Picture this: the 2005 Van’s Warped Tour. Me, nearing the end of my college tenure and on the prowl for cute girls and good music. The theme at the time was something along the lines of simply, “have fun.”
Music
Days Away, Mapping An Invisible World
Do you ever find yourself reminiscing about where you’ve been? Maybe it’s a quiet afternoon and you put on music. Perhaps you have a few days to yourself and end up in a classic Internet rabbit hole. Often times those rabbit holes lead to the same places, for me at…
A Perfect Circle, A Stranger/The Outsider
This spring I had the chance to catch a show from one of my favorite rock bands called A Perfect Circle. I’ve been enamored by the music Maynard & Company puts out for 17 years. I’ve always understood the music as something more purposeful, hard hitting, and lyrically competent than…
Hideaway: A Look Back
It was the latter half of the 90s, and for the first time in my life I was the new kid in school. We’d moved to Virginia only a few months prior and my summer was spent mostly doing teenage things: playing guitar, listening to music, tinkering on my first iMac, and working…
9th Wonder, Hearing the Melody
My business partner first pulled me into his own collection of “Chillout Hiphop” roughly three years ago. I was introduced to artists ranging from Illa J, Kooley High, and Slum Village, to Erykah Badu, A Tribe Called Quest, and Camp Lo.
Amongst that mix, a specific sound kept standing out. After a little…
Annual Review, 2015
Last year was the first time I set course with an eye on the new year through an official annual review. The pros and cons of the previous year, where that left me emotionally and physically, and what I was looking towards for this year.
All to often we hear of the…
Oddisee, The Carter Barron
I recently caught Oddisee and The Good Company in small venue in Denver. I’ve been following his work as a rapper and producer for the last few years, originally taking stock of the Rock Creek Park instrumental album released back in 2011.
Sporting a decidedly east coast vibe, Oddisee…
Dredg, Catch Without Arms
Thirteen years ago this October we saw Dredg release a concept album by the name of El Cielo, one based loosely on artwork by Salvador Dalí’s painting titled Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate One Second Before Awakening.
Critics were hard pressed to put Dredg…
Chon, Sketch
My brother recently told me about the band Chon after seeing them as an opening act for Circa Survive. A band recommendation from him doesn’t go unnoticed, so I quickly scanned both albums on Rdio: the Woohoo! EP and the recent studio release, Grow.
Immediately I fell in love with the noodly…
Jack’s Mannequin, The Mixed Tape
Jack’s Mannequin has been ubiquitous in my memory when I think back to college. The band was introduced to me by a diehard Something Corporate fan and subsequent Jack’s Mannequin convert. While Something Corporate was born out of thoughtful teenage angst in the early 2000’s, front…