Issue 34

An Interview with Brendan Canning | 36

Live in Springfield | 38

A Guide to Ghostface Killah | 41

northeastern students on music

No 34

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The Team

President Dinorah Wilson

Staff Writers Aaron Decker Tim DiFazio Tom Doherty Anna Glina Nathan Goldman Amanda Hoover Elizabeth JohnsonWilson Cara McGrath David Murphy Mackenzie Nichols Max Oyer Thomas Reid Kelly Subin Jackie Swisshelm

Editor in Chief Nick Hugon Art Directors Abbie Hanright Carisa Tong Web Director Edwin Morris Marketing Director Caitlin Kullberg

Staff

Get More Can’t get enough? Check out more original content on tastemakersmag.com Become a fan on facebook at facebook.com/tastemakersmag

Features Director Ryan Kehr Reviews Editors Ben Stas Mike Doub Interviews Editor Joey Dussault Photo Director Lauren Kovalefsky

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/tastemakersmag Follow us on Instagram @tastemakersmag The Cover Photo Abbie Hanright Tastemakers Music Magazine 232 Curry Student Center 360 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 tastemakersmag@gmail.com © 2013 tastemakers music magazine all rights reserved

Art & Design Jack Dombrowski Ally Healy Andrea Hernandez Eric Lee Stephanie Lee Cara McGrath Emily O’Brien Sneha Pandya Amanda Pinsker Marketing Nathan Goldman Shreya Gurubacharya YJ Lee Crystal Lin Christine Luong Sarah Maillet Jane McGinnis Megan Rickborn Kelly Subin Alex Taylor Carisa Tong Leah Zwemke

Meet the Staff

About

Listening to

Quote

Ryan Kehr Position Features Director Major English Graduating Fall 2016 Favorite Venue Paradise Tastemaker Since Fall 2011

Mutual Benefit Love’s Crushing Diamond The Growlers Hung at Heart

“ But that episode of Grey’s Anatomy floored me.”

Tom Waits “Watch Her Disappear”

Eric Lee Position Designer Major Graphic Design Graduating Fall 2017 Favorite Venue Golden Gate Park (San Francisco) Tastemaker Since Fall 2012

M.I.A. Matangi

“I’m not scared of ALL riddles.”

TED Talks Grease 2 Soundtrack

Max Oyer Position Staff Writer Major Health Sciences Graduating Spring 2017 Favorite venue Mr. Smalls Theatre (Pittsburgh, PA) Tastemaker Since Fall 2013

Darwin Deez “Chelsea’s Hotel” Fleet Foxes “Mykonos”

“The only thing holding me back from hugging my fish, Lenny, is fear of rejection.”

Daft Punk Alive

Kelly Subin Position Staff Writer Major Marketing Graduating Spring 2018 Favorite Venue Terminal 5 (NYC) Tastemaker Since Fall 2013

Mac DeMarco “The Stars Keep on Calling my Name” Lorde Pure Heroine FIDLAR FIDLAR

“My spirit animal is the woman in Napoleon Dynamite who whispers ‘I want that’ when she sees the mini sailboat.”

Brendan Canning

Photo by Jules Schill

Table of Contents Cover Story

26

The Modern Mixtape A profile of the best releases from independent hip-hop’s promotional machine

Features

11 24 30 38

Macklesnore Because LGBTQ folks don’t want a rich, white straight dude speaking for them, or hip-hop

What happened to Ska?

18

Pon di Billboard

32

Escaping the Studio

34 44

The genre that never escaped suburbia with the rest of us.

What’s in a name?

Contrary to popular belief, Foxy Shazam is not a stripper name

Live in Springfield Famous musicians’ appearances on The Simpsons

Interview

36

Brendan Canning

06

Calendar

14

Editorial

An interview with Brendan Canning on his career after Broken Social Scene

Local Photos

Pop music’s infatuation with the West Indies

When musicians take to the streets.

08

Show Reviews

46

Album Reviews

Step inside my Hyundai In defense of Beck’s Midnite Vultures

Neko Case, James Blake, Joshua Redman Quartet and Kate Nash

Reviews of Blood Orange, Cults, Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire’s new albums

Etcetera

Twin Foils Bands with members of contrasting personalities

Local Talent

20

Reviews

Mals Totem A look at a rising Boston rock band.

41 50

A Guide to Ghostface Killah Ghostface’s illest moments in music

Just a Taste of Kid/Astro

Calendar January Su

Sa

1

2

3

4

Pink Elephant PA’s Lounge

5

6

Halfway to Avalon The Middle East

John Newman Brighton Music Hall

12

13

7

Tracy Grammer Club Passim

19

8

9

10

11

Leon Russell Wilbur Theatre

Lee Ranaldo Brighton Music Hall

Jake Bugg House of Blues

14

15

16

17

18

Gerald Clayton Scullers Jazz Club

Yuck The Sinclair

Disclosure House of Blues

Johnny Flynn Brighton Music Hall

Trombone Shorty House of Blues

Neutral Milk Hotel Orpheum Theatre

Pixies & FIDLAR Orpheum Theatre

20

21

22

23

24

25

Brendan Canning Great Scott

St. Lucia Royale

Waxahatchee Great Scott

Savoy House of Blues

Lotus House of Blues

The Deadly Gentlemen The Sinclair

29

30

31

Panic! At the Disco House of Blues

Roy Hargrove Quintet Scullers Jazz Club

Los Campesinos!

Paradise Rock Club

26

27

28

Sarah Borges Club Passim

Mira Cafe 939

Rockommends

Leon Russell January 9 @ Wilbur Theatre

Jake Bugg January 11 @ House of Blues

Esteemed eighty-eighter and Gandalf-lookalike Leon Russell will bring his brand of country-tinged rock n’ roll to the Wilbur Theatre in January. With him, Jack Casady (formerly of Jefferson Airplane) will appear with his blues rock collective, Hot Tuna. You’ll be hardpressed to find another show with this much talent and experience under one roof.

Jake Bugg returns to Boston, taking on the House of Blues in promotion of his new album: Shangri La. Though he may be a young man from Nottingham, his bluesy rock and old-school sound will make Beantown feel like Nashville.

Joseph Dussault (Journalism)

Max Oyer (Health Sciences)

February Su

Sa

1 New Politics The Sinclair

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Arctic Monkeys & Deerhunter Agganis Arena

Darkside Paradise Rock Club

Jay Nash Middle East

12

13

14

15

The Autumn Defense Great Scott

Beth Orton Paradise Rock Club

G. Love & Special Sauce House of Blues

The Expendables House of Blues

Lord Huron Royale

9

16

10

17

11

18

Miranda Sings Wilbur Theater Sea Wolf Brighton Music Hall

23

24

25

Delorean The Sinclair

Kodaline Paradise Rock Club

Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers The Sinclair

21

22

19

20

Reggie and the Full Effect Brighton Music Hall

Into It. Over It. The Sinclair

26

27

28

Flogging Molly House of Blues

Justin Timberlake TD Garden

Kings of Leon TD Garden

Sophistafunk Johnny D’s

Darkside February 27 @ Paradise Rock Club

Delorean February 23 @ The Sinclair

Darkside, consisting of guitarist Dave Harrington and electronic maestro Nicolas Jaar, are finishing up a productive year with a menacing, minimal first LP in Psychic and Random Access Memories Memories, a remix album of Daft Punk’s latest. With Psychic proving to be a 2013 highlight, Darkside’s subsequent tour is not one to miss.

Spanish dance group Delorean was originally scheduled to play the Sinclair back in October in support of their new album Apar but were forced to reschedule their tour following a freak incident in which the band was kidnapped and held hostage in Mexico City. Now that the band is safe and has recuperated, we can look forward to their sunny tunes bringing a night’s relief from the New England winter.

Nick Hugon (International Affairs)

Nathan Goldman (Sociology)

Show Reviews Neko Case November 1 @ Orpheum Theatre

Reviews

On the final night of her North American tour in support of this year’s voluminously titled The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, Virginian songstress Neko Case serenaded Boston’s Orpheum Theatre with a career-spanning 23-song set. The theater, packed with a receptive crowd on this November evening, felt like the ideal context for Case’s insightfully lyrical alt-country.

An understated set from New York singer/songwriter Lucy Wainwright Roche opened the show. Roche made an impression with a conversational stage presence that successfully worked a big crowd like a bar audience, plus a dark cover of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” that transformed the song from pop anthem to downbeat breakup lament. Case’s five-piece band was a world removed from Roche’s voiceand-guitar setup, but she retained her opener’s talkative, casual stage presence. She has a frank, self-deprecating sense of humor that shines through in her extended stage banter. It’s a charm that sometimes catches you off-guard.

Case opened her set with the sparsely orchestrated “Where Did I Leave That Fire” from her new record, which was a wise choice that set her powerful voice front and center. She is truly a force to behold as a vocalist, delivering every lyric with total conviction in tones that range from tender (“That Teenage Feeling”) to righteously scathing (The Worse Things Get highlight “Man”).

Even with Case at the center of things, the set still had a collaborative feel. Her backing band is truly top-notch, featuring a versatile set of musicians that includes longtime collaborator Kelly Hogan on vocals as well as Archers of Loaf frontman Eric Bachmann on guitar. Between a variety of acoustic, electric and lap steel guitars, upright and electric bass, keyboards, drums and even the occasional trumpet interjection, the set’s overall sound was pitch-perfectly executed. Case and the band pulled off everything from sweeping Americana sounds to triple-guitar rave-ups with aplomb. A pair of Heart covers during the first encore, in particular, gave the band a chance to embrace its rock and roll side (and Bachmann shredding over “Barracuda” certainly isn’t something you see everyday).

Even on the final night of a lengthy tour, when fatigue was surely setting in, Case and her band impressed. Songs from across Case’s decade-plus discography unfolded beautifully with the help of her cast of collaborators in an enjoyable, skillfully executed set.

Ben Stas (English/Journalism) Neko Case

Ben Stas (English/Journalism)

Joshua Redman Quartet November 8 @ Berklee Performance Center

Fall 2013

8

Joshua Redman, one of the leading names in contemporary jazz, stepped onto the stage of the Berklee Performance Center on the 8th of November accompanied by his quartet of drummer Gregory Hutchinson, bassist Reuben Rogers, and Aaron Goldberg on piano with Redman leading on saxophone. Redman acknowledged the crowd briefly before opening into a duet with Goldberg; a slow, tranquil ballad played so softly, at times the volume of the saxophone was matched

by Redman’s own breath through the reeds. It was quiet, it was calm, and yet there was a noticeable tension in the crowd anticipating the inevitable wave of jazz.

The duet finished, and the stage was still. With two emphatic stomps from Redman, the atmosphere split as the quartet tore into

roaring number “Leap of Faith,” and Redman became a live wire, his lanky figure dancing and writhing along to the driving tones of his horn.

It was as if his right foot was his only tether to the ground as he bucked up and down and kicked like a Rockette, his hand flying off the sax as if his talent was making the brass too hot to handle.

The quartet’s performance at Berklee played both as a fixture of the fall season for Boston performance arts organizer World Music/ CRASHarts and as a stop on the quartet’s tour for Redman’s most recent album Walking Shadows, a collection of ballads both original and covered. The band swung their way through a 10-song set that featured jazz covers of a tender Bach adagio, a noir-like cover of “Doll is Mine” by alt-rock band Blonde Redhead, and a particularly invigorating cover

James Blake November 5 @ House of Blues James Blake makes electronic music, but to define him by that categorization would do Blake wrong. In his short career the English 25 year-old, who caught the public eye with an excellent self-titled debut in 2011, has already shown his take on a wide range of genres. That debut, for example, showcased Blake’s singer/ songwriter talents and his fantastic voice.

“Retrograde,” a highlight from his 2013 followup Overgrown, embraced blue-eyed soul more so than anything he’s released to date. He’s even touched on rap, first on “Take a Fall For Me” with RZA (Wu-Tang Clan chief and director of the goofy kung fu flick Man With the Iron Fists) and again when he remixed the Drake track “Come Thru.”

Those rap flirtations aside, Blake showed all of his faces at his House of Blues show on November 5th. It was his second performance at the venue this year alone, and this time around Blake had his song roster down to a science. Opener “I Never Learnt to Share,” a piano-driven tune from his first album, combined Blake’s voice-looping with the sort of cavernous bass drop that characterized many moments that night. The aforementioned “Retrograde” also dropped said bass late into the first set, to great effect.

Though Blake’s set was stuffed with his more popular tracks, he still catered to his more fanatical fanbase with several deep cuts.

“CMYK,” from the 2010 EP of the same name,

led off with an R&B sample and positively banged. Later into the show “Klavierwerke,” another title-track from another 2010 EP, showed off Blake’s more subdued side over atmospheric keyboard chords.

Through it all Blake was courteous, humble, and gave off the air of someone still surprised by his whirlwind of success. He continually thanked fans for their hospitality during the course of the night, and during the day when he wandered our streets as a tourist. We should be thanking him for stopping by a second time this year—Blake’s multi-genre pastiche made for an excellent House of Blues showing, and one of 2013’s finest electronic tours.

Mike Doub (Psychology)

James Blake

Ben Stas (English/Journalism)

of The Beatles’ “Let It Be” as an encore. While frontman Redman’s soprano and his screaming solos were certainly the draw of the night, each member of the quartet was a master musician. Aaron Goldberg’s fingers seemed to levitate over the keys, the grinning Reuben Rogers delivered emphatic, rock-solid bass-lines, and Gregory Hutchinson’s tight grooves left his sticks a blur over polished beats.

Between songs, Redman spoke to the crowd in a quiet, friendly voice, reminiscing on his time in Boston as a student at Harvard before deferring entrance to Yale Law School and inadvertently taking up professional jazz musicianship. Joking that Boston was the last place that was willing to give him gigs, the former Artistic Director of the San Francisco non-profit organization SFJAZZ displayed a peaceful

demeanor that seemed absolutely contrary to the raging sax machine that emerged when the music started back up. And when it started, it was unstoppable; a powerful, emotional, crackling sound that brought listeners from the edge of their seats to the depths of their souls and all the way back again.

It is artists like Joshua Redman and his quartet that keep jazz music alive and kicking in the modern era (emphasis on the kicking in Redman’s case), and it is shows like the one they put on at Berklee on that uncommonly cold night that reaffirm jazz’s position as the true, ineffable music of the soul.

David Murphy (Psychology) 9

Show Reviews

Reviews Kate Nash

Jackie Swisshelm (Journalism)

Kate Nash November 8 @ House of Blues

Fall 2013

10

In March, Northampton-based punk quartet Potty Mouth played Cambridge’s basementesque Elks Lodge for Smash It Dead Fest.

Last Friday, they opened up for Vivian Girl Katy “Kickball” Goodman’s band La Sera and the internationally recognized Kate Nash at Boston’s House of Blues. Aside from this ever-so-slight shift in venue, not much about their performance has changed. Lead vocalist and guitarist Abby Weems hid behind her long, blonde hair when she wasn’t making faces at the front row, while her Smith-graduate bandmates occasionally nodded knees and heads on stage. With the recent release of their first LP Hell Bent, the post-punk/poppunk group was a peculiar pick for a daring Spektor-like vocalist such as Kate Nash, but their droning, 90s grunge-inspired music fit nicely alongside the two other lady-fronted bands. Catchy riffs, elements of surf fuzz, and aggressively vulnerable lyrics eased the audience into a riot grrrl-vibe for a femaleheadlined night at Boston’s House of Blues.

Sandwiched between a band heavy on shout-singing and a British pop-turned-punk performance was Vivian Girls’ Kate “Kickball” Goodman’s solo project, La Sera. Hailing from Los Angeles, La Sera sounded like exactly what

you’d imagine indie dream pop to sound like.

Goodman rarely diverged from her sweetas-honey melodies, and her band radiated good vibes as the lead vocalist often threw out “I love you toos” to a group of loyal fans.

Overall, La Sera evoked a sad rocker-Zooey Deschanel sound, but their performance was not unforgettable.

Visually, La Sera’s front-woman is reminiscent of Kate Nash herself, circa Made of Bricks— a stylish redhead with chopped bangs. But when the Londoner, who is now 26, stepped on stage after a 5 minute-long video intro of a vintage striptease in black and white, Nash looked nothing like her 2007 self. Her bright red hair was dyed black, with two white highlights. She donned black fishnets, platform sneakers and a rebellious new attitude, as vocalized in her most recent, feminist-fueled record, Girl Talk. She also picked up an electric guitar for her first few songs, which felt out of the ordinary for an artist who gained widespread recognition for an indie pop album that featured quite a bit of staccato piano play.

When Nash wasn’t head-banging behind a guitar, she was dancing on stage in true posipunk fashion or telling stories from when she

was “on holiday.” But as she began playing with her so-called “girl gang,” that is, the all-female band she traded her former bandmates in for, there was no question that pop had indeed turned punk. As expected, she performed mostly songs from Girl Talk. Heavier versions of “Foundations,” “Mouthwash” and “Mariella” were also obvious favorites though, as much of the audience looked like they’d listened to Nash’s first two albums in high school. However, Nash’s new alter-ego, a freshly-realized feminist, was relatable and refreshing for those that came perhaps expecting a pseudo-twee performance in her typical Brit-accented sing-talk.

By the end of the night, Nash was dropping some knowledge about the pressures of being a woman in the music industry and promoting her after-school music education program for girls, just before inviting a group of women on stage to dance and snap selfies. It wasn’t long until Nash fed the audience some especially enthusiastic crowd-surfers before finally taking the leap of faith into the crowd herself. On top of everything, Nash proceeded to end the show with an encore of her most recognized single, “Merry Happy,” resulting in a merry, happy evening indeed.

Jackie Swisshelm (Journalism)

E R O N S , e t i h w , h c i r a t n a w t ’ n o d y l l a u t c a s k l o f .

Q T p B o G h L p e i s h u r a o f Bec r o , m e h t r o f g n i k a e p s e straight dud

11

He’s a white, heterosexual rapper that topped the charts Feature Fall 2013

12

with a gay rights anthem called “Same Love” and a whimsical rap about how fun it is to shop at Goodwill—because God knows he didn’t have to wear secondhand clothes growing up in suburban Seattle.

It’s hard to believe that the Human Rights Campaign—an intersectionality-lacking organization said to be the face of LGBT assimilation—didn’t endorse Macklemore to write “Same Love.” But because he’s got a pair of gay uncles, condemns homophobia, and one point questioned his sexuality in grade school, Macklemore is somehow the voice of an entire generation.

With “Same Love,” however, Macklemore misrepresents a community to which he doesn’t belong, and critiques another. He compares gay rights to black civil rights, as if he’s endured the oppression directed at either, and then raps about how hip-hop (read: black culture) should know better than to be homophobic. He’s effectively playing the role of the “white savior” here, and calling for a revolutionary change to hip-hop by giving it a white, upper-middle class face.

Messages like “forget the fame, fortune and the mansion,” and his usual not-doingit-for-the-money assurances pervade Macklemore’s most recent album The Heist, which consists of nice guy rap from a politically correct college grad. But “Same Love” has found praise among HRC-types, those that turn a blind eye to more urgent issues in the LGBTQ community like nonwhite, working class, bisexual, queer and trans* experiences. As a result, the relevance of “Same Love” to all those LGBTQ folk is on par with the small percent that benefit from the HRC’s insubstantial concern for them.

Sure, “Same Love” speaks out against hate, and that’s a positive. Actually, it’s inspiring that listeners from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Akron, Ohio can be heard belting out some empowering truth about love, despite what lawmakers have to say about the issue. I suppose that’s why the song won a Moonman Award at the VMA’s last September.

But the success of “Same Love” and The Heist just reinforces the stereotype that white audiences think that most rap is about sex, drugs and violence. Macklemore isn’t edgy for calling out hip-hop for being homophobic; he’s misguided. And he isn’t going against the grain for promoting marriage equality; he’s just riding the coattails of the issue.

Jackie Swisshelm (Journalism)

And if you want to hear artists who rap about being LBGTQ in modern hip-hop from true blue experience—they exist. So hold on to your oversized fur coats, die-hard Macklemore fans, because here are five queer QTs that break Macklemore’s caricature of modern-hip hop:

1. Le1f Le1f, born Khalif Diouf, is a 23-year-old Manhattanite known for producing Das Racist track “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” his fiercely androgynous sense of style and calling out Macklemore for using his beat from his 2012 single “Wut” in 2013’s chart-topper, “Thrift Shop.” Better yet, he’s an openly gay rapper who’s not afraid to get sexual. But while Le1f is very open about his sexuality in his music, he doesn’t want to be constricted to the “gay rap” genre—a sentiment that most “out” artists share. The crux of his music instead lies in community, along with ultra-sick producing skills that straddle the line between rap and dance, glossy and aggressive.

2. Mykki Blanco A fashion-forward trans* rapper, performance artist, author, and poet, New York-based Mykki Blanco is so much more than a triple threat. Born Michael Quattlebaum, Mykki Blanco is at the forefront of the queer and trans* rap scene in New York, and for good reason. Her single “Wavvy” from mixtape Cosmic Angel featured aggressive staccato-style rapping and one insanely catchy hook. And although her catalogue is still small, her first album, Michael, is due in 2014. Until then, seek out Blanco’s fourteen-minute biovid/free-style masterpiece, “Cosmic Angel.”

3. syd tha kyd Although Frank Ocean delivered arguably the biggest coming out story in modern hip-hop history, Odd Future’s only female member Sydney Bennett/ Syd tha Kyd somehow managed to stay out of the spotlight. With jazzy cues evoking artists like Prince and Sade, it’s hard to figure out how Syd’s work with Matt Martians, Patrick Paige, and Christopher Smith—together they are The Internet—could fail to be noticed. With two records under their belt, Purple Naked Ladies in 2011 and Feel Good in 2013, The Internet is a far cry from the music of Odd Future; it’s the inevitable soft side from a member of the otherwise lyrically aggressive OFWGKTA. And while Syd is oftentimes overshadowed in Odd Future, her delicate, dreamy vocals take center stage with her new lineup with warmth that evokes a sense of maturity. However, at 21, Syd doesn’t completely know herself— and moments of lyrical cliché reflect that. The experimental, vibe-heavy exploration into elements of funk and neo-soul, however, more than compensate.

4. azealia banks

5. Cakes da killa At age 22, Rashard Bradshaw, a.k.a. Cakes Da Killa, is keeping true to his stage name. Spawning from Englewood, New Jersey as the child of a single, teen mother, Cakes has climbed his way to the top of the queer music scene in New York, putting out two EPs in two years and four flirty music videos that take gender-bending in the hip-hop scene to the next, best level. His lyrics get graphic in his first proper album, 2011’s The Eulogy (which is way more fun than it sounds), prompting comparisons to Lil’ Kim. Style-wise, Cakes is a little bit of everything— 90s R&B, crunk and some minimalist techno beats. One thing about Cakes Da Killa is certain—the umbrella term “queer rap” just does not do him justice.

Although her first LP, Broke with Expensive Taste, isn’t due until 2014, you’ve probably already heard at least one track by bisexual beauty Azealia Banks. Born and raised in Harlem, Banks was dubbed hiphop’s next big thing after the release of her massively successful debut single “212” from her 1991 EP. Known for her use of profanity in many of her songs—she refers to herself as the “cunt queen”—and countless feuds with big names like Perez Hilton, Banks certainly doesn’t shy away from confrontation. And this attitude is easily carried over to her music with a distinct rapping style. Banks isn’t afraid to roar along to Diplo-esque beats in “212,” just as she evokes Missy Elliot-gone-techno in her song “1991.”

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Local Photos

Tall Heights The Sinclair, November 2013

Leah Corbett (Digital Arts)

Sky Ferreira (top) Boston Globe Media Lab, November 2013

Maria Anasanti (Journalism/Internation Affairs) You Me At Six (right) Paradise, October 2013

Lauren Kovalefsky (Business) Fiona Apple (opposite page) Emerson Colonial Theatre, October 2013

Ben Stas (English/Journalism)

Editorial

Pon di Billboard Pop Music’s Infatuation with the West Indies

I

Fall 2013

18

n a discussion concerning the influence of West Indian music on American pop, perhaps it’s best to start with hip-hop.

Case in point: I personally cannot

remember one time I’ve listened to a hip-hop

Marley—the inimitable, unmistakable, often-

radio station in the past five years without

incomprehensible Sean Paul. If you think

hearing the infamous “dancehall air horn”

for a second that this guy wasn’t absolutely

peppered in over the DJ’s self-promotional

dominating the R&B and hip-hop charts at

banter. However, the relationship between

one point, you’re not remembering correctly

American popular music and the music

(it’s also worth mentioning that Paul does

patois. Additionally, one of the only living

of the West Indies—especially reggae and

not make R&B or hip-hop). If you’re still not

legends in hip-hop, Snoop Dogg, rebranded as

dancehall—goes much deeper than that.

convinced, consider this—the only major

Snoop Lion for a (lamentable) reggae project.

dancehall hit since his 2005 album, The

Snoop’s name change brings about an

has been a versatile and widespread element

Trinity, is “Hold You” by Gyptian, who has

interesting question—how authentic is all of

in popular American records. A notable

yet to follow it up in America. Sure, there’s

this? Sure, considering that Miley probably

collaboration, Beyoncé and Sean Paul’s 2002

something wrong with you if you don’t feel

isn’t dutty wining at too many dancehall

single “Baby Boy” is seen by many as the

a little embarrassed while listening to him

nights, it’s easy to think that adoption of a

jumping-off point for this phenomenon—

now, but Sean Paul’s influence shouldn’t be

culture in this manner is simply appropriation

James Anthony of The Guardian said at the

discounted for a second.

for the sake of appearing “different.” This

time of its release that the track “bridges

may be accurate, but in terms of musicality

the gap between the genres of R&B and

fad that has come and gone. In fact, the reach

this is perfectly natural and acceptable. Every

dancehall.” After this, reggae and dancehall’s

of West Indian culture over popular music is

genre that has risen to prominence has seen

influence in hip-hop exploded; artists that

more expansive and varied today than ever

its influence streaked through music that is

didn’t previously have an audience in America

before. Now, we have Miley Cyrus chatting

otherwise attributed to other genres. Rappers

garnered hit singles (do yourself a favor and

that “we run things, things don’t run we” while

like Lil Wayne and Kid Cudi see themselves

revisit “Dude” by Beenie Man). MCs also took

Barbados-born Rihanna is one of the biggest

as being in good positions to put out “rock”

notice, including one 50 Cent, whose 2003

pop stars in the world. At the same time, one

albums, and many of today’s pop stars are

radio/middle school dance banger “P.I.M.P.”

of the biggest electronic producers of the

able to awkwardly spit out pseudo-rap verses

features heavy Caribbean influence, although

moment, Diplo, draws heavily enough from

in their songs without anyone batting an eye.

the finished product still sounds more like

Jamaican music and street culture that they

Artistic exploration is made more interesting

Jamaica, Queens than Kingston.

become an intrinsic part of both his dancehall-

by experimentation, and at least a lot of this

fusion project, Major Lazer, and his solo work.

stuff sounds good.

dancehall in the early 2000s is complete

The hip-hop influence is still here as well,

without mention of one of the most prevalent

and more prevalent than ever—rappers from

influence on American music has been growing

West Indian artists to crack America since

A$AP Rocky to Jay-Z have imitated Caribbean

at a steady pace. At this point, its relationship

Since the early 2000s, West Indian music

Of course, no discussion of reggae or

That’s not to say this type of influence is a

For the past ten years, West Indian

N

W

E

S

“Pop stars are spitting broken patois, many Americans are discovering twerking”

with hip-hop is almost symbiotic, and as we’re currently living in a hip-hop moment, West Indian influence can be seen everywhere.

Pop stars are spitting broken patois, many Americans are discovering twerking (and the concept of wearing brightly-colored spandex tights to the club), and it seems as if many hip-hop artists view Rasta culture in a positive, admiring light. The climate of popular music is certainly fickle, and it has to be that way in order to keep up with ever-shrinking attention spans. However, given the history and prevalence of West Indian influence in its fabric, the day when Caribbean music and culture aren’t represented in American popular music is far off.

• Aaron Decker (Communications) 19

Local Talent

Local Talent

MALS TOTEM Gritted teeth give way to an eyes-closed melodic euphoria, overtaken at the point of comfort

by heavy rhythmic digression culminating in a head banging finish. With their debut self-titled EP, Mals Totem has melded the comfortable with the unforgiving; the familiar with the weird; elements of pop riddled with chaotic inflections and grinding guitars. Formed in 2011 by guitarists Michael Lostica, Asher Kurtz, and bassist Ronnie Lanzilotta, the group spent two years perfecting their energetic writing and performance style.

Now, the band is focusing on extending their reach throughout the Northeast while distributing a unique and extensive multimedia package to fans.

Mals Totem is innately collaborative. Their Inception inspired name is not just for show: the band uses layers of sound to create integrated concepts for each track, posing a challenge to the listener. An active audience will recognize the transition between pleasurable, melodic arrangements to a controlled volatility that has become the hallmark of the Boston-bred rockers’ songwriting. The band has collaborated with local visual artist Faye Nightengale to produce a multimedia art package that directly corresponds to the individual tracks on the EP.

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Self-described as ‘tastefully obnoxious,’ the Boston-bred five piece cultivated their craft while enrolled at Berklee College of Music. Drawing from backgrounds in jazz and metal, the band has created a synesthetic musical trademark that translates into heavy, high-energy performances. The band’s live shows are a must-see: from packing sweaty Allston basements, to encoring at famed NYC venue The Bitter End, to playing to suited professionals in Kendall Square, Mals Totem draws a response from any audience. The band has also been featured at various events held by RAW’s Boston section, an independent arts organization. A live performance music video for a new track, “The Machine,” was released on November 6th courtesy of 21 Summit Productions, steering the band into even heavier waters and translating their unique performance antics to an accessible medium for all.

Mals Totem has big plans for concluding 2013 and kicking off the New Year. Four fifths of the band have relocated to New York, while vocalist Dave Vives finishes his last two semesters at Berklee. Due to a sexy spinal injury (an L4, L5 disk fusion, to be exact) for bassist Ronnie Lanzilotta, the spring will be more stationary: the perfect time to work on new music. The band plans on embarking on a short tour of the Northeast in late spring.

Anna Glina (Zumba)

Bassist Ronnie Lanzilotta attended the photoshoot in digital spirit

Leah Corbett (Digital Arts)

members

r eco m m e n d e d t rac ks

Asher Kurtz (Lead Guitar)

Jigsaw (Falling into Place), Mastless

Michael Lostica (Rhythm Guitar) Ronnie Lanzilotta (Bass)

albums

Angelo Spampinato (Drums)

Mals Totem

Dave Vives (Vocals)

(September, 2013)

c o l l a b o r at o r s

Raúl Landazuri (Producer, Mals Totem EP) George Massenburg (Earth, Wind & Fire; James Taylor-Producer, ‘Gargantuan’) Susan Rogers (Prince; Barenaked Ladies-Producer, ‘Gargantuan’) Faye Nightingale (Visual Media) sounds like

check out mals totem

Radiohead, The Mars Volta

malstotem.bandcamp.com

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Local Talent Fall 2013

Mals Totem 22

Leah Corbett (Digital Arts)

23

Feature

WHAT HAPPENED TO SKA? Kelly Subin (Marketing)

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The memories are vivid, albeit embarrassing. It was an era where the threat of a 16+ venue was actually a significant obstacle in the way of seeing a band. If you have never experienced a ska show, I will describe it for you in accurate detail: Imagine yourself in the basement of your local United Methodist Church. Can’t picture it? It’s lit with fluorescents with peeling white paint and a few folding chairs lined up against the walls. It’s probably sweaty. Actually, it’s definitely sweaty. Some hefty dude in a Reel Big Fish t-shirt draws a thick black X in Sharpie on your hand after you pay ten dollars at the door. You step into the venue and are immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of checkerboard vans and Hawaiian shirts. You work your way to the center of the crowd, where you collide with an unusual, rotating display of dance moves. To an outsider, it appears to be some sort of tribal ritual, consisting of flailing one’s body forward and back. To a ska show veteran, it’s a demonstration of musical unity and a hell of a workout.

I always found ska a particularly appealing genre because of its largely upbeat, summery vibes. It’s typified by its fast tempo and strong off-beat accents, and is known as the precursor to reggae. To me, ska music embodies youth and cheerful intensity. Anyone who has ever entered the circle pit at a ska show has fed off the energy of others around them, and felt a sort of connection with their surroundings, even as their body was tossed and thrown in the pit.

In my ska prime, I was infatuated with bands like Big D & The Kids Table, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto.

Most were in steady rotation on Vans Warped Tour, and were extremely high-energy and musically impressive live acts. Shows included frequent punk and pop-punk covers, and the occasional Nickelodeon TV show theme song. Nothing impressed me more, though, than each band’s prominent horn section. How the sax, trumpet and trombone players didn’t pass out after a 2+ hour show and still managed to dance while playing the entire set, I will never know.

The local scene was just as important as the bigger names. Many Friday nights at local VFW’s and high school gymnasiums featured the bands of friends’ older brothers and cool high school kids. They were neighborhood ska heroes, and backyard and basement shows weren’t uncommon. Energetic bands like The Fad and Arrogant Sons of Bitches always drew particular admiration, although I could never tell if their popularity was widespread or if they just maintained a local cult following.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the ska scene began to die. On the local scale, it was probably when the older kids in bands when to college and inevitably came back as hipsters. Maybe it was just the natural disintegration of bands, when there’s no fun left in playing for the fun of it. But ultimately, fewer and fewer ska acts were booking local venues, and I began broadening my musical horizons. Other teenagers I knew explored the pop-punk scene, or plunged into the realms of indie and alternative.

But what about the more prominent ska acts? Had they too begun to reach their downfall, or was it just that interest in their newer releases begun to decline? Vans Warped Tour in recent years features one or two ska or ska-punk bands, while primarily headlining pop-punk and hardcore acts. No Doubt was one of the first ska-influenced bands to penetrate the Billboard Top 100, with their 1995 album, Tragic Kingdom.

However, their ska-punk influence faded as their popularity increased until their 2004 hiatus. Long Island natives Patent Pending also began as a ska-punk band, but later transitioned to pop punk following their signing to We Put Out Records and a stint on Warped Tour. They later received the opportunity to perform at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards, and it’s hard to imagine they would have obtained such a chance had they continued primarily as a ska-punk band. The ska scene took significant losses with the breakups of such bands as Common Rider and Save Ferris in 2003, as well as a hiatus from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones that same year. The Bosstones are credited as one of the founders of ska-core (combination of ska and punk rock), as well as one of the first and only ska bands to experience mainstream success and radio play. As interest in ska began to waver, bands either gradually transitioned into different genres or disbanded altogether.

There are still some ska acts that refuse to abandon the genre they became established with. Boston natives, Big D and The Kid’s Table, are still constantly touring and after 18 years are still able to put on an incredible, high-energy live show. I recently attended one, and was unsurprised to see that the crowd was generally much older than I remember it being. Despite the all ages venue, the average attendee looked to be in their late 20s, and the crowd was slightly better dressed—and definitely much drunker—than in my middle school years. Although the scene has grown up, you’ll still see an occasional “Thomas and The Skank Engines” t-shirt, and a Hawaiian shirt or two.

Still, upon entering the venue, I was excited to see that the crowd still maintained the same level of enthusiasm, as well as sweat, as it did at the shows I attended when I was younger. Some things never change.

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Cover Story

For every musician who has “made it,� there are thousands working in obscurity, fighting for the opportunity to be recognized and bring their music to the world. The struggle is represented across genres, from the garage band to the coffeehouse singer-songwriter to the busking jazz saxophonist. Yet for hip-hop in particular, the fruits of the amateur artist have become an industry unto itself, with some MCs rising to great renown even before signing a record deal.

This contradiction is the mixtape.

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Mixtapes have been a staple of hip-hop culture since the early 1980’s when DJs, without mainstream hiphop outlets, would sell self-made recordings of rappers rhyming over their mixes. As hiphop become more popular in the mainstream market through the late 80’s and into the 1990’s, mixtapes—which by then had become more MC-centric—became the de facto entry point for aspiring hip-hop artists.

They served as an avenue for amateurs to get their name and talent out on the street without a formal recording contract and thereby create buzz that might attract label attention. Around the same time, record companies recognized the mixtape market as a viable tool for promotion, and began sponsoring mixtapes by their signed artists that would act as promotional forerunners to major album drops. Yet by and large, the mixtape remained the proving grounds of unsigned artists: independent, selfpromoted, and fighting for their big break.

Historically, mixtapes were sold in physical copies—hence the “tape” in the name—and as recording technology changed, so too mixtape format evolved from tapes to CDs. Today however, in light of a music industry largely defined by online mp3 distribution, the mixtape has taken on new form and the culture surrounding it has evolved into a massive online entity with completely reworked standards of practice.

Websites such as HotNewHipHop.com,

LiveMixtapes.com, and DatPiff.com, which as of 2011 boasted almost 10 million visitors a month, host massive online marketplaces where artists may upload their mixtapes for listeners to download and share. Even for unsigned artists, these uploads can become wildly popular, evidenced in one major case by the signing of rapper A$AP Rocky to RCA with the success of his debut mixtape Live.Love.A$AP, which today has been downloaded from DatPiff over 1.25 million times.

Yet one of the most dynamic aspects of the modern mixtape is its price. Today, mixtapes are free, sponsored by the artist’s record company or simply paid out of pocket.

This business model, while seemingly unsustainable, allows for viral circulation of an artist’s mixtape and name, which in the world of hip-hop is invaluable to an aspiring rapper looking for recognition, and pays off abundantly in long-term dividends.

With record sales dropping and piracy on the rise, traditional industry standards have fallen short in keeping up with contemporary trends. However, for mixtapes, the transition from sold physical copies to free online downloads hints at an ideological shift within the hip-hop community and deep, progressive adjustments within the music industry as a whole. If an artist can secure a fan base and a well-known catalogue of songs before entering the gamble that is signed musicianship, there is

a higher probability for those dedicated fans to buy the album, go to the shows, buy the merchandise, tell their friends, download the next mixtape, and repeat, all the while benefiting both artist and label. In essence, it’s a modern long-game strategy using old school traditions, and it fits the hip-hop bill perfectly.

Mixtapes are more than simply an underground aspect of the hip-hop community, they are necessary factors in its growth and development. They give the opportunity to unknown artists to put their talent out into the public, and through mixtape sites reach an audience never thought possible in the dawn of hip-hop. The modern mixtape is a shot in the arm for the hip-hop industry, and with all its success should likewise act as a wakeup call to other genres on how to adapt to a rapidly changing music business landscape. Most of all, a massive talent pool now has access to the community at large, a boon that benefits both artist and audience. With modern technology and a deeply interwoven music scene, artists can bring their talent to the world like never before, and with the click of a button fulfill their dreams of hip-hop glory.

• David Murphy (Psychology)

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Cover Story

Here is a collection of noteworthy mixtapes from the past few years, all released through online mixtape distribution sites.

Etcetera

Lil’ Dicky So Hard

35K downloads A self-admitted average-looking Jewish dude, one would not expect the talent of Lil’ Dicky coming from the package it was brought in.

But Lil’ Dicky – A.K.A. “Mr. Leftward-Sloping Penis” – is an undeniably skilled rapper, and uses this contradiction as a central inspiration on So Hard, which is full of self-deprecatory humor and tongue-in-cheek awareness of his status in the rap game. Topics range from disappointment and rejection at the club (“Club Night”), to the myriad benefits of being born a white male (“White Dude”), to an argument between L.D. and his own “lil’ dicky” (“Attached at the Hip”).

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Action Bronson Blue Chips 2

90K downloads The red-bearded chef-turned-rapper Action Bronson is a rising star in the hiphop community for his outlandish, kingpin persona and grindhouse rhymes. On Blue Chips 2, his second collaboration with the phenomenal producer Party Supplies, Queens native Bronsoliño brings in such trademark lavish lines as “Put a half ounce of the crystal in the asshole of a shih tzu / Twist your bitch too, like Brazilian jujitsu” (“Flip Ya”) as well as a lyrical confession of how he fixed Game 7 of the 1995 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals on “9.24.13”.

Big K.R.I.T 4 Eva N a Day

280K downloads In 2011, Big K.R.I.T. released his mixtape 4Eva N a Day, a concept tape that takes the audience through a day in K.R.I.T.’s life as he struggles with moral decisions, maintaining relationships, and the consequences of his growing fame. 4Eva N a Day, completely produced by K.R.I.T. himself, blends the renowned southern rapper’s buttery Mississippi drawl with an admirable level of introspection and social consciousness, especially evident on tracks “Down & Out” and “The Alarm.”

Chance the Rapper Acid Rap

300K downloads Called one of the best hip-hop albums of 2013, Chicago MC Chance the Rapper’s sophomore mixtape Acid Rap is like a chemically altered sonic funhouse ride.

The high-pitched rasp of Chance’s unique flow moves from hyped up jester on songs like “Good Ass Intro” and “Juice” to troubled soul in the city on “Acid Rain” in this colorful yet thought-provoking mixtape. Recently, in a controversial decision, Chance turned down a deal from Top Dawg Entertainment, opting to remain as an independent artist releasing his own work.

A$AP Rocky Live.Love.A$AP 1.3M downloads The mixtape that launched a career. Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky’s first mixtape Live.Love.

A$AP was a tremendous success upon its release in 2011. Singles released prior to the drop, “Peso” and “Purple Swag”, caught the attention of executives at RCA Records, and two weeks before the mixtape was officially dropped, A$AP had signed a $3 million contract. The mixtape was widely acclaimed as one of the best hip-hop albums of 2011 and today remains a respected work in the hiphop community.

Meek Mill

Dreamchasers II 4.1M downloads What was originally meant as a precursor to his debut album released later in the year with Maybach Music, Meek Mill’s 2012 mixtape Dreamchasers 2 is the single most downloaded mixtape in history with over four million downloads from DatPiff.com.

24 hours post-drop, the tape had been downloaded 2.5 million times, and the site had experienced a massive crash from the sheer amount of traffic for Mill’s tape, which featured appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Wale, Rick Ross, and 2 Chainz. Music aside, the sheer figures of Meek Mill’s tape are incredible, and give credence to the potential of online mixtape distribution.

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Feature

what’s in a

Name?

What does neo-glam outfit Foxy Shazam have in common with electro-pioneer Vangelis and absurdist rapper Lakutis?

Apparently, it’s that the average person hasn’t heard of them. So we took to the streets and asked passersby to take a wild guess—the responses speak for themselves.

Joseph Dussault (Journalism)

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Editorial

Escaping the Studio A

band’s production formula is rather standard: release a debut album and tour, release a follow up album and tour. Rinse and repeat. While this formula has worked for countless bands, and has brought about amazing artists, the process has become stale. It lacks diversity; it is devoid of surprise; it does not offer quite enough to those seeking more from their musical favorites. Certainly, it would serve musicians well to break from the cabin fever of the recording studio and throw themselves onto a new platform for their musical abilities, freeing their music from the confines of the record and unleashing it to the world in new and exciting ways.

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The members of OK Go are well known for their quirky music videos, but, on Nov. 17, 2010, the band did something truly unique. With the help of around 100 people, Damian Kulash (singer and guitarist) led a parade featuring his music through the streets of Los Angeles—the sweet melodies played through the collective power of megaphones, guitars, drums, brass and even accordions. Setting the bar ever higher, the route even spelled out the band’s name through 8.5 miles of city streets. Part of being a musician is expanding the reach of one’s music, so the band did just that in a typically lighthearted way.

Julian Corrie, a solo electric-pop artist commonly known as Miaoux Miaoux, found another medium to experiment with his music. In his video, “Polybius,” Corrie gathers the assistance of technology’s old heroes such as SEGA modules, floppy discs and ancient printers to unleash an unconventional love song. Though the song is beautiful in and of itself, the exceptionally inventive craftsmanship makes it notable.

Supplemented by a synthesizer, each pluck of his guitar strings corresponds to a different sound on an appliance, orchestrating an emotional, but robotic, piece of work.

The introduction of an artist’s music into a new medium does not need to be a completely active effort by the band either. In 2007, Julie Taymor engulfed viewers in the music of The Beatles through film. Her feature, Across the Universe, brandished a plot based on

their songs, and thus offered a novel way to experience The Beatles. Though this ingenuity was more the work of the director, it serves as an important model for what is possible. Heck, even Green Day has a musical based on their album, American Idiot, a delightfully odd angle from a punk-rock band.

Bursting from the restrictions of tradition is crucial for breeding creativity.

It fosters new perspectives and opens channels for further imaginative adventures, revitalizing older fans and opening the door to new audiences.

Not all bands are candidates for this type of production, and some are better off that way. But musicians are artists, and artists are supposed to push boundaries—it should be their goal to break the norm. So why do so many hide within the safety of the known?

Sometimes the solution is as simple as having fun. There is no denying that OK Go and Julian Corrie love what they do, as they are always trying to find new and exciting ways to share their music with the world. Within this effort lies the purest goal of music: making something for others to enjoy. While churning out ten albums has its own rewards for the musician and their audience, it sometimes misses the point of music.

Musical experimentation signals a greater level of connectivity between the artist and their craft—one that does not require the rigidity of the recording studio formula. This genuine and free connection lies deep in the heart of what it means to be a musician.

• Max Oyer (Health Science)

Photo Credit: Range Rover Pagina Ufficiale

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Editorial

in defense of Beck’s Midnite Vultures Fall 2013

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Beck is back in 2013, if we can agree that he ever went away in the first place.

The eclectic songwriter released his last studio album, Modern Guilt, in 2008. Since then he’s spent much of his time behind closed doors, releasing the occasional soundtrack contribution, producing other peoples’ albums, releasing sheet music and dabbling in assorted other projects. It wasn’t until this past summer that rumors of a new record began to swirl, egged on by the release of three new singles, a headlining slot at the Newport Folk Festival and a tour of large, outdoor shows. Those sets saw Beck delving into most every part of his back catalog, leaving just one record, smack in the middle of his discography, almost entirely overlooked.

That record is 1998’s Midnite Vultures.

It is Beck’s hour-long collection of often ridiculous, always inventive Prince-isms, and a sorely underrated piece of work. Though critics were initially in praise of the album (it even received an Album of the Year Grammy nomination), time has not been so kind to Vultures. Sandwiched between the more acoustic and seriously-minded Mutations and Sea Change, Vultures is in the unfortunate position of being disregarded as a jokey throwaway or simply forgotten altogether.

With the record’s 15th birthday approaching in 2014, however, now seems as good a time as any to resuscitate its reputation.

At its core, Midnite Vultures is quintessential Beck. It blurs genre lines like Odelay, embraces the off-kilter sense of humor of Mellow Gold and even offers up some subdued Mutations balladry on side B. Vultures also brings something unique to the table in its vibrant instrumental palette; the trademark samples are here, but they’re accented by rubbery bass lines, funk-indebted electric guitars, horns and hints of strings. These are among the most

crowded instrumentals in Beck’s catalog, but they’re also some of the most interesting.

They reward close, repeated listens with revelations of new layers of sonic detail.

Lyrically, Vultures is Beck at his most hilariously quotable. “I want to defy the logic of our sex laws,” goes the album’s first chorus, and from there we’re off to a uniquely warped 80s club-land narrated only as Beck can narrate. Sex is unabashedly the main concern at hand here, from aforementioned opener “Sexx Laws” to the gleefully lascivious “Hollywood Freaks” (“Hot dogs, NoDoz / Hot sex in back rows”) and the slow-grooving “Peaches and Cream” (“we’re on the good ship ménage à trois”). The lyrics surely border on sleazy in places, but are reigned in

by Beck’s tongue-in-cheek delivery. He raps, he croons, he goes full-on falsetto for closing track “Debra,” and he’s clearly having fun.

The record’s structure plays perfectly to the individual strengths of these songs.

“Sexx Laws” crashes out of the gate with lively horns and leads the charge of an energetic, danceable side A. The slightly mellower side B

briefly pulls back from the full-scale zaniness at just the right time with the pretty, relaxed “Beautiful Way,” then brings things full-circle with the grandiosely soulful ode to getting with a JCPenney employee and her titular sister that is “Debra.”

Disagreements will persist about what exactly to call Midnite Vultures. It’s pure irony to some, reverent pastiche to others and a throwaway to the rest. Beck himself told Pitchfork’s Ryan Dombal in a 2011 interview that “some arguments could be made for the album…being better left in the vault.” It may be imperfect, and it may not be anyone’s go-to Beck album for most situations, but Midnite Vultures is still a record undeniably bursting with ideas and character. To overlook it entirely is to do a disservice to a fascinating piece of work. Perhaps a 15th anniversary reissue, ideally including the numerous finished tracks from the album sessions that never left the studio, will convince the world to rethink.

Ben Stas (Journalism/English)

35

Interview

Q&A with

BRENDAN CANNING of Broken Social Scene

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Brendan Canning made his name as co-founder of the indie rock collective Broken Social Scene, which announced its indefinite hiatus in 2011. The “Broken Social Scene Presents…” series released records by Canning and BSS partner-in-crime Kevin Drew in 2008, but October’s You Gots 2 Chill could be considered Canning’s proper debut under his own name. Canning recently took a few minutes to chat with Tastemakers about the new record and tour.

Tastemakers Magazine (TMM): So the

tour is just about to begin—how have the rehearsals gone?

Brendan Canning (BC): It’s a lot to take in sometimes, ‘cause it’s a new band and there’s a lot of stuff to do. But as far as the vibe of the band, it’s good. I’m quite happy with it. It’s gonna be something quite different from the record.

TMM: As far as the record goes, I have to ask about the title—where did that come from?

BC: Sort of like a lot of album titles.

Sometimes they can be sort of a jokey thing… but after a while I’m like, “You know what, I dig the title.” It’s meant to be funny. I figure if it’s a title that sticks with you… I think it’s a great title. Nothing else came to mind, and it seemed very fitting.

TMM: The record feels more mellow, more folk-influenced than your last one— were there any particular artists who influenced that?

BC: I’ve been playing this sort of style for the better part of 15 years. I spend a lot of time on my front stoop at home coming up with licks or writing songs. I guess this was the first real opportunity I’ve had to delve into that world.

It’s a “volume one” of that.

TMM: This record drops the “Broken Social Scene Presents…” tag—does that reflect the more solo nature of it?

BC: I think at the time of the other record I was very much entrenched in the world of Broken Social Scene and a lot of Broken Social Scene appears on that record. In hindsight it could’ve been “Brendan Canning Presents Broken Social Scene” or “Kevin Drew Presents Broken Social Scene” instead of the other way around. It was our versions of the band, I guess, if we were left to have the final say. [This record] is definitely not of the Broken Social Scene world.

TMM: How “solo” was the album in regards to the recording process? Did you play most of it yourself?

BC: I did it mainly with my partner Steve Singh… There’s also some guest vocals, lap steel, violin. Most of the guitar work is me, most of the keyboard is either him or me.

TMM: How are you handling the tour for this record? How large is the band?

BC: It’s a five-piece, so a lot of the songs that don’t have drums on the album will have drums in the live show. I just wanted to do something different—it’s all trial and error.

I have five people who have never played in a

band but who I thought would vibe together.

It’ll be interesting. I’ll be playing from the record, one oldie from Something for All of Us and a few new ones… That’s the next phase I guess, which is maybe not traditionally what a band would do. I’m just going to play songs and hope people like them.

I feel like the album is such a meditative piece. I just wanted the live show to be something different. When Kevin and I did [Broken Social Scene album] Feel Good Lost, it’s not like we toured that record. It was more of a sound we were trying to achieve; the basis for something much larger. You Gots 2 Chill is an idea.

TMM: So you’re playing some new songs— have you already started thinking about where you’re headed next?

BC: I’ve got a five-piece band, so I wanted to play some electric guitar songs with the group and see how it sounds. What to record next?

Who knows? I’m gonna hit the road first and see how that goes.

Ben Stas (Journalism/English)

37

Feature

Famous Musicians’ Guest Appearances on The Simpsons You know you have made it as a famous comedian when you’re invited for an appearance on Saturday Night Live. You’ve made it as a professional athlete when a design team works endlessly to perfect a life-like animation of you for the latest NBA game for Xbox. But arguably the greatest of all honors and the truest indication that you’ve made it as a celebrity occurs when your skin is colored yellow and you are dropped into the town of Springfield. Of course, I am referring to Fox’s The Simpsons.

With 24 seasons under its belt and a 25th running now, The Simpsons has had over 600 celebrity guest stars, many of which are musicians.

Celebrities sometimes portray fictional characters, but when cast to voice themselves, these appearances tend to be more interesting.

Why? In this scenario, the artists are often directly agreeing to make fun of themselves, their music and the stereotypes that surround them, usually in an absurd way. Despite this, it didn’t take long for well-known artists to start appearing on the show at its inception, with Tony Bennett pioneering musicians’ appearances in the show’s second season. Ringo Starr followed Bennett in the second season and Sting appeared in the third.

While other programs such as talk shows and sitcoms bring on celebrity musicians for performances and character roles, none of them do it quite like The Simpsons, and neither does any other cartoon out there. Here are some of the most notable instances of musicians entering the world of Matt Groening.

• Cara McGrath (Graphic Design)

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Here are some more noteworthy appearances to check out on The Simpsons.

Tony Bennett “Dancin’ Homer” Season 2, Ep. 5 November 8, 1990

Ringo Starr “Brush with Greatness” Season 2, Ep. 18 April 11, 1991

Sting “Radio Bart” Season 3, Ep. 13 January 9, 1992

The Ramones “Rosebud” Season 5, Ep. 4 October 21, 1993

Red Hot Chili Peppers “Krusty Gets Kancelled” Season 4, Episode 22, May 13, 1993 When the four members of RHCP show up in Springfield, they are initially supposed to perform at Moe’s Tavern. They arrive and find that Moe Syslak had lied when he told their agent that the venue could hold 30,000 people. Instead, Flea accepts an offer from Bart for the group to perform on the “Krusty Clown Special.” As the band is getting ready, Krusty the Clown tells the band that their lyrics are not totally appropriate for television. He suggests that the lyrics from the band’s 1991 hit, “Give It Away,” be changed from “What I’ve got you’ve got to get it put it in you” to “What I’d like is I’d like to hug and kiss you.” After claiming that their lyrics are “like [their] children” seconds earlier, the band agrees to abandon the original words to the song, deeming the new line enjoyable for everyone. In the end, the Red Hot Chili Peppers leave an impression on the town, with some of the adult males taking on their stage wardrobe: underwear. Bette Midler and Barry White also appear in this episode, along with a handful of actors and actresses.

Top Matt Groening/simpsons.wikia.com Bottom anthonykiedis.net

‘N Sync “New Kids on the Blecch” Season 12, Episode 14, February 25, 2001 In this 2001 episode, Bart, Nelson, Millhouse and Ralph are suddenly offered a record deal as a boy band called The Party Posse. With the excessive voice altering enhancements (courtesy of NASA), it is implied that the members of boy bands are chosen at random and need no talent. Naturally, ‘N Sync steps in to train the kids for their new careers, performing perfectly coordinated dance moves (while reciting the moves aloud) and repeating a then-excessive slang word, “word.” ‘N Sync does their best to save the day when the town realizes that the four Springfield boys were unknowingly promoting subliminal Navy recruitment messages in their hit song, “Drop Da Bomb.” Ultimately, the episode ends with JC Chavez being dragged off to the Navy by a pair of military police.

Top Matt Groening/simpsons.wikia.com Bottom L. Busacca/WireImage/Getty Images

The Smashing The Moody Blues Pumpkins

“Homerpalooza” Season 7, Ep. 24 May 19, 1996

“Viva Ned Flanders” Season 10, Ep. 10 January 10, 1999

Elton John “I’m With Cupid” Season 10, Ep. 14 February 14, 1999

Britney Spears

“The Mansion Family” Season 11, Ep. 12 January 23, 2000

The Who “A Tale of Two Springfields” Season 12, Ep. 2 November 5, 2000

A ton of rock stars

“How I Spent my Strummer Vacation” Season 14, Ep. 2 November 10, 2002 39

Green Day Feature

The Simpsons Movie July 27, 2007 Green Day plays a punk rock rendition of the infamous theme song at the start of the The Simpsons Movie on a floating stage on the town’s lake. Their rendition is filled with lots of punk rock “heys,” and Billie Joe Armstrong looks very focused as he reads the lyrics from a screen: “Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da.” After entertaining the Springfield crowd for what Armstrong tells us has been three and a half hours, he pauses to attempt a short speech about saving the environment. Immediately, the crowd begins to throw their trash at them. Drummer Tré Cool points out that the lake’s pollution is dissolving the stage. Bassist Mike Dirnt then says a famous line from the movie, Titanic, as the ship is sinking: “Gentlemen, it has been an honor playing with you tonight.” The trio swaps out their instruments for three violins and they go down with their stage. Lisa Simpson is the only sad person in the crowd.

Top Matt Groening/simpsons.wikia.com Bottom boston.com

Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová “In the Name of the Grandfather” Season 20, Episode 14; March 22, 2009 Shorter than most other appearances is that by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. In this case, they did not play themselves, but their characters from the movie Once. Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie Simpson come across Hansard performing on the street in Ireland. He only manages to sing a few lines of “Falling Slowly” before Irglová appears in a window above. Here, she says her only line of the episode, but a great one: “Leave me alone! I have a husband!” Her husband then appears behind her, yells, “and quit sending her pianos!” and pushes Hansard’s gift out the window.

Top Left/Right Matt Groening/simpsons.wikia.com Bottom Once/foxsearchlight.com

These are only a handful of the greatest guest appearances. While some may feel that The Simpsons has been around for too long, its guest appearances, especially by musicians, will always be impressive and entertaining if only just to see your favorite artist drawn as a cartoon character.

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“Pranksta Rap” Season 16, Ep. 9 February 13, 2005

The White Stripes

“Jazzy and the Pussycats” Season 18. Ep. 2 September 17. 2006

The Dixie Chicks

“Papa Don’t Leech” Season 19, Ep. 16 April 13, 2008

Chris Martin (Coldplay)

“Million Dollar Maybe” Season 21, Ep. 11 January 31, 2010

Lady Gaga “Lisa Goes Gaga” Season 23, Ep. 22 May 20, 2012

Sigur Rós “The Saga of Carl” Season 24, Ep. 21 May 29, 2013

a guide to

G H O S T FA C E K I L L A H Considered a pioneer of hip-hop’s Golden Age

and 1/8 of massive musical collective The Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah solidified his place in rap’s pantheon of lyrically impressive emcees with 10 studio albums independent of the Wu, countless collaborations and features on some of hip-hop’s greatest albums of all time. With a career spanning over 21 years, Ghostface has had many colorful personas to mark his evolutionary stages in the rap game: Pretty Toney, Tony Starks, Ironman, Ghostdini and Starkey Love. He’s been parodied in pop culture, guest starring on 30 Rock and appearing in an animated cameo on cult-favorite Adult Swim cartoon The Boondocks as Huey’s spirit guide, “The Ghost of Ghostface Killah.”

With a knack for storytelling similar to DOOM, Ghostface launched his career blending gritty struggles of inner-city corruption with the fantastical mythos of Marvel superheroes and Godfather-esque mob bosses, leaving his devoted following with a strange sense of auditory vertigo, where the unlikely worlds of Staten Island housing project hustlers, comic book villains and organized crime bosses collide. Ghostface’s confrontational, emotion-laced, speedy delivery with street slang nearly unrecognizable to those outside the Five Boroughs is partly responsible for popularizing the “New York” sound, which continues to dominate East Coast hardcore rap today.

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ironman (1996) Strengths With ominous, dissonant production from RZA and help from his Wu squad, Ghostface is at his rawest and vulnerable; introspective tracks tackle philosophical and community-based issues.

Downside Rough around the edges and slightly disjointed, the album suggests Ironman is still Tony Starks at this point.

Recommended Camay, Daytona 500, Wildflower

the pretty toney album (2004) Strength Ghostface collaborates with artists outside the Wu like Missy Elliot, Musiq and Jadakiss, carving a spot for himself in mainstream hip-hop.

Downside It’s Tony but without his Wu-Tang crew, disappointing those listening for that signature sound.

Recommended Metal Lungies, Run, Tooken Back

supreme clientele (2000) Strengths Loads of old-school samples (Parliament, James Brown, Bill Withers); Ghostface’s wild storytelling expands in creativity.

Downside So many guest features overpower Ghostface.

Recommended Stroke of Death, Nutmeg, Buck 50

bulletproof wallets (2001) Strengths An array of street anthems, love songs and skits.

Downside Very formulaic, little variation at times seeming like freestyles on a mixtape.

Recommended Street Chemistry, Maxine, Love Session Fall 2013

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fishscale (2006) Strengths Fishscale’s production includes contributions from J Dilla, DOOM, Pete Rock and Just Blaze with sampled gems from greats like Caetano Veloso and Marvin Gaye. Ghostface’s wordplay, bravado and delivery are at its peak here.

Downside May be too New York-centric for listeners unfamiliar with regional sound/slang.

Recommended Underwater, Clipse of Doom, Be Easy

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ghostdini: wizard of poetry in emerald city (2009)

more fish (2006) Strengths Lines like “They on some flinstone sh*t,” over a DOOMproduced Spiderman sample plus an Amy Winehouse collaboration.

Downside Sounds like leftover tracks or B-sides to Fishscale instead of an independent album.

Recommended Guns N’ Razors, Ghost is Back, You Know I’m No Good

the big doe rehab (2007) Strengths Lavish bravado and contributions from later Wu-Tang affiliates.

Downside Ghostface focuses singularly on building his mob boss alter-ego, leaving the album to feel like it’s lacking depth.

Recommended Tony Sigel a.k.a. The Barrel Brothers, Paisley Darts, !

Strengths Rarely has there been a glimpse like this, into an emcee’s vulnerable emotional state concerning women, in hardcore rap.

Downside While the album isn’t quite for the ladies, there are enough love songs for it to qualify as Ghostface’s quintessential breakup album.

Recommended Guest House, Not Your Average Girl, Stay

apollo kids (2010) Strengths Atmospheric samples that even knowledgeable beatmakers have difficulty recognizing; mainstream artists such as Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz, Jim Jones and Black Thought shine in an unlikely setting.

Downside While extremely cohesive and well done, this album is more about flows than any intellectual wordplay.

Recommended Black Tequila, Starkology, Ghetto

twelve reasons to die (2013) Strengths Essentially a revenge tale and highly polished, this album deviates from the usual sampling, allowing Ghostface to display his versatility, rhyming over guitar and heavy orchestration.

Downside If you’ve always hated the soundtracks to Tarantino films, you won’t be too impressed.

Recommended Rise of the Ghostface Killah, Murder Spree, Enemies All Around Me Dinorah Wilson (Journalism/Law & Public Policy) 43

Editorial

TWIN * FOILS *FOIL: a person or thing that contrasts with and so emphasizes and enhances the qualities of another.

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Pusha T, former drug dealer turned rap commodity,

crafted one of the best rap albums of 2013 in My Name is My Name. The beats are sharp, futuristic and minimal; the verses expertly detail street life and are packed with impeccable wordplay; Pusha himself is a commanding presence throughout.

Though oversaturated with features, there’s little doubt that with My Name is My Name, Pusha’s released his finest project since his days as a member of Southern hip-hop duo Clipse.

More than that, My Name is My Name marks a career resurgence for Pusha, though he hasn’t exactly gone anywhere per say. He delivered a high-profile verse on Kanye West’s “Runaway,” a few more on the uneven Cruel Summer compilation, dropped a couple EPs and most recently a mixtape earlier this year called Wrath of Cain. In terms of quality, though, he’s had a rough few years. Not since Clipse’s jawdropping gangster rap landmark Hell Hath No Fury has he been so strong on the mic, and that’s because Pusha T is one of many artists that requires a foil for his best work. It was ever true in Clipse, where brother and partner-in-crime Malice balanced out Pusha’s aggressive drug diatribes with vulnerability and family woes. It’s especially true on My Name is My Name too, where beat-curator and G.O.O.D. Music overseer Kanye West provides the album with a musical direction. All that Pusha needs to do is bring charisma and well-thought rhymes to the table, and he does that with gusto.

Having a musical foil can be a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Which isn’t to knock musical control freaks—I unabashedly love the first few Nine Inch Nails albums. But having someone to bring in new ideas and veto your worst ones is important, especially when those worst ideas are garbage. It’s the reason Broken Bells, James Mercer’s project with Danger Mouse, is worlds better than the most recent Shins album.

Port of Morrow, with a couple of exceptions, is packed with overbearingly simple songs (ha) meant to live and die on adult alternative radio. By contrast Broken Bells is a left-field pop album that features spaghetti western licks and oddball synths, in addition to Mercer’s trademark melodicism. Seeing what Mercer does with a

partner is why I’m way more excited for the upcoming Broken Bells record than I am for whatever’s in store for the Shins. Mercer’s just better with someone equally creative.

The notion of foils is has been around for a while, harkening back to the days when the best band to ever be was still together. In that case, Paul McCartney’s pop-leaning schmaltz was the counterpoint for John Lennon’s tortured artist persona, and the balance between the two is just as compelling as anything they produced musically.

During that same era, Mike Love’s aggressively cheery sing-a-longs paired with Brian Wilson’s obsessive studio tinkering rounded out the Beach Boys. There are also plenty of examples out there in today’s “rock” scene. With Deerhunter albums, singer Bradford Cox’s garage abstractions are juxtaposed with guitarist Lockett Pundt’s mellow guitar-pop tracks. In Animal Collective, Panda Bear’s gentle hymns are the foil for songs written by the gleefully deranged Avey Tare. All of these bands are great, too. In a band format, having members with different musical leanings yields stronger results.

These benefits aren’t exclusive to rock. Kings of Southern hiphop OutKast ruled their genre in the early 2000s with the pairing of André 3000’s funky mysticism and Big Boi’s street-level thug tales.

Run the Jewels murdered 2013 in an even bigger way than My Name is My Name with their self-titled album this year, for similar reasons.

If you want to hear about more artists from my iTunes library, read my tumblr. But the sheer volume of artists whose music has benefited from the presence of a foil makes those benefits hard to deny. To end with a tired cliché: opposites attract. And when they do in music, the results are fire.

• Mike Doub (Psychology)

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Blood Orange Cupid Deluxe Release date November 19, 2013 Label Domino Genre Indie pop/R&B Tasty tracks Chamakay, No Right Thing, Chosen

For years, Devonté Hynes has been the man behind the curtain, lending his romantic sound and unique talent to some of the day’s most prominent pop acts. Sky Ferraira’s sultry, sadistically addictive “Everything is Embarrassing?” Hynes co-wrote it. The production on Solange’s dreamy dance anthem “Losing You?” 100% Devonté baby.

From Arctic Monkeys to Florence and the Machine to monoliths of British EDM Basement Jaxx and The Chemical Brothers, Hynes’ style has been broad and bold. Where does that leave his solo project, Blood Orange, when the curtain is pulled back and the great Oz revealed? Cupid Deluxe sets out to answer that question, and does so with style.

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On a surface level, the record can feel remarkably light and irresistibly groovy.

Hynes is a constant conduit of 80’s soul (he rocks the turtlenecks to prove it), and imbues each chord with a rhythm and a color reminiscent of Sade, TLC, and the great Lionel Richie. To listen to Blood Orange is to fall under a kind of tropical spell. Hynes’ smokey vocals bubble over delicious guitar lines in tracks like “Chosen” and “No Right Thing,” which take us to the island paradises where Hynes’ music finds its roots.

Golden opener “Chamakay” takes place in the same realm, but tells a much different story. “I’m nothing without subtle/ Heartache at it’s best,” Hynes whispers to the bewitching echoes of featured vocalist Caroline Polachek from Chairlift. The two will counterpoise one another throughout the record, embodying an elusive love that underlays its breezy outward appearance.

Where the first half of Cupid induces a kind of carefree trance - danceable at times, languorous at others - its latter half instills a

different mood. In style and in tone, Hynes steers the record towards a shadowy, more sensitive place, with these more somber tracks serving as proclamations of the pain and longing that live just a few feet below the surface. Hynes’ bliss is and has always been a fragile one. The woeful “On the Line” walks this tightrope, layering the voice of David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors over Hynes’ and another female vocalist. “Tell me if you caught my lie/My heart’s not true/Tell me if we’re on the line/Are we through?”

As we near album’s end, Hynes remains a somewhat veiled character. Cupid’s triumphant closing track, “Time Will Tell”, is the final glimpse of the man behind the music, and what a glimpse it is. Hynes says he recorded the song in one take that lasted about 15 minutes, ad-libbing the lyrics from his own past work (“Champagne Coast,” “It Is What It Is”). The vocals gleam with the light of a new day, rapturously simple piano chords and drums crackle underneath, and Hynes emerges as a man holding out for hope and for love. The video is a must see too, and shows Hynes dancing alone in an empty room, dressed in all white. It’s goofy, endearing, spontaneous, and joyously uninhibited, a refreshing sigh in today’s image driven pop landscape.

“I’m selfish when I make this stuff,” Hynes said in a recent interview. “It’s all just to please weird little things in my own head.”

Hynes’ proclivity to experiment may cause Cupid Deluxe to feel jumbled at times, but it is also that which allows it to soar above the pack The record won’t stand up with the best albums of the year, but it will distinguish one of the most exciting acts in music right now from his own past work. With that skin shed, there’s no limit to what Blood Orange will create, syncopate, and subsequently dance his ass off to.

Thomas Reid (Undeclared)

We publish album reviews online too! tastemakersmag.com

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Cults Static Release date October 14, 2013 Label Columbia Genre Indie pop Tasty tracks I Know, Keep Your Head Up, No Hope

Cults provide us with one of the most impressive examples of Internet success.

They received international attention in 2010 when they posted a three-song EP to Bandcamp. “Go Outside” from that EP was such a successful track that their self-titled debut album was released soon

The Flaming Lips Peace Sword Release date October 30, 2013 Label Warner Brothers Genre Psychedelic Rock Tasty tracks Peace Sword (Open Your Heart), Wolf Children, Is the Black at the End Good

The Flaming Lips are well known for their love of dreamy, psychedelic rock, and their newest EP, Peace Sword, is no different. The album is partially intended as a soundtrack for the new movie Ender’s Game, a film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s novel of the same name. Card’s novel takes place in a dark future, where interplanetary exploration has become the norm and the citizens of Earth are locked in a battle with extraterrestrial insectoids known as the “buggers.” Due to the overwhelming need for more soldiers, children are trained to be soldiers at an early age, where it is soon apparent that strong tactics trump strong bodies.

Though only Peace Sword’s title-track will be featured in the film, the EP as a whole is based on the story created by Card. This becomes evident as The Flaming Lips envelop listeners in a spacey synthesized orchestra,

after, following a major deal with Columbia Records. Their brand of indie pop combined a ‘60s-throwback vibe with clean, modern production and consistently supplied catchy hooks. Static maintains the fun vibes of the first album and provides solid lyrical content, but it loses quite a bit of the freshness that made the band seem so promising when they started out. Although it contains a select few superb tracks, they fail to pull it out of the generally stagnant atmosphere that much of Static suffers from. The album fails to accomplish what may be the most important goal for something in its genre: it can’t hold the listener’s attention.

Misleadingly, the album starts out strong. An atmospheric twinkling opens “I Can Hardly Make You Mine,” the track with the most single potential. It combines lush instrumentals and a pretty harmonic progression to make one hell of a track guaranteed to get an audience moving during a live show. It’s after this track that Static loses momentum, though. After “I Can Hardly Make You Mine” Static leads into four midtempo tracks that, while not bad exactly, feel lackluster in comparison with Cults’ more energetic singles. Although the lyrics are solid, the generic verse/chorus structure that Cults songs follow becomes boring without a breakneck pace.

Fortunately, the album picks up again near the end. “Keep Your Head Up,” for instance, is an exciting track that transitions from a stripped-down intro into an infectious chorus with a catchy beat to boot. This is topped off by lyrics that break the mold of depression set by “I Can Hardly Make You Mine” and add just a little bit of hope.

Following that song, Static picks up the pace and sounds closer to the Cults of yore. These tracks are fun, doing much more to encourage active listening. Album closer “No Hope” might even be Static’s best track, with wellthought lyrics and an intimate chorus.

When you get right down to it the best word to describe Static is, well, “static.”

It suffers from the classic symptoms of a sophomore slump, where Cults doesn’t seem to know whether they are attempting to make a sincere concept album or just a catchy bunch of indie pop songs. What they came out with was an album that is reasonably enjoyable but ultimately fails to have any serious effect on the listener. This isn’t to say that the band doesn’t still hold some promise—I’m personally still looking forward to whatever they do next. However, as of now they’re falling short of the mark.

Tim DiFazio (English)

only to explode into a bright supernova of space ballads. Throughout Peace Sword, the point of view is that of a child soldier, similar to those in Card’s novel. “I was trained to ignore your pain” Wayne Coyne cries out on “Peace Sword (Open Your Heart),” a robotic announcement to those at the end of his rifle.

As the music on this song pushes forward, the echoing chimes and lasers paint a beautiful picture. However, this portrait of serenity is sharply contrasted by the marching drum cadences, bringing attention to the deadly war taking place. The music becomes more tonally defeated as Peace Sword goes on. Coyne’s despair grows more palpable, and the anguish of war is exposed as he softly sings, “It’s cold and dark ahead/that’s just me being optimistic.” Soon however, heavy saw-synths crashes into the scene. Though it is combated by an innocent melody, it soon takes control. Toward the EP’s close, these sonics conjure the image of a dreamy wasteland; sparse and ominous, with choirs calling listeners deeper into the abyss.

What The Flaming Lips really do with this album is take listeners through a story— a story which requires listening through in one sitting. The continuity of the themes allows listeners to lose themselves in the

music, growing emotionally attached to that child-soldier hero as they travel through the battle-scarred cosmos. This connection is a significant accomplishment.

As far as art forms go, writing or film allow for a more conventional access into the imagination. Both either tell the reader what is happening, or simply show them.

Music is not given this luxury, and must be truly powerful to create a new world. This is the power of Peace Sword. It is a journey into the darkness; a romance with war; a symphony of the stars.

Max Oyer (Health Sciences)

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Arcade Fire Reflektor Release date October 28, 2013 Label Merge Records Genre Pop/Rock Tasty tracks Reflektor, Here Comes the Night Time, Afterlife

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If you would like to submit a review to be considered for publishing in print or online, e-mail: tmreviews@gmail.com

Expectations can be tricky. When they’re low, anything positive you have to say could come across as damning with faint praise.

When they’re high, you risk soul-crushing disappointment. In the case of Canadian seven-piece Arcade Fire’s fourth album Reflektor, it was nigh impossible to avoid the latter. There were just so many tantalizing details leading up to its release, from bringing on DFA architect James Murphy as producer to recording with six Haitian percussionists to the band’s ridiculous promotional stunts. Not to mention the singles. “Reflektor” is a jam, with groovy bassline, neat synths and David-flipping-Bowie on vocals near the end. “Afterlife” on the other hand joins the ranks of previous Arcade Fire anthems like “Wake Up” and “Sprawl II: Mountains Beyond Mountains.”

It’s a shame that the entire record isn’t as rock-solid. Reflektor is both a transition album and one that throws everything at the wall to see what sticks, often for good but sometimes for ill. Fortunately a fair amount of it is for good. “Here Comes the Night Time” begins with a frantic build before easing into a traditional calypso rhythm and an infectious keyboard riff. “We Exist” is Arcade Fire’s take on New Order, and justifies its long run-time with its earth-shattering chorus and ominous synth-driven bridge. And damn, did I mention “Afterlife?” That song will surely go down as one of Arcade Fire’s finest, a love-song/torchsong that fuses Reflektor’s forays into new wave with the go-for-the-gut emotion that’s been the band’s calling card for so long.

Reflektor’s charms aren’t able to support its duration though, a drawback to its double album format. Its second half is the main culprit, where almost every song overstays its welcome. The mawkish U2 pastiche “Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)” is one such guilty party, and an uncomfortably direct homage.

On other songs the band flat out swings and misses, as on “Porno” where singer Win Butler strains for unconvincing sex appeal. Worst of all are Reflektor’s bookends: the opening

hidden track and 11-minute “Supersymmetry.”

The hidden track is particularly egregious, basically a 10-minute silence, while “Supersymmetry” wastes the good will earned by its mellow first half with another pointless fadeout.

The biggest problem here is that Reflektor could have been a really good record, as Arcade Fire’s last three were all really good records. There’s a lot of talent on board, and too much of it goes wasted. Murphy’s fingerprints are only really audible on the title-track, and maybe he could have justified these songs’ long run-times given his history of doing just that in LCD Soundsystem.

Elsewhere Régine Chassagne, the singer on several of previous album The Suburbs’s best songs, is relegated to the role of sideman (er, sidewoman). On Reflektor Arcade Fire tries desperately to redefine what it means to be an Arcade Fire song, which isn’t a bad thing on paper. Change is good, and a band’s willingness to change speaks to their longevity. But sticking the landing is better.

Mike Doub (Psychology)

Seasons Greetings

Wishing you a happy New Year!

loveTASTEMAKERS

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Etcetera

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TASTY RECIPE I had never even seen a Christmas cookie before. 21 years of rotations, passes through comets’ paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed warm desserts artfully arranged on a decorative dish. Candy Cane Cookies were ready to eat. I stared entranced, soaking in this new dessert, chiseling each flavor into the best functioning parts of my brain which would be the only place for me to taste these cookies for the next twelve months.

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Candy Cane Cookies Type of dish Dessert Preparation time 20 minutes Cook time 10 minutes Difficulty Medium

Tasty

Instructions:

Ingredients:

1 Mix shortening, confectioner’s sugar, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and almond extract.

Add flour.

1 cup shortening (or 2 sticks of butter)

2 Divide dough in half and add food coloring to one half.

1 egg

3 To form a cookie, roll out about a teaspoon of each color into a rope shape and twist the ropes together, adding a curve to the top.

1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 2 1/2 cups flour

4 Bake for 9 minutes at 375 degrees.

Several candy canes (crushed)

1 cup confectioner’s sugar (sifted) 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

5 Immediately after removing cookies from oven, sprinkle generously with crushed candy canes.

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