Month: February 2013

  • Haim is a group formed by sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim with drummer Dash Hutton. They formed the group in 2006 in Los Angeles, California, but they didn’t actually start releasing music until 2012, taking time to perfect their very distinct sound. From the opening of “Better Off,” which features the girls harmonizing brilliantly…

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  • by Michael McCarthy Each month I make a new playlist of the songs I fall in love with during that particular month. These are the songs I adored during January, 2013, listed in the order that I arranged the playlist. One thing you’ll notice about my playlists is that they’re full of songs from different…

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  • At long last, a new song from The Postal Service. Well, it might not be a new song per say, but it’s one of the two previously unreleased tracks that will feature on the forthcoming reissue of their brilliant 2003 album Give Up. It’s called “A Tattered Line Of String” and Jenny Lewis of Rilo…

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  • Gabrille Aplin is a British singer/songwriter hailing from Sutton Benger, Wiltshire who first rose to fame by posting acoustic covers of various songs on Youtube. Please Don’t Say You Love me is her fourth EP and her first for Parlophone Records. “Please don’t say you love me, ’cause I might not say it back,” Gabrielle…

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  • Record of the Year: “Somebody That I Used to Know,” Gotye feat. Kimbra Album of the Year: Babel, Mumford & Sons Song of the Year: “We Are Young,” (Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost and Nate Reuss, songwriters (Fun. feat. Janelle Monae) Best New Artist: Fun. Best Pop Solo Performance: “Set Fire to the Rain”…

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  • Just When You Thought It Was As Simple As Pressing Record And Play by Michael McCarthy Illustration by Ans Purins Originally published in Lollipop magazine issue 44, Summer ’98. Make no mistake about it, the fine art of making a compilation tape is a surprisingly complex process that requires a bit of thought and discipline.…

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  • When Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink, otherwise known as Azure Ray, reunited in 2009 and set to work making their fourth album, Drawing Down the Moon, they used their very first album as a blueprint. “That approach facilitated Orenda (Fink) and I bringing our sound together stylistically and emotionally after working so many years apart,”…

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  • Forget Rod Stewart, *this* is how you do the American songbook. With 12 standards from the ’20’s through the ’60’s — each loosely representing a month of the year — Emmy marches through each of these precious classics with military-like precision and every bit of the wide-range of emotion she displays during each heart-breaking and…

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  • It seems like just yesterday I was buying Helloween’s brilliant Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 1 on vinyl. But the fact of the matter is that two decades have past. Literally. And this, my friends, is Helloween’s 14th album. Boy does that make me feel old. It also makes me want to give a…

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  • MC Jin, a Chinese American rapper and songwriter, was born Jin Au-Yeung in Miami Florida. After spending years living in New York, he decided to move to Hong Kong, where he learned to speak Cantonese, though he eventually decided to move back to New York during the summer of 2012. From 2002 through 2005 Jin…

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  • Just a couple of years ago Sky was supposed to become an overnight sensation with her song “Obsession” appearing on everything from The Vampire Diaries soundtrack to one of those infamous NOW CDs. But the song’s failure to make much of an impression on anyone was likely a source of amusement for Sky, who was…

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  • SOUND CITY PLAYERS FIRST & ONLY EVER NEW YORK SHOW FEBRUARY 13 AT HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM   Dave Grohl And Extended Foo Fighters And Nirvana Family To Be Joined By Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield, Lee Ving Of Fear, Rick Nielsen Of Cheap Trick, Brad Wilk Of Rage Against The Machine And More For One…

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  • Skunk Anansie was formed in 1994 and gained notoriety with their powerful rock hit “Selling Jesus”. I was hooked right away and bought it on cassette. Lead singer (Skin) has a captivating voice that can be both terrifying and beautiful over the scope of a few lines. The album challenged issues of sexism, religion and…

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  • Let me begin this review by stating that I was a huge fan of Christina’s last album, Bionic. I realize that most of the critics hated it and that it was a commercial flop, but I consider the majority of it to be forward-thinking, artsy pop. And that’s exactly what she was aiming for. She…

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  • VIDEO: Marina & The Diamonds: How To Be A Heartbreaker from the U.S. version of her latest album, Electra Heart            

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