Mac Demarco’s “My Old Man” is his best work in years Matt Sater February 2, 2017 Reviews Mac Demarco’s relationship with his father is a thorny one. On the first track of his breakout 2012 album, 2, one of the first things Mac Demarco does is call his dad the “pride of the neighborhood”, ...
Scraping beyond the surface of Spotify Premium Brendan Redmond January 31, 2017 News For $5, you can buy ¾ of a large coffee from Starbucks. Or, you could have unlimited streaming from Spotify for a month. This seems almost too good to be true … but wait! There’s more. Through hours of exp...
Alvvays on my mind Ally Mason January 17, 2017 News 1 Comment Canadian rockers Alvvays instantaneously solidified themselves as classics with a single release. Riding the success of their debut self-titled LP in 2014, Alvvays has been busy playing every festival from her...
The B-Side’s Top 15 Albums of 2016 HR Huber-Rodriguez December 20, 2016 Columns and Opinions, Staff Pick 2016 is nearly over, and with the conclusion of the year come the myriad human attempts to quantitatively evaluate the last three-hundred sixty-five days through year-end and best-of lists and rankings. Conti...
Sleigh Bells mine their sound for fresh ideas, find none on Jessica Rabbit HR Huber-Rodriguez November 19, 2016 Album Review, Reviews When you’ve been following the independent music scene for long enough, you start to see the same story-lines play out over and over again. There’s the classic “first album was solid, got signed to a bi...
Noname’s ‘Telefone’ Nathaniel Wartzman November 3, 2016 News You may have first heard her on “Lost”, from Chance the Rapper’s second mixtape Acid Rap released in April of 2013. Or, if you didn’t catch her then, you probably heard her dope verse on “Finish Line ...
Max Frost to funk up Brick and Mortar Matt Sater November 2, 2016 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews, Contests, Previews Austin-based multi-instrumentalist Max Frost originally caught the attention of influential ears in 2013 with the track “White Lies” and its incredibly flexible sound. Equal parts The Love Below-era Andre 3...
For Whom the Festival Rolls HR Huber-Rodriguez October 31, 2016 Columns and Opinions, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews I stood in a crowd of about 20,000, waiting for the man who might very well go down as the best rapper of all time. Earlier that day, I had previously been harangued into seeing The Chainsmokers, and their bran...
NxWorries make sweet, safe love on Yes Lawd! Adil Siddiqee October 25, 2016 Album Review, Reviews 2 Comments If you and yours are tired of studying/chilling/euphemism-ing to Top 40 R&B, try some neo-soul. It's a good time to get into it, considering artists like Solange, Xenia Rubinos, and Frank Ocean have release...
Lower Dens: romance, dystopia, and 80s synth Brian Grossman October 19, 2016 Columns and Opinions 1 Comment Sherman Oaks, California is not the most enchanting place. For those unfamiliar (which is probably most of you), it is a neighborhood in Los Angeles that in many ways is on the edge between worlds. The 101, one...
Danny Brown loses his mind on the infectious Atrocity Exhibition HR Huber-Rodriguez October 3, 2016 Album Review, Reviews It’s been a big year for rap. The four biggest rap stars of the moment- Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Chance the Rapper- all put out full length projects, and Young Thug has over the summer skyrockete...
Spitting Softly in 2016: How JEFFERY Shook Hip-Hop’s Landscape Adil Siddiqee September 29, 2016 Columns and Opinions Overheard in the backseat of my car last month: “JEFFERY is the hardest shit in existence, man — Young Thug makes 21 Savage look like a five year-old.” “What? Dude, he’s wearing a wedding dress ...
Jack Garratt on debut album, non-genre specificity, and Chance the Rapper Myra Farooqi September 21, 2016 Columns and Opinions, Interview Jack Garratt has effectively proven to the world that he is a jack of all trades (pun sincerely unintended), but more impressively—a master of it all. The British multi-instrumentalist is currently on tour pr...
Danny Brown to take Regency Ballroom by storm this fall Eda Yu September 17, 2016 Uncategorized Following his release of XXX in 2011, Detroit-born rapper Danny Brown became an established name in the hip-hop game. With his high-energy beats and quick, clean flow, the musician has developed a reputation f...
Preview: Porches and Japanese Breakfast Take Berkeley Campus Matt Sater September 14, 2016 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews, Previews ASUC Superb just announced its fall lineup of free on-campus shows for UC Berkeley students, and the first one’s a doozy. This Saturday the 17th, two of the most exciting young talents in indie pop songwritin...