I first heard Theophilus London on Peruvian MTV. I was in a dingy little hotel room, packing to hike Machu Pichu, with the TV on for background sound, when I heard a steady beat drop. The rhythm was grounded and smooth, with a chiming ring at the end of each count. I stopped what I was doing and looked up to see a tall, stylish kid, walking the shores of a retro music video, rapping about “Flying Overseas.” I watched the video through, jotted down the name of the track, and the closest spelling I could of the artist's name. Two weeks later I came back to the states and downloaded all of his music. Read more

Another Super bowl has come and gone with the Giants taking Lombardi home. Going off of last year’s record breaking notch of 111 million viewers, and America’s “just keep gettin’ better” mentality, it's likely that an astronomical number of people sat down and tuned in last night. At least they better have. Advertisers were charged a cool $3.5 million for a 30-second spot of ad space. Compare that to the $512,000 they’re charged for a normal game, and you’ll understand why it’s to their detriment that you drooled over Adriana Lima for teleflora.com. But while everyone is looking to label this years ad line up as the year of the dog, or the year of the model, or the year of the over the hill actor making it that much more clear that he is so over the hill he should be rolling down it by now (MATTHEW BRODERICK), I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was the year of music. Read more

It was about this time last year that the Goth phase began its renaissance. The once colorful city of Manhattantook on a dark suiting of black. It was drapey. It was moody. It led to a ton of unfortunate “synth-wave.” Siouxsie and the Banshees' “Dazzle,” headlining a number of fashion industry friendly shows, definitely had something to do with it. God bless Siouxsie’s soul, she’s a phenomenal musician, but I think she probably hangs her head in shame for her present day offspring. Skinny little things with cross earrings and long mangled hair, plucking strings with their skeleton fingers. Note: It ain’t enough to look the part; you gotta play the tunes too.Read more

Young Heel is a young band, with a lot of promise. Having started a couple of years ago as a one man set, by Clay Bassford, the band expanded from one to four, first adding JT Norton on vocals, then Matt Arbeiter on drums and finally Pete Smith on guitar. Their mellow electro songs are comparable to New Zealand’s The Naked & The Famous and Sweden’s Miike Snow. They’ll be self-releasing their EP Falls next week, and celebrating this Thursday (Feb. 2) at Glasslands. Clay Bassford sat down to chat about pop songs, dark music and the experimental.Read more

“Monday, Monday,” by The Mamas & The Papas: Ahhh…. It’s Monday morning. The sky is blue. It’s the beginning of the week. Your emotional state is analogous to fresh laundry. You feel Downy soft and lovely. Work is work, how could you possibly feel anything but mellow love on this Indian summer day? Read more