SOUND & COLOR: THE ALBUMS, 2015.

14/tobias jesso, jr./goon

tobias jesso, jr. believes in a thing called love. love between lovers, and love between friends. love for what you do, and love for what’s in store. he also believes in clarity and speaking on what he wants and what is needed. and what is needed is often that thing called love. and with his debut album goon he gets his points across poignantly and clearly, aligning himself with and looking to such greats as Randy Newman and Billy Joel to provide this emotionally rich soundtrack to the act of him placing his heart on his sleeve. two years ago he took up the piano just because, and throughout goon the instrument provides a solid base to mr. jesso’s soul bearing expositions, locked in perfectly with him as if they’ve been acquainted for years. together they bring us an album that you play and quickly realize that what you hear, what it recalls, and what it makes you feel are all things missing in your life that you didn’t even know were gone or much needed. beautiful in it’s simplicity, goon speaks to the heart by being upfront and open while playing it straight, making you believe in a thing called love too.

KEY TRACKS: Without You/Hollywood/Bad Words

15/hudson mohawke/lantern

16/vince staples/summertime '06 

  
17/kamasi washington/the epic

18/grimes/art angels

19/kacey musgraves/pageant material

20/shamir/ratchet

21/drake/if you’re reading this it’s too late

22/son lux/bones

23/disclosure/caracal

24/alabama shakes/sound & color 

  

25/van hunt/the fun rises, the fun sets

mood.

SOUND & COLOR: THE SONGS, 2015.

14/kurt vile/pretty pimpin



15/jamie xx/gosh

16/erykah badu/cel u lar device

17/the weeknd/the hills

18/lana del rey/high by the beach

19/tobias jesso jr./without you

20/carly rae jepsen/gimmie love

21/kacey musgraves/late to the party

22/disclosure + sam smith/omen

23/courtney barnett/pedestrian at best

24/adele/hello

25/wilco/ekg

SOUND & COLOR: THE ALBUMS, 2015.

15/hudson mohawke/lantern

Lantern operates at one level: STADIUM STATUS. Things begin modestly with a faint whisper of a voice announcing and introducing our master of ceremonies, H. Mohawke. Then the smoke clears, a few bells ring, and the music aims for the rafters and folks in the cheap seats/way in the back, and never lets up. Lantern is a stupendous beast of a record from the Scottish DJ/electronic music duo TNGHT member and frequent Kanye West collaborator that is largely informed by each of those roles and collaborations. The DJ in him makes this record immaculately sequenced and curated while his work with TNGHT colors the proceedings with bass heavy, hip hop infused block rocking beats. The never ending onslaught of blistering, ass shaking rhythms no matter the speed is also reminiscent of the approach and atmosphere present on his work with Kanye on Yeezus. Like the best tracks on that one, Hudson's Lantern is the dank warehouse after party that goes on well into the night (or til the break of dawn) to the fancy dress cocktail soiree that was Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. It's a gritty yet accessible collection that is not afraid to go big, get loud, and show off, asking you to get your back up off the wall, twerk somethin', or shake what ya mama gave ya til the music stops. Gives you no choice actually. So go on and surrender, and embrace the light. 

 

KEY TRACKS: very first breath/ryderz/scud books 

 

16/vince staples/summertime '06 

 

17/kamasi washington/the epic

18/grimes/art angels

19/kacey musgraves/pageant material

20/shamir/ratchet

21/drake/if you’re reading this it’s too late

22/son lux/bones

23/disclosure/caracal

24/alabama shakes/sound & color 

  

25/van hunt/the fun rises, the fun sets

 

 

 

performance art.

LIVE! 

with michael c. hall & the late show with stephen colbert.



PITCHFORK: Michael C. Hall Performs David Bowie's "Lazarus" on "Colbert"

might not.

a video.

from belly & the weeknd.

coming attractions.

with pj harvey.



PITCHFORK: PJ Harvey Shares New Album Teaser

hands down.

a video.

starring remy ma, rick ross, & yo gotti.

SOUND & COLOR: THE SONGS, 2015.

15/jamie xx/gosh



16/erykah badu/cel u lar device

17/the weeknd/the hills

18/lana del rey/high by the beach

19/tobias jesso jr./without you

20/carly rae jepsen/gimmie love

21/kacey musgraves/late to the party

22/disclosure + sam smith/omen

23/courtney barnett/pedestrian at best

24/adele/hello

25/wilco/ekg

golden years.

a moment of clarity.

for your consideration...

words.

"Hipster, inasmuch as it exists today, is the ability to endorse not just Bernie Sanders but, for audacity's sake, Donald Trump, too. People who can align themselves with both lofty idealism and unrepentant narcissism. Ruin America, make America great again, make America a socialist utopia—it doesn't matter, because there is no wager, really. Hipster is just a man rich enough to dare you to object to him, in all his infinite costumes, because of how inherently unobjectionable a rich white man feels he is at his core. It's all an amusement.

What made hipster culture so persistent was not the knit hats or the glasses or the micro brews, but how it functioned as a sort of permission, a license to veer into mindless recreation and Important Movements in equal measure. Hipster was just what we called the games white people play with their various entitlements.

One man's #occupywallstreet is another man's #champagneshowers."

VICE: Here Lies the Hipster

darkest before dawn.

a short film. 

from pusha t. 



NAH RIGHT: Watch Pusha T’s Short Film Darkest Before Dawn

SOUND & COLOR: THE ALBUMS, 2015.

16/vince staples/summertime '06

"I'm just a n__gga..."

This is how Vince Staples introduces himself at the top of Summertime '06. As if to say, "Why bother? Nothing to see here. Just some regular, same old n_gga shit." And yes, the red hot American summer presented here is specific and familiar. As American as apple pie. Pictures from an unfiltered adolescence, a Black adolescent, straight out of Long Beach. Vince Staples. The character, the gangsta, that "real n_gga archetype". Summertime '06 is another grand standing walk through the hood politics and extra curricular activities that have been spoken on and visualized on wax numerous times before.

(or quick drive through, for those of you who steer clear of "the ghetto(s)”)

But to classify this collection of tracks as just another ordinary snapshot from another misguided black male living just enough for the city would be a mistake, cause Summertime '06, more than anything, is a triumphant record. This fact may not make itself known on your first (or second, or third, or fourth...) spin, but it is. As the imagery whirs past, and the beats come thru with the bang, Vince’s retelling of a hard life once lived slowly fade into thoughts of wanting better, needing better, and moving beyond a largely repetitive and expected existence. By the end of Summertime ’06 Vince is ready to depart the school of hard knocks and grab a hold of something better. For him, his homies, Black America, and us. Throughout it all, Vince’s loose, conversational flow sits front and center, always clear, always direct, aided largely by production from No I.D. Beats that are sparse and percussion heavy, taking the music far beyond the region of Northside Long Beach (and often back to the glory days of minimalist hip-hop production from the 80s).

Same old, same old, regular hood shit? Far from it. Not in Summertime '15.

Triumphant indeed.

KEY TRACKS: lift me up/norf norf/like it is

17/kamasi washington/the epic

18/grimes/art angels

19/kacey musgraves/pageant material

20/shamir/ratchet

21/drake/if you’re reading this it’s too late

22/son lux/bones

23/disclosure/caracal

24/alabama shakes/sound & color 

  

25/van hunt/the fun rises, the fun sets

pricks of brightness.

a video.

from ratatat. 

i want it all.

a video. 

starring melanie fiona.

be right there.

a video.

from diplo & sleepy tom.

picture me rollin'.

a video.

starring chris brown.

lazarus.

starring david bowie. 

SOUND & COLOR: THE SONGS, 2015.

16/erykah badu/cel u lar device



17/the weeknd/the hills

18/lana del rey/high by the beach

19/tobias jesso jr./without you

20/carly rae jepsen/gimmie love

21/kacey musgraves/late to the party

22/disclosure + sam smith/omen

23/courtney barnett/pedestrian at best

24/adele/hello

25/wilco/ekg

SOUND & COLOR: THE ALBUMS, 2015.

17/kamasi washington/the epic

What we have here is the gospel. Beauty, the way forward, and the light. Jazz in all its forms, History in black & white. Funk, Bossa Nova, the future in technicolor, and rhapsodies in blue. AFRO-AMERICAN & CHURCH. A largely wordless exercise, that jazz made malleable. Minutes upon minutes of controlled chaos and an everything but the kitchen sink mentality that works to serve this set's ultimate goal of baptizing you in the funk. These minds, these bodies, these feelings, offering up spiritual uplift through song with bouts of improvisational flights of fancy, all coalescing together around this idea of taking you higher. Kamasi and them. He and his sax. The epicenter, bandleader, and composer. The way forward & the light. The Epic. Where ladies sing the blues, and stars shine bright. Where melodies and ideas are given the opportunity to just breathe, and layers upon layers of joyous instrumentation coexist with each other in perfect harmony, never interfering with the others' contribution to the pot. Wake up to it. Cook to it. Relax, exercise, and/or make love to it. Don't let the nearly three hour running time & three disc set deter you from basking in the glory and the light that is The Epic. 
KEY TRACKS: DISC ONE: Final Thought/DISC TWO: Seven Prayers/DISC THREE: Clair de Lune

18/grimes/art angels

19/kacey musgraves/pageant material

20/shamir/ratchet

21/drake/if you’re reading this it’s too late

22/son lux/bones

23/disclosure/caracal

24/alabama shakes/sound & color 

  

25/van hunt/the fun rises, the fun sets

 

SOUND & COLOR: THE SONGS, 2015.

17/the weeknd/the hills



18/lana del rey/high by the beach

19/tobias jesso jr./without you

20/carly rae jepsen/gimmie love

21/kacey musgraves/late to the party

22/disclosure + sam smith/omen

23/courtney barnett/pedestrian at best

24/adele/hello

25/wilco/ekg