Anthony Fantano
Jesu's walls of distortion are uplifting in comparison to those of its doom-driven contemporaries. The band's 2009 album 'Infinity' has its bleak moments, but that album's single 49-minute song resolves into something inspirational and grandiose by the time it's over.Collection: Inspirational
The Beach Boys set the bar for pop sunshine more than 40 years ago, and the genre hasn't changed that much since. Surfer Blood's 'Floating Vibes' rounds the usual bases with an upbeat attitude, and the string swells closing the track are a must, but the band manages to infuse all those old sounds with fresh energy.Collection: Attitude
Occasionally, I'll want to cover something that's outside of my audiences' tastes or interests. Every week or so I have to try and cover at least one or two of those things to keep my sanity. If you're only reviewing what is in the top album spots on Apple Music every week, you can get kind of jaded.Collection: Music
On its self-titled debut, Happy Birthday flirts with several flavors of love, and 'Girls FM' is where taste gets confusing.Collection: Birthday
I don't really think reviewing music is something you're going to get famous doing overnight.Collection: Famous
In music, trends are always rising and fading in popularity, but nostalgia never dies.Collection: Music
Cryptic messages and abstract statements are littered throughout the music of Happy Birthday, but it hasn't made the band's sun-baked pop-rock any less infectious.Collection: Birthday
Brian Eno is an iconic and omnipresent pioneer in the world of ambient music, but he's gained real staying power while working behind the boards. He's produced albums for some of modern music's most influential artists, including Devo, David Bowie, U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads.
Of Montreal's early releases were loaded with playful but confessional acoustic tunes, but the band soon embraced glam-rock's freakier side on albums like 'Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer?' and 'Skeletal Lamping.' It was a shift fans might not have tolerated if it weren't for frontman Kevin Barnes' catchy, personality-driven songs.
Memes just show that people are engaged about something. A meme is just a little inside joke for a group of people that care about a certain thing.
Gang of Four doesn't reinvent anything in 'Never Pay for the Farm,' but its members are having a blast with their second lease on life.
There are a lot of songs that, you know, just get me excited because they create a certain, I guess, set of colors in my head.
Tame Impala is more about impact than innovation, sure, but the music still stuns on contact.
Tame Impala's music revisits a time when guitar effects and studio tricks were music's newest frontiers; when rock was barely old enough to drive and violently threw conventional ideas out the window.
We're muddying the waters when we are having a discussion about what's going on on YouTube and Twitter and whether that's a matter of free speech. These are private platforms and they're allowed to decide what should and should not be on its platforms. It's not an issue of free speech.
Electronics, samples and vocals are all fed into The Log.Os' music, and a fresh take on soul comes out. The band's songs splash around in the same gene pool as neo-soul artists like Erykah Badu, but they reach forward to pull ideas from glitch-hop producers such as Flying Lotus and Prefuse 73.
Formerly known as The Muslims, The Soft Pack brings a lot of swagger to its garage-rock sound. There's a load of gimmick-free confidence in the band's hooks, as its distorted guitars and driving drums demonstrate that less can be more.
The Soft Pack's self-titled full-length debut is straighter than black coffee, and twice as bitter: Frontman Matt Lamkin isn't afraid to fly his philosophical flag and face hard realities.
Holy Ghost! wears its influences proudly: Look no further than the duo's video for 'I Will Come Back,' a shot-for-shot remake of the music video for New Order's 1983 single, 'Confusion.'
The personality and songwriting of Holy Ghost! trumps the originality card any day.
Garage-rock eccentric King Khan may be from Montreal, but his heart is almost a thousand miles away, throbbing from Atlanta to Castle City, Mont., until it hits cardiac arrest in Kalamazoo. Khan and His Shrines warn that this so-called 'Land of the Freak' is where only the strong survive, but it's a strength that can't be measured in muscle.
King Khan and the Shrines may look and sound bizarre, but don't feel left out; it's not an exclusive club.
I'm not that famous.
I don't know if TV is where I see my format working.
The only thing I get more than Anthony Fantano hate is Anthony Fantano memes.
There's always going to be a moment where it's out with the old, and in with the new. That's probably going to happen to me one day.
Amon Tobin has been producing electronic music since the mid-'90s, and was a key figure in the rise of drum-and-bass. He's also written some of the genre's most compelling tracks, in the process delving into jazzy breakbeats and bass lines.
As soon as I was getting YouTube comments and hit 100 subscribers, I was thinking 'maybe there's something to this. I could keep going. I don't know how far I can really push it just reviewing random indie bands on YouTube, but it seems to have more gas in the tank.'
Every week, I'm faced with, and aware of, 10-14 different reviewable albums that, in a perfect world, I'd be able to pop a review out of. But I'm just one person who, while maintaining my sanity, can only do 5-6 reviews per week.
I'm not trying to rub shoulders with any record executives. If rubbing shoulders in the industry is what I wanted to do then I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.
At the end of the day, I would love for the artists that I give positive reviews to to continue coming out with music. That's ultimately what I want as a fan.
I've never spent any money on advertising.
I always liked popping up in a place, inviting my fans out, and then having a discourse with them in person. That's what I try to do with 'The Needle Drop,' even though it's difficult to have a two-way conversation.
The Internet is the fastest way to get what you want and expose yourself to music you would never have heard otherwise.
There are so many artists, so many songs, so many producers, that it's hard to keep track of whose music is worthwhile.
If you want to truly take in the subtleties and detail of your favorite records, then enjoy them the same way you would a movie. Make music an event, not a side dish.
The Internet has essentially democratized the music industry in terms of what is popular and it's democratized the music journalism industry as well.
Anybody could put their thoughts on a record out there. I think the world of reviews and opinions is now very much a meritocracy.
Holiday Shores' ambition far exceeds its members' recording budget. The band's boyish vocal harmonies wash in and out with the tide, and reverb radiates from the guitars like heat off a sun-baked parking lot.
For all its reverb and defiant noise, the sound of Black Tambourine barely reached past the borders of Washington, D.C., in the early '90s.
Less is more' may be a cliche, but that doesn't mean musicians often heed that advice. Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson, who performs and records as The Tallest Man on Earth, follows it religiously.
In terms of sound, it's nothing huge, but when it comes to passion, The Tallest Man on Earth can be spotted from miles away.
Since reuniting in 2002, Mission of Burma has become the triumphant story of a band that time forgot.
The group disbanded prematurely in 1983, but its records made a sizable mark: Mission of Burma became a band's band; leaving noticeable impressions on the likes of Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo.
Tightly embracing guitar effects and tape loops, Mission of Burma made sound an important commodity in rock 'n' roll, and its members carried that tradition into their first album after a 19-year hiatus, 2004's 'ONoffON.'
A formidable game of 'Name That Influence' could be based on the music of the seductive rock duo Girls: The band's first single, 'Hellhole Ratrace,' would barely reach its opening words before screams of 'Elvis Costello!' and 'Wreckless Eric!' drown out the music.
Girls' strength lies in its diversity, and its members have walked in a lot of borrowed shoes to make it that way. 'Solitude' is a bold and sweet example of inspiration trumping originality.
The U.K. trio Let's Wrestle doesn't make music for its art, but for its attitude.
Let's Wrestle would rather poke fun than point fingers, even if there's a problem that needs fixing.
Justin Broadrick's career isn't widely celebrated, but it's still shockingly uncompromising. From his place at the beginning of grindcore with Napalm Death to his role in Godflesh's expansion of industrial metal, the U.K. musician specializes in artistic hairpin turns.