Cut mag by sarah gorman

volume6.issue4.mar2013

MURDE R B Y D EATH

volume6.issue4.mar2013

FEATURED ARTICLES bad books.10 murder by death.16

IN EVERY ISSUE letter from the editor.04 music news.07 lyrically speaking.06 steel city start-ups.08 weird music, weird places.12 mixtape.25 concert reviews.26 album reviews.28 essay.30 3

LETTER

from the

EDITOR

Editor-in-Chief

Kristen Swanson

Assistant Editor

Zach Branson

Art/Layout Director Sarah Gorman

Photo Editor

Samantha Ward

Copy Director Mike Ryan

Marketing and Publicity Chief Leela Chockalingam

Just in time for spring break, The Cut’s first issue of the second semester is finally here! We know you’ve been extra stressed without your monthly dose of music, but relax and check out this kickass issue we have that will start off your break just right. Music News is here to fill you in on all the latest juicy gossip in the industry; it seems that musicians documenting their lives and having babies might be the latest trend. Speaking of trends, our column Lyrically Speaking digs deep into the ever-sopopular breakup song. And yes, that trend has been around long before T. Swift broke up with her first boyfriend and picked up a guitar. We’ve also got a piece for all the music tech nerds out there and an introduction to the lovely genre of electroswing.

Public Relations Coordinator Christopher Skaggs

Web Manager

Jake Kushner

Writing Staff Ben Alderoty, Rachel Asbel, Zach Branson, Leela Chockalingam, Lindsay Corry, Allison Cosby, Hannah Dellabella, Vanessa Frank, Zaneta Grant, Kayla Heglas, Lisa Kessler, Jing Jing Li, Chloe Lula, Nicole Marrow, Arun Marsten, Christina Mitas, Sejal Popat, Alec Resende, Mike Ryan, Kristen Swanson, Samantha Ward, Rebecca Warshofsky

Photo Staff Lindsay Corry, Samantha Ward

Art/Layout Staff

Kathy Lee, Lizzy Nolin

Editing Staff Rachel Asbel, Kairavi Chahal, Leela Chockalingam, Hannah Dellabella, Holly Fitzgibbon, Zaneta Grant, Will Lush, Danielle Maly, Danielle Peters, Jordan Stephenson, Rebecca Warshofsky

As always, our album and concert reviews cover the hottest music out right now, so be sure to check those out. Speaking of hot music, if you haven’t heard by now who the Spring Carnival act is, be sure to read our article with a little hint thrown in there (I’m sure the Justin Timberlake army is still going strong). Check out our mixtape full of cool covers and remixes of songs you never thought you would listen to or could sound so sweet. We even have a piece on weird music in weird places, which if you haven’t guessed could get really weird. Plus, there’s an awesome article on vinyl, which we swear is not an article on hipsters. There is this hip new genre, though, that this issue explores to the fullest. First with Pittsburgh band the Armadillos and their alternative folk sound that is a refreshing blend to hear. Then with our cover band Murder By Death (no you guys, this isn’t a death metal band out to steal your souls), they have an alternative rock-folk sound that will blow you away. If you’ve been searching for that new band to fall in love with, read all about Murder By Death and look no further. So wherever you may be this spring break, bring The Cut with you and share all of our musical glory. Kristen N. Swanson Editor-in-Chief The Cut Magazine

RECOMMENDED ALBUMS

10 SONGS YOU NEED TO HEAR 1.Yet Again Grizzly Bear

6. Odyssey OVERWERK

2. White Noise Disclosure

7. Lost River Murder By Death

3. Wildfire SBTRKT

8. We Up 50 Cent

4. I Can Change LCD Soundsystem

9. Default Django Django

5. Crimewave Crystal Castles

10. Urban Photograph Urban Cone 5

A Technological Comparison of Analog and Digital by Chloe Lula

In recording and production, digital software has increasingly replaced analog equipment, a manifestation of how music has evolved to mirror technology’s increasing presence in society. But even as the norms for music production have adapted over time, some producers continue to utilize analog hardware. I am an advocate for vintage recording quality. Even if the times are changing, there are clear advantages to analog appliances that cannot be replicated by modern-day computer programs or Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). For those unfamiliar with the differences between analog and digital hardware, analog recording methods store signals as continuous waves in or on a medium, like grooves in vinyl or magnetic charge on tape. Digital audio is recorded by taking samples of the original sound wave at a specified rate and storing music in a file. While music producers 30 years ago may have used rack-mounted compressors or synthesizers to elicit specific sounds, producers today are more inclined to use DAWs and computer plugins for audio editing and playback. Digital audio recording samples live sound like a strobe, capturing bits of sound so quickly that you can hardly notice the moments in between. This still does not reproduce audio exactly, and limits on computation can lead to lossy file compression. Digital recording possesses certain advantages over analog recording, the foremost of which is its affordability. In lieu of costly

physical equipment, novice musicians can now purchase (or pirate) software that replicates high-end recording studios. Furthermore, digital software facilitates easy editing, allowing musicians to punch-in, cut, and rearrange recordings in a way that certainly isn’t possible with analog tapes and records. Despite its accessibility, digital audio has characteristics that continually draw producers back to analog recording. Programs like Pro Tools or Logic lack the inherent “warmth” of analog appliances; overbearing editors can cause music to appear constructed and artificial, particularly when every instrument has been highly edited to the point where songs are never a reflection of the true performance. In addition to digital’s cold and clinical sound, the process of actually working with computers and electronic data is not perfectly reliable. Computers can crash, data can become corrupted, and music must constantly be archived when hard drives become full. Ultimately, there are a variety of values that accompany both modes of sound recording. Personally, I will always have a soft spot for analog audio. As modes of music production continue to develop, I am certain that analog technology will never become outdated, but will instead remain a cornerstone in every professional’s studio.

Art by Lizzy Nolin

lyrically speaking with Hannah Dellabella

The breakup song: A timehonored musical tradition that dates back as far as I can remember. Breakup songs are alive and well today; Taylor Swift’s popularity is certainly a testament to our willingness to latch onto any catchy song about heartbreak (no matter how many times it uses the words “never ever”). But why do we like breakup songs so much? The timelessness of heartbreak is a very important reason for the success of the breakup song. No matter what decade you’re in, people are falling in and out of love. Getting

your heart broken is a painful and profound experience, and it can be quite difficult (if not impossible) for the average person to put that agony and loneliness into words. Luckily, we don’t have to. We have musicians to do that for us. A heartbroken girl doesn’t have to expend her energy trying to articulate her sorrow. She can just open iTunes and let Adele do it for her. The Airborne Toxic Event has, in my humble opinion, perfected the breakup song with “Sometime Around Midnight.” It’s a beautiful song both lyrically and musically. But let’s

talk about the lyrics. The song is about a heartbroken guy who goes to a party to try to take his mind off of things. But as fate would have it, the girl who broke his heart comes to the party, and all of a sudden he’s overwhelmed with how much he misses her. She leaves with another man, and it breaks his heart all over again. The lyrics are both lovely and raw, with the former being shown in the lines “And all these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind/Of the curl of your bodies like two perfect circles entwined.” It creates such an immediate mental image that

is generally easy to relate to. But it’s the song’s unapologetic emotion that really creates that sense of heartbreak. The song ends with the singer desperately repeating the line “You just have to see her,” until he ends with the agonizing truth: “You know that she’ll break you in two.” I knew this was a beautiful song because when I first heard it circa 2007, I hadn’t even experienced the kind of heartbreak described in the song. And yet, it made me want to cry. It made me feel the pain that the narrator was feeling. Isn’t that what the best writing should do?

MUSIC NEWS compiled by Allison Cosby and Arun Marsten

•

It’s been a big month for music documentaries: In an act of narcissism that will likely never be topped, Beyonce’s “selfie” documentary premiered on HBO (and even earned HBO record-breaking ratings, drawing 1.8 million viewers); Snoop Lion has confirmed that his documentary Reincarnated about his —ahem— reincarnation is set to release at the end of March; and The Punk Singer, a documentary about Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna (of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre) is scheduled to premiere at this year’s SXSW.

•

If your Grammy-watching experience felt a little empty, it’s likely because there was no Lil B performance. Why not? He didn’t see the email asking him to perform: “I read my emails late,” he told Pitchfork.

•

Fergie is pregnant with her first child! I for one can’t wait for some serious Blue Ivy Carter, Kimye kid, and Fergie Jr. drama in 15-20 years.

•

In Frank Ocean news, we can expect a new album relatively soon. He reportedly has been hard at work and already has “like 10, 11 songs” for the new record (a follow-up

to his Grammy Award-winning Channel Orange). •

You can stop holding your breath, because Bonnaroo has officially released this year’s lineup. Check the Bonnaroo website for a list of everyone you’ve ever wanted to see live.

•

Robert Plant recently hinted on Australia’s 60 Minutes that there may be a Led Zeppelin reunion in 2014, so keep your eyes and ears open for proof that we live in the best of all possible worlds.

•

They Might Be Giants’ new album Nanobots is coming out on March 5th, and they’ll be at Mr. Smalls on March 20th. Get excited!

•

After giving the fake name “Lemon Sounds” and leading fans astray with a cryptic gif, Vampire Weekend has announced the real name for their new LP: Modern Vampires of the City. Sadly, however, they have not announced any tour dates in Pittsburgh.

#JT4CMUCARNIVAL by Nicole Marrow What makes a good Carnival performer? Foremost on the list is the inimitable power of the Justin who stole our hearts before Bieber even had a YouTube account. Picture this: It’s Friday night during Carnival, the academic lawn is packed with students who just crawled out of Gates for the first time in months, trading problem sets for Thank You Bill cups as they crowd around the stage waiting. Waiting for the most buzzed-about celebrity to hit our campus since that one time Channing Tatum may or may not have been filming a movie here. The microphone crackles on. In a burst of fire, flames, and fedoras, demigod/boy band survivor Justin Timberlake materializes on stage. We cry him a river as he debuts his new music, including comeback single “Suit and Tie” (during which Hova appears and slays his verse, obviously), hits us with some serious throwbacks, and disappears with a gleam in his icy blue eyes, just like on his Target commercial. I know it sounds ludicrous. But the sampling of students who recently launched a social media campaign featuring the iconic #JT4CMUCarnival trend sure don’t seem to think so. After being bombarded with Tweets:

AB Concerts co-chair Ronny Ho came forward with a simple yet chilling response: “Do it big or go home.” Could it be that Mr. Timberlake is doing us all a favor and bringing sexy back to Carnegie Mellon University? Or is this just a pipe dream of a few deluded mainstream music fans? This trend will either go viral or slink back into the depths of the Internet, along with the hopes and dreams of rumored bands of times gone by.

STEEL CITY STARTUPS

Pittsburgh music followers tend to

fall into the categories of alternative or country, but the Armadillos nicely bridge the gap between these genres to please a wide variety of audiences with their organic alternative folk sound. Though the Armadillos have undergone a series of personnel changes since their inception in 2005, their current ensemble has been together for two and a half years. “It all started with a curly moustache,” laughs Shelia Liming, referring to the astoundingly hip handlebar moustache donned by lead vocalist, guitarist, and original Armadillo Austin Vanasdale. “It’s not as majestic as it was back then,” she adds. Liming, the lead vocalist, accordion player, and current Carnegie Mellon PhD student came into the group in 2008 after responding to a Craigslist ad Vanasdale posted in the search for a fiddle player. “I responded originally saying, ‘I don’t play the fiddle, I play the accordion. How does that sound?’” Liming reminisces. Their troupe of unconventional musicians is completed with mandolin player Matt Rychorcewicz and upright bassist Josh Dukes, who also happened upon one of Vanasdale’s Craigslist ads. Their sound stems from the musical period that kick-started the popularity of

indie bands like Mumford and Sons and the Decemberists. As this year’s Grammy Awards have proven, this era is not yet over. The diverse musical backgrounds and tastes of the artists naturally bring a fresh take to the folk genre. “We don’t try to write any specific way. We have a strong history in liking the folk end of indie rock, where acoustic instruments and bluegrass instrumentation were adapted,” adds Josh Dukes. All members of the group have spent time playing punk music, which lends itself to the band’s edginess. “Our bass players have always been rock dudes who played in rockabilly bands, so we get a more percussive sound,” Vanasdale explains. Though they cannot precisely name their unique sound, the Pittsburgh City Paper named them the “Best Alt-Folk Alt-Country Band” in 2011 and 2012. Hearing the mandolin can mislead listeners to categorize the Armadillos as bluegrass, but the band quickly rejects this classification. “We’ve never settled anywhere. A lot of people say we’re bluegrass, but we do not play bluegrass music by any standard,” says Liming. “Anyone who cared about bluegrass would listen to us and say ‘uh-uh.’” The difference lies in the composition of their music. “The progressions and melodies

BY VANESSA

FRANK

the Armadillos

are different,” comments mandolin player Matt Rychorcewicz. What links the gap between the Armadillos and the bluegrass genre is ultimately the subject matter of the lyrics. “Most of our songs are storytelling or an issue sung in an obscure way,” explains Vanasdale, who writes about half of the songs. Death, labor, and alcohol are some of the themes frequently discussed by Vanasdale and Liming. The songs they each lead are evenly divided, and often fashioned in a call-and-response style reminiscent of traditional folk music. The other half of the ensemble provides supporting vocals as well. “Our vocal range is super in tune. It just clicks,” Vanasdale comments. This natural harmony translates well with audiences. Their fun, upbeat style is more accessible to a wide variety of listeners than indie rock can sometimes be. “It’s cool with

grandmas, it’s cool with six-year-olds, and it somehow hits in the middle,” Liming explains. Though they have a rowdier fan base at local bars like Howler’s and the Thunderbird Café, they’ve also been known to clean up lyrical content to play weddings and festivals for family-friendly shows. Dukes has even had his three-year-old daughter on stage with him. “I don’t feel weird about having my kid see this band,” Dukes says, with the memories of his days playing in metal bands in mind. In the wake of their second album, Better Off A Stranger, released in November 2012, the Armadillos are continuing to perform in Pittsburgh and are receiving requests for shows in cities throughout the country. They are also planning to make a music video for a song from their recent album. Be sure to check these guys out online, it won’t be long before you’ll be hearing about them anyway.

BAD BOOKS

PHOTOS BY LINDSAY CORRY

CUTTING UP

THE GRAMMYS by Mike Ryan & Zach Branson We all know the Grammys are a joke that nonetheless demand some attention, which reminds us of the many artists who were nominated. Let’s get this over with and give you a quick rundown so we can move on to music moments that actually matter. Any show that starts with Taylor Swift’s song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” probably won’t be any fun. Nevertheless, indie rock band Fun. was nominated for basically every category. Kanye West took home three awards out of six nominations, bringing his lifetime total up to 21 and tying him with John Williams. I will remain skeptical until he scores a film whose franchise sells for four million dollars and has devotees in every floor of Wean. The Recording Academy can’t seem to stop giving Adele trophies, as she won for a performance of “Set Fire to the Rain” from 21, an album that garnered six awards at last year’s show. I won’t complain, because Adele deserves as many awards as we can justify giving her. In fact, I’ll propose a new award, “Best Telling Off of Chris Brown,” which she will also win every year. The widely acclaimed experimental video game Journey

received a nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, but lost to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ soundtrack to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. One of these things is dark, loud, and violent, and the other is a video game. The Grammys decided to say YOLO and finally give Drake a Grammy after nominating him 12 other times. His album Take Care won Best Rap Album, but that’s just because Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne wasn’t even nominated despite winning literally every other rap-related Grammy. Gotye and Kimbra’s song “Somebody I Used to Know” won Record of the Year, which makes me ask, “What year are we talking here?” We’ve been listening to this thing since 2011, to the point that it’s just become a song I used to know. Dan Auerbach won five awards this year, three for his work in the Black Keys. Carnegie Mellon juniors continue to kick themselves for missing him by one Carnival.

Weird Music, Weird Places with Kayla Heglas

Sitting here in Starbucks on Forbes isn’t just entertainment to the eyes, but to the ears as well. Above the roar of the milk steamer, blenders, and talking people, faint music is in the air. Who wouldn’t want to listen to music while doing their homework or conducting an informal business meeting? I know, I know, I bet most of you are thinking it is light elevator music or soft jazz, and maybe it was on the day you were here, but to my surprise, today it is powerful soul music representing the 60s. Now there is no harm in playing swanky music, and I willingly came to Starbucks

to do homework, but are we serious here? This is not a café, or an eatery, but a coffee shop chain that does not identify with anything but their new brand of blonde coffee. On the one hand I see how they are not discriminating against any music genre, because just the other day they were playing opera music. But let’s get real— soulful music makes me want to sink into a comfy chair, groove to the music, and start belting lyrics. However, this Starbucks is filled with uncomfortable wooden chairs and tables that are too small for even a laptop and coffee. So what message are they trying to send? Why

will they not just pick a genre of music that best fits the feel of their hard wooden chairs? To my surprise they have a music department at the Starbucks headquarters that not only does the weird “pick of the week” download song, but also oversees the overall audio at each location. And this invisible Starbucks music department is taking the customers’ picks! So it is you people (and I guess me today) that are causing this dichotomy between uncomfortable ‘chain-like’ scenery and soulful music! Although I do not have an answer to the problem other than to buy the Starbucks CD,

Indivisible, and listen to it in the comfort of my own home, I felt it was a problem worth bringing to your attention. The solution could be a digital jukebox that allows patrons to queue songs in a playlist. At least this would allow the all-powerful Starbucks music department to see what people actually liked (maybe not the best idea considering this generation’s music taste). So if you would not enjoy listening to Kanye West and Jay-Z rap it out over your morning coffee, maybe some seat cushions could solve all our problems.

ELECTROSWING 101:

A GUIDE TO FINDING BLISS IN A GENERATION GAP by Christina Mitas I recently had the privilege of experiencing the kind of enlightenment that occurs only when your eyes and ears are opened to a new, beautiful, and potentially addictive sound to which you were previously ignorant. It’s called electroswing, and it’s exactly what it sounds like— electronic music meets jazz swing. It’s the only kind of electronic your grandma can tolerate; it’s the mash-up genre your mama warned you about, it’s old soul with a penchant for revolution. Maybe you know what I’m talking about or maybe you just think you do. For one, it’s not just old jazz songs mashed up with Justice riffs. It’s the no man’s land on the mash-up battlefield where the sounds of yesteryear mingle and procreate with the dirty beats of the modern day in the most beautiful way. Sure, some artists put their energy into simply twisting old scratchy recordings, looping sax riffs, and laying it all down on a booty-shake-worthy beat, but those songs have their place. Gramophonedzie, for instance, is one artist who acts as a sort of retrofuturist DJ, remixing as if he were the love child of Ella Fitzgerald and Boys Noize. Largely originating in France, the electroswing genre draws inspiration from classics like Django Reinhardt, a renowned jazz guitarist and composer from the 30s. Electroswing was Reinhardt’s unique style of jazz guitar playing that inspired the music of his age and now the music of this genre. Electroswing is capable of becoming another genre of oldies that have been hacked into pieces, remixed, and mashed-up. There are, however, a few artists dedicated to creating new songs that pay homage to the style of swing, while still attempting to make fresh melodies that can speak to both past and present generations. Lyre Le Temps makes it hard to even define edges between where the swing of their songs ends and the electronic begins. The vocals in their song “Hold The Night” easily could have been created in either musical era, and the group’s beats often reflect patterns of big band swing and even polka music as heard in “About The Trauma Drum.”

Nicolas Repac is definitely the darker smooth jazz electroswing artist in the genre, and I would consider Parov Stelar as the real master of DJing to a crowd of energized dance-hungry youths. But if you’re looking for the one band to trust in taking this genre to real legitimate heights, look no further than Caravan Palace. This Parisian gypsy jazz group is the veritable steamroller leading this genre from being a mere grouping of remixes to a solid innovating community of artists seeking to bring the lost lusty swing of the early 20th century together with the heart-pumping electronic music of today. They consist of six talented musicians playing clarinet, guitar, trombone, violin, double bass, and electronics to create new, strange music that goes far beyond simply paying homage to the past. “Star Scat” by Caravan Palace combines distinctive elements reminiscent of Reinhardt’s music and puts an electronic spin on scatting, something seldom heard elsewhere. Watching one of their music videos is like watching an informational video on decopunk, a spin-off culture from steampunk, bringing a whole new kind of meaning and relevance to their sound. Though the following for this genre may not have seeped totally into pop charts just yet (or perhaps ever) in America, there is still great international recognition of this genre that has amped up its popular credibility in recent years. In 2010, for example, the Australian band Yolanda Be Cool reached number one on UK charts for their song “We No Speak Americano,” a song which combines a distinctive jitterbug-like swag with a polka-like beat and calls it pop. I wish this were the way of the future, but even if it’s not, it’s still a good time for those interested in these two very different but chemically attracted genres. Are you feeling displaced in the wrong generation? Can’t seem to reconcile your conflicted love for both big band and Big Gigantic? Welcome to the new blissfully under-tread terrain of electroswing, ripe with jitterbuggery, tomfoolery and oh so much booty shaking.

SUNDAY 03

MONDAY 04

MARCH 10

Today Is The Day Mr. Smalls

Finch Mr. Smalls

31 Green Day, Best Coast CONSOL Energy Center

TUESDAY 05

WEDNESDAY 06

Tenacious D Stage AE

13 A$AP Rocky Stage AE

Trust Brillobox

They Might Be Giants Mr. Smalls

The Devil Wears Prada Mr. Smalls

Darwin Deez Stage AE

Chelsea Light Moving Mr. Smalls

The Deer Hunter Mr. Smalls Revival Tour Altar Bar

FRIDAY 08

SATURDAY 09

Tyler, The Creator Mr. Smalls

Kate Nash Mr. Smalls

Caspian The Smiling Moose

Frightened Rabbit Mr. Smalls

Grizzly Bear Carnegie Music Hall

The Ghost Inside Altar Bar

Forgetters Brillobox

A Day To Remember, Of Mice & Men Stage AE

04 Purity Ring Mr. Smalls

CALENDAR

THURSDAY 07

APRIL Eric Clapton CONSOL Energy Center

MURDER BY

DEATH Murder By Death is an Indiana-based quintet that plays orchestral alternative folk-rock while telling eerie stories of the mysteries of the West, the Devil, and whiskey. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been playing for over 10 years and have performed for over a 1,000 different crowds around the country. MBD is a classic group thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never hit the main spotlight in the music scene but has the credentials and sound of a seasoned billboardtopping band. Singer and guitarist Adam Turla took The Cut through their sixth album, musical influences, and recent fan involvement with Kickstarter.

Interview and Photos by Samantha Ward

The Cut: I want to start off by talking about how you’ve been playing together for over 10 years, plus or minus a couple of members. What do you think your secret is to having this longevity as a group? Adam Turla: Well, a couple things. I mean, luck, always. But I think the longevity comes especially from the fact that we’ve very actively never tried to jump on a music train. We want our music to always be ours, and whether people are bored or interested in the band, it doesn’t have to have some perfect timing to fit into whatever the cool thing is. People are still discovering us and our albums at different times, whether they’re new or not. The Cut: Did your hometown of Bloomington, IN play a large part in developing your sound? AT: We’ve been gone so much in recent years because we tour so much, so not in the way that I think a lot of people credit their hometown. I will say that we spent more time at home in 2011 when we were writing our latest album than we spent in 10 years. So it kind of sneakily worked its way into the album and lyrics just from us being there more. The Cut: I’d like to talk about your sixth and most recent album Bitter Drink Bitter Moon. How would you say it differs from your past five? And how much is the difference influenced by the addition of Scott Brackett? AT: I think Scott adds a lot of lushness to the album, and there’s a lot of textures and tones. He plays 10 instruments, so that’s been really nice. We try to make each record different. We want each one to have a different feeling or at least a different approach to the sound of Murder By Death. We don’t really know what we’re going to do when we start writing an album, but as we move along we start seeing common threads and how it fits into our world. This one has some great peaks of kinetic energy, but has some real sparse, low moments too. It’s got a lot of variation. The Cut: You mentioned that you went home to Indiana to create this record. What was your writing process like? AT: Well, we live there. Most of us still live there, but it’s just that we work probably seven months of the year on the road, so we just ended up spending a lot

more time at home in 2011 than we usually do. There were just little geographical things that worked their way into the songs. There’s a song called “Lost River” about a river in our town, and we ended up making a story about it because every time we saw that name we thought that there should be a good story. Just little things like that worked their way in. The Cut: Your albums often have underlying concepts or stories behind them. Do these concepts generally develop before you begin writing, or do they come out naturally in the process? AT: I try not to force an issue, whether it’s for a song or a whole album. We have a couple of albums that have one story – it’s more of a narrative, and all the songs fit together in a story form. But then sometimes we just want to write songs and have individual components. Also, when we’re writing, certain things we’re thinking about will weasel their way into more and more songs and lyrics. Indiana worked its way into this latest album. There’s a song about how everybody that we know from our town who grew up on a farm is not pursuing the life of a farmer, or how their parents’ generation are the last ones of the lineage. That’s a song called “Ghost Fields.” And there’s a song about this girl gone missing in our town while we were home writing the album. There’s just a lot of the things that were happening around us or things that we were seeing while we were home that ended up on the record. The Cut: I wanted to ask you about some of the things that we’ve seen in your previous albums. What attracts you to themes like the West, the Devil, and whiskey?

“ You just get these amazing gifts from people who just want to say thank you for the music, and they come up with the craziest, most generous ways of thanking us. It’s beautiful to have that direct thank you.”

AT: I always liked darker subject matter, and I think it’s just from living in the country. That’s a local drink of choice. I think drinking is an escape kind of thing, and a lot of our songs have the same sort of fantastical element to them. And then the Devil…I went to school to study religion and I was really fascinated with some of the bigger questions, and I love reading about mysticism and religion. I think that the mystery of why we do things makes for good songs. The Devil is an interesting idea—like a scapegoat to blame our immoral acts on. The Cut: How has playing your music live affected it? Has the crowd ever changed the way you think about a song? AT: Yeah, definitely. I love a good rowdy crowd. I mean, the band has been together for a long time. As we get older, so do a lot of our fans. And it’s interesting to see how a lot of the fans aren’t as crazy now. The crowds are just as good, well, better, in terms of vibes and emotion and everything. It’s interesting to see people act a certain way. Like when we play for 25-year-olds who are just out raging and don’t really have any responsibilities, there’s a certain reaction that people will put out. Then we play for 30-yearolds who got to get up, have got the babysitter at home, who have to drive to work tomorrow. They’re just as happy to be there, but they’re not as extreme, you know? They’re not crowd surfing or hanging from the rafters like people tend to. It’s funny to think about that just over the course of watching our band. Sometimes I like to write a song that I know people will enjoy singing along to live and get involved in the set. I like writing songs that are supposed to just shut down the audience. Just, like, listen to this for two and a half minutes and think on that. The Cut: What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done for or to you? AT: Oh, I don’t know man. We have a lot of diehards. I’ve probably seen about a 1,000 MBD tattoos, which is pretty cool. But, you know, a few nights ago this girl that we had met at one of our previous shows made us this enormous carrot cake with elaborate decorations; it looks like a wedding cake.

The Cut: Yeah, I saw that on your Facebook page. AT: Yeah, we don’t usually take food from people, but I had talked to her before at other shows and she just really wanted to do this. We get really creative gifts that are really cool. A guy made us this really cool knife. And this guy from New York is making me an axe. My axe busted at home, and he was like, “I want to make you something. I’m working with metal.” And I was like, “Well you could make me an axe.” I was sort of joking, but he’s working on it and sent me photos. You just get these amazing gifts from people who just want to say thank you for the music, and they come up with the craziest, most generous ways of thanking us. It’s beautiful to have that direct thank you from these people. We’re just doing what we enjoy, and we’re just sharing it because we like to. We’re lucky to do this for a living. The Cut: Now your recent album has a lot of buzz around it from being the third highest musical fundraising project on Kickstarter – congratulations on that. How did doing this further build your relationship with your fans? AT: The thing about that is I think such an interesting system ended up getting people directly involved with you in the sense that there’s less of a middleman. It’s like saying, “Hey Sam, we have this thing. We’re working on this album and we want to do this special edition vinyl.” And it allows you to say, “Okay, well, I don’t know how many people want this,” and you put it out there and say, “Well I guess this many people want it, at least right now.” It gives you an idea of who your fans are. With some of the higher-level pledges, a lot of the ideas came from things that people had been emailing us about. We’ve had so many people ask us to play their wedding or some private event, and we were able to actually say, “Okay, if you really want to do that, we’ll try to make this work.” So it’s interesting because a lot of higher priced [rewards] came from people that have been proposing them for years, and we just said, “Okay, this is the way you can do it.” And it’s fun; we had to come up with all these songs. We started a book club. There’s all sorts of random shit that came out of it. And there were some beautiful gestures; people buying packages for people they loved. There was a surprise birthday party we played for this guy whose wife bought it. We did a Skype date with a girl; she had terminal cancer. It was just a beautiful thing that came out of it.

THE TOTAL

Lateralus Tool As you turn each page in the cover booklet of Tool’s Lateralus, it’s as if you’re being taken on a journey through the body, mind, and spirit of a human. As if for a single fleeting instant, the infinite depths of his soul have revealed some ultimate secret of the universe. And that’s probably exactly what LSD-enthusiast slash Lateralus artist Alex Grey wanted. Each translucent page features a 2D slice of the human form amidst an iridescent fractal background. The pages stack on top of each other to form a unified, transcendent being. –Rebecca Warshofsky Insomniac Green Day If you take the cover booklet out of Green Day’s Insomniac, it unfolds to about nine times its original size and becomes artist Winston Smith’s cartoonish interpretation of hell. The name of the piece is “God Told Me to Skin You Alive,” and it’s a colorful, weird, nightmarish scene featuring monkeys with hats riding bicycles, housewives with guns, three hidden skulls, various questionable medical procedures, and an armadillo, all against a background of smoke and flames that threaten to consume everything. Truly a fine decoration for any angsty teenager’s bedroom wall. –Rebecca Warshofsky The Carpenter The Avett Brothers The album art is composed of two main colors, black and craft. The front cover has a textured circle, and each layer brings the naked eye closer to its center, which is cut out and showing from the inside. When you open the cover the same drawing from the front is now surrounded by farmland, with wheat and a windmill, and the clouds carry over to a city with inverted colors. The city extends three fold with a moon woman in the corner. –Lindsay Corry

HOREHOUND The Dead Weather The Dead Weather’s album HOREHOUND contains a booklet of collage-style images of a growing horehound plant followed by song lyrics. The center of this graphic looks like a leaf surrounded by trees. The pages that include the gray images have a graphic on the right that builds off of the one prior, resembling the horehound’s growth. This image transitions to a darker and more complex design building off the original technique, but messing with the different angles, shapes, and shading of the original. –Lindsay Corry

PACKAGE F♯# A#♯ ∞ Godspeed You! Black Emperor Canadian post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor is notorious for elaborate album packaging, but they may never top their debut album. Godspeed handmade the packaging for each of the 500 copies originally released. They glued their own photographs on the cover, and inside was artwork done by guitarist Efrim Menuck and a Canadian penny crushed by a train to go with the tape-looped train sounds you’d hear off and on for the next hour. You can’t get much more personal than a Canadian penny crushed by a train. –Zach Branson Demon Days Gorillaz The cover of Demon Days mimics the iconic cover of the Beatles’ Let It Be, so you already know it’s going to be great. However, it’s all the virtual goodies that virtual band Gorillaz included on the limited edition release of this album that make it special. Back in the day you could journey through the fictional band’s house on gorillaz.com, and Demon Days’ limited edition gave you access to secret parts of the house. You found wallpapers, screensavers, and even the special track “Happy Landfill” that wasn’t released for another two years. –Zach Branson London Calling The Clash The album cover of the Clash’s London Calling is an iconic image that I’m sure most of you have seen before. What’s interesting is the story behind it and the history it made. The photographer originally thought the image was too unfocused, but Joe Strummer thought it was perfect—a blurry shot of Paul Simonon smashing his bass against the stage. It was cool. It was rock and roll. It was the Clash. Plus, the album design pays homage to Elvis Presley’s first album, which is pretty badass by itself. –Kristen Swanson Milo Goes To College Descendents When you first look at the Descendents’ Milo Goes To College cover it doesn’t seem all that special—but that’s really the simplistic beauty of it. The cover is a caricature of lead singer Milo Aukerman based on a high school classmate’s comic strip depicting Aukerman as the class nerd. The most amazing part is that this doodle of a nerd turned into one of the most iconic images associated with punk rock. If you know anything about punk, you know who Milo is. Besides, what’s cooler than a doodle symbolizing the essence of punk? –Kristen Swanson

VINYL a love story by Arun Marsten On a sunny summer afternoon in Atlanta, GA in 2009, a young man walked into his local record store eager to buy his first vinyl record. He’d inherited the few records his father had thought to keep from the 60s and 70s, but there weren’t nearly enough. He grimaced, thinking of how many records his dad had gotten rid of before they could make their way to their rightful owner, but quickly pushed that thought away and kept his eyes on the prize. Today he would get his. I admit that sometimes it’s hard not to see the appeal of digital music. It’s cheap, hassle-free, and easy to get. If you want to hear a song, you can find it somewhere on the Internet about as fast as Google can take you there. But therein lies the problem with digital music: sound-wise, it’s got the consistency of musical gruel. Sure, it’s music, but something is lost. What gives digital music its name is that at some point, the music was digitized from an analog signal. What this means is, more or less, someone took millions of samples of the song you’re listening to and made their best approximation of what it should sound like. It’s a damn good guess, but the sad truth is that digital music is simply not the best quality that music can be. Feeling wronged, many of us would stay up late into the night looking for higher bit-rate versions of our favorite songs. FLACs, ALACs, and other lossless audio files were filling our download folders, but it was too late. Music was being lost 44,100 times a second, and it was driving us mad. On that day, back in 2009, I found an original 1973 pressing of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon that still had the stickers and posters inside. I rushed home, crashed through my front door, and hurried to my basement to give it a listen. To this day I still believe it’s the closest thing I’ve

ever had to a religious experience. I wasn’t just listening to Pink Floyd. I was listening to Pink Floyd as the harmonious higher powers of the universe had intended it. From then on every record store I could find became my home away from home. There’s something magical about stepping into a record store and letting the smell of vinyl and paper waft over you, motes of dust caught in the sunlight reminding you of what a sacred space you’ve entered. But when their inventories had been rooted through and not enough days had passed between raids on the “New Arrivals” bin, I’d find myself at garage sales and estate sales looking for more. An analog junkie looking for his vinyl fix. The thing about vinyl is, despite the fact that it’s better than every other recorded form of music, it isn’t just about the music. Every record is, in no small way, an experience. For starters, there’s the album art. It really is art. I don’t care how big you can make the picture on your computer, nothing beats seeing an album cover in its full glory on the album jacket. When you can see the look on everyone’s faces on the cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Axis: Bold As Love, you know something is being done right, and yet somehow that’s just the beginning. If it’s a fold-over jacket, you can open it up to see more artwork and lyrics. Records always come with lyrics. If they’re not on the jacket, then they’re on the liner notes. Yes, liner notes. If you even remember that term— people usually forget that it came from “record liner.” The little booklets in CD cases were a lame attempt to recreate the majesty of record liner notes, the handy sheet that gave every album a healthy dose of context. But not every jacket is standard. Many albums come with posters, stickers, and other memorabilia, as if to console the owner in case they missed the tour that accompanied the album release. Perhaps the best example of this is the Who’s Live at Leeds. The record was made to look like a bootleg copy of a live recording and included photos, handwritten lyrics, receipts, letters, posters, and more. You don’t just listen to that album, you live it. My favorite album jacket to this day is Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick. The cover opens to a full newspaper with articles, crosswords, comics, everything, with lyrics cleverly slipped in. So, to those who complain that vinyl takes up too much space, I say you’re lucky they fit everything in. “That’s all fine and well,” I hear you say, “but what if I don’t want to listen to classic rock for the rest of my life?” Don’t be silly. Classic rock may carry some of the best examples of the beauty of vinyl, but vinyl has been around for decades and spans every genre imaginable. Even Top 40 hits can be heard on vinyl, although newer, more popular records are generally more expensive (not that you’d be listening to it anyway, right?) So, no matter your music tastes, smart money says you can find it on vinyl. And if you can listen to your music on vinyl, why wouldn’t you? Because vinyl isn’t just music done better, it’s music lived right.

Music is a recyled form of art; once a song is made it never really dies. In fact, even making a song requires pulling pieces of music from here and there and making it your own. This Mixtape is dedicated to the art of borrowed songs—covers and remixes that we think deserve to be passed along to our readers. Hurt Johnny Cash Leave it to Mr. Cash to make me like a Nine Inch Nails song and make it a hit, all while on his deathbed. –Kristen Swanson Do You Believe in Magic? The Format Something about the vivacious pop sound that was the Format allowed them to put their own spin on this Lovin’ Spoonful song while nodding to the original. –Lisa Kessler Ball & Biscuit Long Goners Who would have thought that pulling off a White Stripes cover would sound this good? –Lindsay Corry El Condor Pasa (If I Could) Simon & Garfunkel Even Paul Simon didn’t know who he was covering when he recorded this song. A quick court case made Simon realize that Peruvian composer Daniel Robles originally wrote the song in 1913. –Zach Branson Who Knows, Who Cares The Botaniks If you want to see a great song made more upbeat, exciting, and in parts synthesized, then listen to this version of the Local Natives’ song “Who Knows, Who Cares.” The Botaniks may not be popular, but the song is worth a listen. –Kayla Heglas Atlantic City Mumford & Sons and friends Off of their Daytrotter session, this cover of Bruce Springsteen’s hit might be my favorite song from Mumford. Check out the whole session to hear them cover all kinds of folky gems. –Rachel Asbel Heartless The Fray The Fray strips down Kanye’s bitter lament about a woman who broke his heart, and the effect exposes the pain behind the lyrics. Who knew you could make Kanye West sound so sensitive? –Hannah Dellabella Seven Nation Army Ben L’Oncle Soul Everyone knows this White Stripes song, but most people had no idea it could be this funky or soulful. It’s hard to resist this Frenchman’s funkyliciousness. –Dan Curhan No Angels Bastille ft. Ella A cover of “No Scrubs” by TLC and “Angels” by the XX. It’s hard

MIXTAPE SOMETHING BORROWED

to imagine these going together, but this is done so perfectly. –Bineh Ndefru Hypnotize Portlandia (Washed Out Chi Duly Edit) Chi Duly For all the Portlandia fans out there, this rework by Chi Duly will get you excited. Originally called “Feel It All Around” by Washed Out, the opening song for Portlandia has been mellowed-down as well as beat-upped (with addition of rap) by this up-and-coming producer. –Kathy Lee Space Oddity Willow Beats A pretty sweet cover/remix of the famous Bowie song by the Melbourne electro-awesome-duo Willow Beats. This song somehow seamlessly combines acoustic guitar with downtempo dubsteppyness and glitchy, haunting vocals. –Will Lush Spliff Dub (Rustie Remix) Zomby Yup, that’s 13-year-old (in 1982) Jamaican boy Billy Boyo chanting, “One spliff a day keep tha evil away!” against stuttering, video-game synths courtesy of Rustie. Gotta hand it to Zomby for finding one of the greatest samples ever and reminding everyone just how much cooler Jamaicans are than you. –Alec Resende Where Is My Mind Bassnectar Bassnectar has added his signature wubs and dubs to this classic Pixies track. He’s made sure that by the end of this tune, you’ll definitely be losing your mind! It’s safe to say that Bassnectar’s remix of this song will blow your mind even harder than the original. –Rebecca Warshofsky All Along The Watchtower Bear McCreary The fact that this song was composed by McCreary for the score of Battlestar Galactica explains the awesome arab stylistic elements, but the gritty male vocals also make it sound more visceral than the version popularized by Jimi Hendrix or the original written and performed by Bob Dylan. –Christina Mitas Such Great Heights Iron and Wine Iron and Wine takes this Postal Service hit, slows it down, and makes it even more hauntingly beautiful. –Samantha Ward Hey Ya! Obadiah Parker Apparently all it takes is an acoustic guitar, a piano, and a tempo change to make me cry during an Outkast song. –Nicole Marrow

CONCERT REVIEWS MATISYAHU

by Kristen Swanson

Matthew Miller, better known by his Hebrew and stage name Matisyahu, played an acoustic show at Carnegie Library Music Hall this past month. For those of you that have never heard of Matisyahu, to describe his music as unique would be an understatement. His sound is complex, with a mixture of reggae, rock, and hip-hop blended with traditional Jewish themes. The thing that’s great about his music is whether you’re drawn by the religious side or purely the musical side, there’s something for everyone. The Music Hall was packed that night, resembling a domeshaped church complete with a balcony. Usually sit-down concerts are weird and awkward, but considering this was an acoustic performance I didn’t mind the seating arrangements. It’s been a few years since I listened to Matisyahu, so when he walked out on stage without his usual beard and yarmulke, it was like a new artist had emerged. He was dressed in casual clothing and if I didn’t know any better, I would have been mistaken him for someone in the crowd. Matisyahu broke his set into two portions, with a question and answer section held in the middle of the performance. Although Photo by Samantha Ward

the gesture seemed nice for him to reach out to fans and answer their questions, I thought it was awkward to conduct a Q&A in the middle of a set. Despite the weird aspects of the show, for the most part, the music was intriguing. Matisyahu played the set with an acoustic guitarist, electric guitarist, and a cellist. He played no instrument himself, but he used his voice as an instrument by displaying his various beatboxing skills in many of the songs. I could have done without so much beatboxing (it felt like once he showed off his skills, he didn’t stop), but I appreciated the unique appeal it added to the music. The way the songs flowed together, combined with beatboxing and primal chanting, even brought some audience members to tears. I can’t say it was a religious experience for me, but Matisyahu definitely has a lot of style and talent. He ended the night with an acoustic cover of “King Without A Crown,” one of his best-known songs and my personal favorite, which ended the show on the right note for me.

KISHI BASHI

by Jing Jing Li

When AB Underground first booked Kishi Bashi, he was still on the rise, a fairly unknown artist. Then the New Year rolled around and he ended up on numerous “Best New Artist” lists after his song “Bright Whites” was in a commercial for Windows 8. This show at the Underground was only a few days after a sold-out one at D.C.’s 9:30 Club. And just how does he feel about all this recent success? “Number 64? Your food is ready. Did you hear that 64? Get your food!” said Mike Savino, a member of Tall Tall Trees who joined Kishi Bashi for part of the tour. The audience laughed as he continued to call out numbers while getting ready for the set. By the time the artists stepped onstage, the Underground was packed. There was hardly any floor space left to sit on, not that anyone was sitting when the music started. The audience swayed and sang along to the songs they knew and cheered when Kishi Bashi played new ones that are not on his current album, 151a. He made jokes about his wife and told us stories. The atmosphere was playful and relaxed; hand-made set decorations sat in the background and a merch table was hastily thrown together in the corner. A few people were still doing homework at the booth tables, but most were entranced

Photo by Samantha Ward

by the music, including all of the staff as they gathered around the counters. “I have two more songs for you. You guys might know this one,” said Kishi Bashi as he started playing the opening notes to “Bright Whites.” He ended the night with “It All Began With a Burst,” a song featured in a Sony commercial, while the audience danced and clapped along. As the show ended, students trickled out, chattering about the Photo by Samantha Ward performance and how much work they still had left to do. Others stayed around to take pictures and buy merchandise as the artists packed up to head out to New York City. They were on their way to playing another sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom the next night.

HOT WATER MUSIC

Photo courtesy of Marco Krenn

by Kristen Swanson

It’s no question that Altar Bar has been pulling in some of the best shows in Pittsburgh, but maybe things have gotten too busy there. I showed up 40 minutes early for the Hot Water Music show—which is super early on punk time—and was still standing outside when the first band, the Menzingers, started playing. Despite obvious overbooking issues, I only missed a few songs and caught the rest of their set. The Menzingers are handsdown one of my favorite up-and-coming bands, but they don’t fit as an opener band. These guys headline their own shows at plenty of DIY venues and their energy is amazing, but stick them as the openers with a 30 minute set and that same energy just can’t be built. Next was La Dispute, which I thought was an interesting choice to throw a post-hardcore band in between two punk bands. More surprisingly, a large portion of the crowd seemed to be at the show specifically for them. Scrawny lead singer Jordan Dreyer walked out on stage in skinny jeans and a plain t-shirt, and I was positive you could hear the underage girls’ shrieks from outside. Don’t be fooled by his adoring fans though; Dreyer opened his mouth with this mesmerizing, almost spoken word appeal to his vocals, and it was captivating. When he screamed, “At least we’ve still got time to figure it out / To know what to do / To know how to feel,” you saw him lose himself onstage and you couldn’t look away.

Photo by Samantha Ward

If you’ve got an open mind and some pent up aggression, I suggest checking them out. Finally Hot Water Music took the stage, and although the crowd thinned out, the energy was still there—this isn’t music for teenage girls. For a band that’s been around since 1993, they can open their set with classic songs like “Remedy” and “Trusty Chords” and you remember why they are still a band going strong. Vocalists Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard had this amazing chemistry and duality that was great to see live. They even played songs off their latest release Exister, including my favorite track “Drag My Body.” Something that I appreciate about HWM is that they don’t have to try too hard, they’re just a group of talented musicians with a lot of experience and a lot of heart. And I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t ask more from a band.

ALBUM REVIEWS

It’s been 22 years since we’ve heard anything new from My Bloody Valentine. It’s a miracle that this album even exists. Two decades of doubt and alleged shelving of “failed” records that Kevin Shields didn’t want blemishing their legacy. More than enough time for legions of bands to make careers off of how a follow up to 1991’s unfuckwithable Loveless might sound. Well, now we finally know: It sounds absolutely beautiful. M B V—like all of My Bloody Valentine’s material—is deeply sexual, albeit strange, music. Evoking pure feelings stripped of emotional context, this record changes how I feel within seconds of hitting play. Their understanding of the pleasure centers of the brain is masterful. Much of the same sonic palette from Loveless is present here: lush, androgynous vocals, guitar sounds not of this world, and “quiet” mixing (by today’s standards) that seduce you to turn that shit up, if only to get closer. The songwriting, however, is more ambitious than anything else Kevin Shields has done. In an interview last year, Shields hinted that the new album was influenced by the Beach Boys’ Smile. Brian Wilson’s modular approach to songcraft is felt on “Only Tomorrow” and “In Another Way,” where seemingly incompatible sections fit next to each other, all to a devastating effect. Out of nowhere, “In Another Way” goes from huge guitars and morphine-dream vocals to a glorious instrumental passage, simultaneously affirming all life on Earth and any Earth-like planets. I’d imagine listening to “Wonder 2” at high volume is not too far off from escaping an apocalyptic planet on the last working rocket with everyone you care about. It’s unbelievably inspiring that most of the sounds here came from a few layered Fender Jazzmaster guitars, albeit with thousands of dollars of effects shaping them into eternity. And what a lovely eternity. - Alec Resende

I don’t throw this term around lightly, but Tegan and Sara’s seventh studio album is pop perfection. Not so much a departure from their previous sound as an organic evolution from their indie-rock goddess roots to a Cyndi Lauper meets Robyn aesthetic that you can’t help but find ridiculously endearing. Heartthrob will make you dance and make you cry, sometimes simultaneously, all in under 37 minutes. From the opening song (and the best pop single of the year so far), you can tell that Tegan and Sara aren’t playing around. “Closer” is a no-holds-barred, bawdy little plea for you to forget the feelings and just go for it, boasting lines like “All you think of lately is getting underneath me.” Um, yes, actually, how did you know? “I Was a Fool” could be a weepy reminiscence of a failed relationship, but it’s injected with such a sense of strength that you feel as if you’re processing and overcoming the breakup right along with them. Another of the album’s highlights is also arguably the saddest, entitled “Now I’m All Messed Up.” Their soaring vocals literally crush your heart as Tegan moans, “Go,” while Sara pleads, “Please stay,” and the entire world sobs quietly to the desperation that oozes from every word. The depth and substance that lurks within every song this duo releases is able to shine through yet again, this time with a little help from one of Ke$ha’s main producers, Greg Kurstin, which totally shouldn’t scare you away from this masterfully crafted album. The best pop records mask deep and profound truths under the guise of a simple tune with bright synths and catchy rhythms, and each track on Heartthrob finds the perfect balance between sappy power ballad and light dance jam. - Nicole Marrow

5 SCISSORS

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Heartthrob Tegan and Sara

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MBV My Bloody Valentine

Long.Live.A$AP - A$AP ROCKY

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Despite being leaked on the Internet over a month before the release date, A$AP Rocky’s first album Long.Live.A$AP still debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top 200, and there is a reason why. As Rocky blew up in 2011, he became known for his drug-fueled lyrics and beats (look up his song “Purple Swag”). More than anything, this album characterized Rocky’s versatility while staying loyal to the drug raps and “pretty boy” image that made him famous. He effortlessly switches from slow to fast rapping on “Suddenly,” sings on the title track “Long Live A$AP,” and teams up with Florence Welch’s beautiful vocals on “I Come Apart”. He even raps over an electronic beat made by Skrillex on “Wild For the Night.” It will be interesting to see if Rocky will continue to please his fanbase with these drug-fueled raps or mature to obtain a new style in the future. - Ben Alderoty 4 SCISSORS

Matt Costa - Matt costa

4 SCISSORS

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I was introduced to Matt Costa’s song “Sunshine” on a cold afternoon in Hunt Library. Despite the bitterness of the Pittsburgh winter, I was immediately warmed by Costa’s beautifully simplistic vibes that I carried through summer. With his self-titled album, I’m brought back to those same sunny feelings that distract me from the snow outside. It is hard to ignore his progression as an artist; he has moved beyond his California skater-turned-singer/songwriter roots to a sound that is reminiscent of bluesy, folky, 60s pop. The tracks’ intricate harmonies and layers of instrumentation make it hard to pinpoint exactly what genre this album falls into. “Loving You,” the album’s first track, opens with a violin introduction that flawlessly leads into vivacious, infectious melodies and evocative lyrics. “Early November” stands out with wispy horns and vocals that float through my headphones. It is a confident, low-key album that will remind you of the April sunshine and will soon relieve you from the March iciness. - Lisa Kessler

Vessel - twenty one pilots

4 SCISSORS

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Recent reviews of Twenty One Pilots’ Vessel mention the band’s self-proclaimed “schizoid pop” style: dizzying transitions from rap to electro to acoustic. It’s true, the band does jump between genres with ease. Within the first track, “Ode to Sleep,” the listener is introduced to quick alternations between rap and pop. But to me, their musical style is only the surface of what’s compelling. The album is a strange and engrossing 40-plus-minutes of lead singer Tyler Joseph’s rapping, singing, and screaming of his fear of quiet moments imbued with his own thoughts and uncertainties. Tracks like “Car Radio” and “Semi-Automatic” exhibit Joseph’s tormented emotions. “House of Gold” offers a sweet acoustic respite from the emotionally raw tracks preceding it. In every song, Tyler openly displays his internal struggles yet succeeds in maintaining furious creativity and ardor. Vessel takes the unbridled energy, frustration, and inspiration that comes with being human and turns it into maddeningly rich music. - Sejal Popat

if a tree ESSAY

Zaneta Grant

“MUSIC WAS MY REFUGE. I COULD CRAWL INTO THE SPACE BETWEEN THE NOTES AND CURL MY BACK TO LONELINESS.” - MAYA ANGELOU

One of my favorite articles by Washington Post journalist Gene Weingarten is “The Fiddler in the Subway.” The article is about the world-renowned and award-winning violinist Joshua Bell and his role in an experiment. For the experiment, Bell dressed inconspicuously and stood in L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. where he played a number of awe-inspiring pieces on a priceless violin. Despite Bell’s passionate deliverance of each piece, a total of 1,070 people passed by with only a few paying any attention to the musician. The results of this experiment were a little disconcerting because they mean that it is possible for beauty to be acknowledged without being appreciated. This is a horrifying notion for people who dedicate their entire lives to the arts. Music has been a significant part of my life since I was seven years old and my mother sent me to piano lessons with Miss Carmen, a pleasant, chubby woman in her thirties. I was proud to carry around my piano books and play whatever I learned each week. I could play for hours when I was by myself. But one of the most important aspects of musicianship is public performance, so playing in a recital was inevitable. The first recital I can remember was shortly after I began lessons with Miss Carmen. I was nervous, but my mother made sure I was dressed like a 19thcentury porcelain doll. I wore my Sunday best, a frilly dress with lily-white socks and my dressiest shoes. I kept staring down at the song in my piano book and fidgeting in my seat as I watched the other children play. What if I messed up? As each song passed, my performance drew nearer. My heart beat faster as one by one children finished their songs, bowed confidently to the applause, and walked to their seats. Finally I heard the dreadful words: “Zaneta Grant!” I shyly shuffled up to the front, eyeing the audience and spotting my teacher in the crowd. She smiled. I slid onto the piano bench and set down my open piano book. I breathed in so deeply that it probably came out as a sigh. Then I began. I don’t remember what piece I played, and I don’t remember if I messed up or if it was any good. I do remember feeling satisfied once I played the last note, then nervous again once I stood up to face the crowd. They began to applaud, and I was about scurry away

from all the eyes staring at me when I looked up at my teacher and realized I had forgotten to bow. Apparently my body couldn’t figure out how to bow in time, so I smiled goofily and ended up in a wobbling curtsey instead. I even held the skirt of my dress away from my body, the old fashioned way. This prompted many awwws from people in the audience as they applauded. My face became hot from the embarrassment, and I glanced up at my teacher. She was still grinning widely. That didn’t help my shyness nor did it stop me from hurrying back to my seat and trying to sink down low so that no one would focus on me anymore. The next kid stepped up to perform, and I was glad it was someone else’s turn to bear the blazing spotlight. I’ve changed a lot from the girl who was frightened into an awkward curtsey 13 years ago. Since then I have continued to play the piano, sing, and compose my own pieces, but I still have not completely overcome my stage fright. I’m no Josh Bell, but if I want to continue calling myself a musician and improve my stage presence, I can’t let stage fright paralyze me. With this in mind, I texted my friend Alesia—a talented poet who is confident performing for an audience—and asked her if she would be able to perform her poems as part of an experiment. She agreed before I even explained the entire idea to her. To make a long story short, we chose to perform in Market Center, a busy dining hall at the University of Pittsburgh. After about an hour of poetry and songs, I was able to ask some of the bystanders what they thought and whether or not they noticed us much. Some of them did, and others did not really think much of our performances. In retrospect, I

guess it doesn’t matter whether they noticed us or not. One question Weingarten addresses in his article is “If a great musician plays great music but no one hears....was he really any good?” People noticed my singing, but most people said they couldn’t hear Alesia’s poetry. Although Alesia did her best to project her voice, it is much more difficult to project a speaking voice than it is to project a singing voice. Alesia’s poems were original and beautifully crafted, but people couldn’t hear her. The songs I sang were not even mine. When I was singing in Market Center, I was glad when people noticed me, but that was not what made me more confident. If anything, the attention made me more nervous. But with every note I belted out I paid less attention to the people around me and more attention to the song I was singing. I started to feel the words. I closed my eyes and pretended I was alone. It was relaxing. I let the words and the notes carry me away, feeling each word in the moment and the emotions that drove them. “At the beginning,“ Bell says of his performance in the experiment, “I was just concentrating on playing music. I wasn’t really watching what was happening around me.” So, my answer to Weingarten’s question is this: When an artist performs, they are not only doing it for the audience, but ultimately for themselves. The purpose of art is twofold—to give the artist a means of expression, and to express ideas to others. If a tree needs to fall, it will fall regardless of whoever is or is not around to see or hear it.

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