arms and loudly sing, And watch the Tyburn dancers as they choke and claw and swing. There is throughout all England not one half-so-merry thing Than to see the Tyburn dancers as they piss and shit and swing. A lusty gentleman I am, and far from growing old; And yet this May I found one day that I’d been made cuckold. So I swapped my bride Hannah for some ale and a pig, And put a smile back on my face by watching the Tyburn jig. Chorus. Go down, go down…etc. My dear friend Sam, he loved his ham, but one day it was green. His face next day was of a pallor that I’d never seen. My poor friend’s grave, I’m sad to say, I was obliged to dig, But I felt my spirits lifted when I saw the Tyburn jig. Chorus. Went down to London town one day, to see what I could see. Off to the Globe, t’which I bestowed a full 2s. 3d. But still I got a wretched seat – the place must have been rigged – So I went off to watch instead the jolly Tyburn jig. Chorus. I say unto my dear friend (you), don’t stay in that sad gloom, Come, follow me to Tyburn square – come, leave your hay-thatched room – But just be sure, my friend, that you don’t steal nothing big, Or you might end up joining in the jolly Tyburn jig.

by Elijah Armstrong

The Get Involved, Stay Involved (Part One)

Welcome to The Get Involved, Stay Involved, a non-regularly issued series meant to prove that, despite popular belief, the music world is not as different as we might perceive it to be! Rolling Stone magazine and the Grammys may make you think that you have to be born a rock star or that only those chosen few make it and the rest of us are thrown to the dust. This could not be farther from the truth. All around the world there are kids (or adults, or grandparents, or whatever you are) working their butts off to be heard and follow their dreams. Whether you want to write kick-ass songs, beautifully worded review, or the sickest of press releases, there are others out there, some with more experience and some with less, all more than happy to give you a hand! You are not alone in this. You can do this. For the Inaugural issue of The Get Involved, Stay Involved, I interviewed the aptlynamed Blog Queen of the Internet, Lauren Rearick, head honcho of the always amazing blog, The Grey Estates, which recently celebrated its third birthday (a lifetime in blog years). After writing for various sites during and after college, Lauren decided to start her own site, with a focus on promoting women and other unfairly unheard voices in music. The Grey Estates posts album reviews, track premieres, show photos, and recently an interview series called “Pop Quiz” in which Lauren asks her favorite bands questions like what their spirit animal is. Jordan: Is music always something you’ve wanted to involve yourself with, or if not when did you figure out that it was something you wanted to do? Lauren: I always knew I wanted to be involved in some sort of writing but I don’t think I realized music writing was an option until I discovered Pitchfork, and from there I was really interested in doing that. For the longest time I would do that for other people because I would think “oh this seems so fun” and then I just got tired of doing it for other people. I wanted to do this for myself, I wanted to write about whatever I want, I wanted to have a blog that is so girly and so I thought “ah what the hell let’s just do it and see what happens” and yea, that’s how the Grey Estates (TGE) started. Who did you write for before TGE? Well I wrote some stuff for some local papers, and then Consequence of Sound, and the Le Sigh. How did you get involved with those sites? I would just kinda send emails. I was still in college and I was getting ready to graduate and I had no idea what I was doing with my life, and I still don’t, but I would just send them emails. I would say something like “hey, are you taking on contributors? Here is some of my work.” Or “I’ve never done anything before but I’m really interested” and then they would be like

by Jordan Weinstock

sure! I don’t know why they picked me, I was always like “uh, I have no experience” but I don’t know, they did. What was it about Pitchfork that made you think that music writing was something you wanted to do? I think just because, at that time, I was really awkward in high school and I didn’t have a lot of friends but I was really passionate about the music that I liked. When I saw that there were other people, not in Rural Western Pennsylvania, who liked Radiohead I was like, “I wanna do this too!” It was especially cool seeing females do it and seeing that many people do it. Even back then I think it was pretty big, the artists they covered. It opened my eyes to this whole other place that wasn’t on the radio and I just wanted to be a part of it. Would you say that you were nervous when you first started reaching out to people? Was it weird? Yeah! Just because a lot of the people I was writing to I looked up to and these were big sites and I thought, “my name should not be up there.” Even when I first started writing I was like, “this review is horrible.” The first one I ever wrote I made everyone read and took me days. It’s definitely different now, I kinda like “eh this is fine, whatever,” but yeah it’s nerve-racking to trust that another person gets what you’re going for and thinks you have enough talent to be on their site. Do you still get nervous, maybe when you find an album you’re particularly passionate about or when you think you aren’t fully capturing them the right way? Yeah of course I do, like whenever I do interviews. I did an interview with Mothers for Gold Flake Paint a couple of weeks ago and I was so nervous beforehand. I’ve done a ton of interview but I really wanted to capture them and it’s tough. Of course I still get nervous Is it frustrating? If things weren’t moving as quickly as you’d hoped or they weren’t moving in the right direction how did you deal with that? It was frustrating then and it’s frustrating now, because I’ve been trying to break into the world of paid music journalism or just journalism in general and it just hasn’t been happening. I’ve basically been frustrated since 2011. There’s no real way of getting around it besides just not giving up. If someone tells me no then I say “ok, I’ll just go somewhere else.” I don’t know, I’m one of those people who think that If you really want something, even if it seems impossible, you don’t give up. I mean I’ll probably still doing this in a few years, I don’t know.

The Get Involved, Stay Involved (Part One)

What would you say your day to day activities are in terms of running TGE? Is it even a day to day kind of thing? Well because I’m kind of crazy (I’m gonna butt in for a second, she’s not) it’s a never-ending thing. From the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed, I’m checking emails. That doesn’t mean I’m reading and responding to them but I’m checking emails. It’s one of those things where if I’m getting ready for bed and suddenly I feel like “oh, I could listen to this album and write about it” I’ll do it, and then over the weekends I’ll do most of my writing and work. Every day is sifting through emails though, some of them are just ridiculous. It’s a never-ending thing. It’s like a full time job but I love it so much that it doesn’t matter. How do you decide what you’re going to write about? Writing requires a lot of listening, really just soaking the music in, especially in different moods. Sometimes I’ll listen to something and it will relate to me totally differently than in a different environment. It’s really just listening to music nonstop and feeling that I want to put as much effort into this as I can because someone put so much of themselves into this and here are my twenty words on why you should listen to it. It’s definitely just listening. Jordan: What would you say makes a good piece? It’s really just feeling passionate about what you’re writing about. A lot of people on the site had never written before and I would notice that whenever they got a piece of music that they really loved a whole ton and connected with it they would write some really amazing stuff, even as someone who went to school for this I would think “oh my gosh.” I think that if you listen to an album or song that doesn’t resonate with you then it turns into a kind of Pitchfork mush of adjectives kind of deal. When you worked for other sites, how did that relationship work and when you began to write for yourself, how did that process change? For Consequence of Sound there was a spreadsheet of stuff to write about and it was kind of first come, first serve. I mean there were times where I would pitch stuff that I thought would make a good article but for the most part they told you what to write about. It was pretty similar at the Le Sigh. Most of it was stuff that they had already received in their email. When I started TGE, I would scour Bandcamp and just look for stuff no one else had. Burger Records had just started and it wasn’t the puke it is now so I’d write about a lot of those. I’m trying to get into the email thing now. I mean I don’t write about all of them, I don’t write about most of them, but yeah it’s still the same. I write about what I like.

by Jordan Weinstock

How did you go about promoting what you wrote? I would kind of just tag them on Facebook or something and hope that they would read it. I always felt weird about sending them stuff and being like “hey, I wrote this about you guys” because what if they thought “this is terrible” then you’ve just ruined your favorite band! I made all of my friends like our pages and stuff at first and I would follow bands on twitter and then people would follow me and I would think “why are you doing this, this is terrible!” Social media is a really good tool; I hate using it but people find it. What do you think makes a blog stand out in this incredibly over saturated world? I think personal connection. There are a lot of blogs out there where it feels like “hey I just want to premiere this so people read it” as opposed to those who are writing about what they really love (you may have realized a pattern by now). Those latter blogs are the ones that make you feel like you understand them after reading an article. What is the best piece of advice you ever received or could give to someone trying to do this? Don’t ever let someone tell you no, especially if you’re a girl and they’re a man. A lot of people told me “no you can’t do that” when I first started or “no you don’t know enough about garage rock” or “no you’re a girl” and if I had listened to them, I don’t know, I probably would still be chasing after my weather channel dreams or something! I know you’re good friends with Tom Johnson of Gold Flake Paint so what would you say is the importance of making friends in the music world?

The Get Involved, Stay Involved (Part One)

Haha oh gosh, one day I followed Tom on Twitter and for some reason he kept liking my stuff and we kept tweeting and he kept saying that he was gonna come to America and I said he should stay with me, half-jokingly, but he came and now we’re best buds, I complain to him all the time. I don’t think I would be as far as I am without making friends, because their advice is invaluable but also because you need people who will let you know that you aren’t a terrible blog-runner, that you’re one of the good people. I’ve so many good people, it’s wild. It’s a good way to know that your work is working and it’s the best support system. People say the music world is mean but I disagree, I just wanna be nice to people! So you toured with Leggy right? What was that like? It was like a nightmare, I never realized what bands have to go through. It was so fun just to watch, especially with bands who are just starting out, Leggy is just trying to get out there, you drive from place to place, make a couple dollars, don’t forget the CDs in the car. It’s a lot of work. One night they played a late show and they woke up the next morning to play an all day festival in the hot sun and I thought, “who does this?” It was fun though, it was cool to see, they want me to come back and I want to, but if I did I would have to stay in a hotel. I told someone that and they said people will think I have a problem; I can’t say that. But I need sleep! It was totally fun but I don’t know if I’d do it again. What was the best part of going on tour? One night we played a benefit show and they were shouting out the sponsors and one of them was us and I was just like “wow that’s us! I came all the from Pittsburgh!” That was cool and so was being able to talk to Leggy on a personal level. Kerstin (Leggy’s bass player) went to a lot of church camps like I did so there was one day where we sang all of the church camp songs we know. What a random and fun thing to say that you did, that was probably one of the most memorable moments. Did touring give you a new perspective on how you write or what you think it is like to be a band? It hasn’t changed how I’ve written anything but it has definitely made me more conscious of buying stuff from and supporting bands. That one CD that you buy could pay for their gas for the day or whatever. With smaller bands now I’m definitely all about getting their stuff on Bandcamp.

Top 10 Albums

of 2016 So Far

Kendrick Lama r • untitled unma stered. Kanye West • T he Life of Pablo DIIV • Is the Is Are Anderson .Paa k • Malibu Savages • Adore Life Parquet Courts • Human Perform ance Rihanna • ANT I Kevin Gates • Is lah Future • EVOL M83 • Junk by Nick Macha

Všechno Bylo Krásné a Nic Nebolelo

It always alarmed me to see that almost everything could fit in five bins stacked neatly in the corner of my parents’ basement. Two bins for the library that had been fumigated over the last few years, two bins for clothes I had no reason to take with me or get rid of, and one bin full of kitsch, keepsakes, and gifts. A stuffed penguin always stared out of the gloom through the opaque plastic, reminding me what it was like to love and panic. Beyond Good and Evil faced outwards in the bottom bin of books but I never finished it. A pile of burned CDs and my grandfather’s peaked hat in its black case sat haphazardly on top of the stack. An engraved Louisville Slugger from my 10th birthday leaned against the side, an empty star-covered trash bin in front.

up underwater again. Prague found me in the basement bars with the 75-cent Staropramen and the billowing cigarette smoke. The bars were the only place I heard noise. The crowded trams were silent, the streets peaceful, but in the basements there was music, there were voices. I buried something at Vzorkovna on sleepy Bartolomějská in the Old Town on a bitter November night and I wound up in Bulgaria, unable to read the Cyrillic on the arrivals board in from of me. I thought I’d die in the snow, I thought the bus would go off the mountain road, and I was resigned. Sometimes I think I died that day, as I have not been able to live as seriously since. Most days I amble along the ocean floor, headphones in, and think about whom and how I want to fuck, who and where I would rather be.

When I drove west in the typical way I knew I would return to that half-furnished basement to reclaim something vague. It was fine to leave it there. I knew it could survive. And that’s where I met you, I guess. It’s a tiring place to be – buoyancy is When I reached the Pacific I was a constant concern and the threat of not ready to turn back. So with the the bends and the constant agonizing books I could carry and a semblance pressure. I never bothered to ask of ambition I walked into the sea. how you felt because I was arrogant enough to think I already knew. The thrill of being one day closer to an unpredictable death is not When the fire came I could not be lost on me. Every day of survival bothered to return to the basement. compounds the perverse joy The weight of the water was too and encourages self-destructive much and the magnetic pull too tendencies. Once I told a stranger weak. As I listened for the flames I I smoked to feel closer to death and felt you close behind me but did not she kissed me out of pity and I woke turn.

by Jack Elliott-Higgins

Writing Lance Peterzell Jerik Leung Katie Shin Eleni Anas David Gobel CJ Hopkins James Drueckhammer Landon Bennett Elijah Armstrong Jordan Weinstock Jack Elliott-Higgins Nick Machak

Art Morgan Anker Gabe Clark Sunny Feinstein Derek Schwartz Cherry Xie Jessie Colston Vanna Vu Tom Ellison Dylan Bassett