Music
Essays, blog posts, playlists, and more focused broadly on music. For more playlists visit my Spotify profile.
- Little Viking ()
The past year was somewhat of a breakthrough for rock acts in Nashville; national publications were all too eager to fast-track editorials focusing on a “the scene” and its breakout stars, and many took to the road to make the most of their momentum. But that’s only true to a certain extent; the swath of […]
- Britney Spears “Hold It Against Me” ()
While the release of Britney Spears‘ as-yet-untitled seventh studio album is still tentatively two months out, the now-29 year old singer has just dropped what’s expected to be the first single from the project: “Hold It Against Me.” Produced by Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, who was behind a trio of songs from Spears’ 2008 album, […]
- Love in October “Love in October II” EP ()
The last real musical memory of Love in October that comes to mind was a coffee shop number they put to video for CB in 2008; just harmless, fun, acoustic rock. Shortly after that, brothers Erik and Kent Widman announced that they would be shifting the band’s base of operations, swapping the icy tundra of […]
- “Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae” Review ()
“There have been any number of biographies of Bob Marley and histories of Reggae,” opens Jeff Walker, roughly half way into Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae. But make no mistake, there haven’t been many to offer as much visual insight into Marley and the early Reggae community as this. First and foremost […]
- Gareth Liddiard “The Radicalisation Of D” (Influenza) ()
While the band has only had scattered success in the States, the Drones have quietly become one of the most highly regarded Australian bands of the past decade. As explained by Pitchfork‘s Joe Colly, “The band has released consistently strong albums since its 2000 inception and garnered high praise from their countrymen up against Aussie […]
- Culture Bully Presents: 2010 Mashed ()
For the third year in a row Culture Bully presents Mashed, a retrospective mashup collection combining elements of the year that was, represented by the efforts of a hodgepodge of bastard pop producers from around the world. This year’s edition features 10 fresh tracks for you to help kick off the new year. Each track […]
- Culture Bully’s Best of 2010 Guest Posts ()
To close the year out, Culture Bully solicited contributions from artists sharing their year-end lists, reflecting on their favorite things of 2010. Clubfeet A blend of South African and Austrailian musicians, Clubfeet released their debut album, Gold on Gold, this past summer. Comparing the trio to such acts as Hot Chip and the Junior Boys, […]
- DJ Wick-It Interview ()
Nashville might still be best known as Music City, but for the past three years Wick-It the Instigator and his crew of like-minded underground artists have done their best to rechristen the city as Mashville. Starting out as a group of six DJs in August of 2007, subsequent comings and goings within the collective have […]
- Hans Condor “Time Rhyme or Reason” Video ()
“Between the guns, booze, and stitches it’s been hard to piece it all together,” explained Hans Condor recently, discussing the production of the new video for “Time Rhyme or Reason.” “It got pretty messy for the two days we filmed it.” What might first appear as nothing more than a booze-soaked warzone is actually a fairly conceptual […]
- PJ Harvey “The Last Living Rose” Video ()
Recently speaking to director Seamus Murphy via email about the visuals used to accompany PJ Harvey‘s song “The Last Living Rose,” he explained, “I tried to present images that worked with the feelings, sensibility and rhythm of Polly’s beautiful song. So although they are not obvious or literal, they are not exactly random either.” This […]
- Kanye West “Christmas in Harlem” ()
Just as he’s done all year long, Kanye West has once again dropped some free love on us in the form of his latest Good Friday release, “Christmas in Harlem.” And like he’s done with track after track which were offered leading up to the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, West has again […]
- Keegan DeWitt “Reluctance” Video ()
“Reluctance” is the second of two videos to come in support of Keegan DeWitt‘s most recent 7″ release, following the Chad Hartigan-directed “Two Hearts” which dropped a month ago. The track’s status as a b-side is by no means indicative of any sort of inferiority to the lead single however; Ryan Burleson of the Nashville […]
- Best Mashups of 2010 ()
This is Culture Bully’s sixth annual list of the year’s top mashups, and this time around I thought it’d be nice to switch things up a bit. Instead of simply compiling a list of my own personal picks, I invited a slew of mashup producers to vote for their favorites from 2010. Quickly, here’s how […]
- Best Albums of 2010 ()
This is the sixth list of its kind that I’ve put together on Culture Bully, counting down the top albums of the year. Something that I’ve noticed along the way however is that the term “top” or “best” (or whatever) has apparently come to take on an entirely different definition nearly every year since starting […]
- Best Music Videos of 2010 ()
2010 was pretty phenomenal as far as music videos are concerned; after all, “MTV [is] Back in the Music Business,” and that has to be a good thing, right? Along the way we saw ICP drop some insight into the magical nature of mother earth, R. Kelly yodelled his way to glory and Gaga & […]
- Hopewell “Preamble (Part II)” (Influenza) ()
As the depth of their touring resume might suggest—having supported names ranging from My Bloody Valentine to British Sea Power to the Posies—Brooklyn’s Hopewell creates music that satisfies any number of line-blurring genres that fall under the larger rock umbrella. Just as this focus on drawing from a wide spectrum of sounds has given the […]
- The Black Keys move to Nashville, open new recording studio ()
While drummer Patrick Carney had already left the band’s hometown of Akron, Ohio for New York, both he and Dan Auerbach have now shifted the Black Keys home-based south to Music City. Explaining the group’s reasoning behind their collective move, Auerbach spoke to the Cleveland Scene this past summer, “Akron’s a great place” he said. […]
- Michael Jackson “Michael” Review ()
The release of Michael, while standing as a postmortem salute to the man’s final works, is not without its controversies. Michael Jackson’s father has spoken out against the new album, releasing a statement through his lawyer suggesting that Michael “would never have wanted his unfinished material to be released.” Like Joe, much of the other […]
- T.I. “No Mercy” Review ()
The year leading up to the release of T.I.‘s new album No Mercy has been nothing if not eventful. Eventful and well documented. After being released from prison, the drop on King Uncaged was set to come at any moment… and his fans stood by him and waited. In the meantime he released a collection […]
- The Black Eyed Peas “The Beginning” Review ()
The Black Eyed Peas’ sixth studio album, The Beginning, closes with a modern mission statement as announced by frontman will.i.am, “I pledge my allegiance to rhythm and sound/Music is my medicine, let the rhythm pound.” Now, long gone are the days when critics were able to relevantly bash the group for trading in their socially […]
- Thee Piatcions “Time” (Influenza) ()
Perhaps it’s a combination of variables that has left Thee Piatcions‘ sounding like a refreshing detour from the exhausted stereotypes that typically define shoegaze: “Wall of sound!”; “Reverb!”; “Distortion!”; “Etheral vocals!”; you get the picture. Hailing from a small town in Northern Italy (Domodossola), the band has remained below the surface for some years now, […]
- Scanner and the Post Modern Jazz Quartet “The Decisive Moment” (Influenza) ()
Scanner is the alias of one Robin Rimbaud, a veteran electronic musician whose works, it seems, are not to be easily defined. “[He] traverses the experimental terrain between sound, space, image and form, creating absorbing, multi-layered sound pieces that twist technology in unconventional ways,” explains the biography on his website. How, then, does such an […]
- Conjure One “Like Ice” (Influenza) ()
Rhys Fulber might not be a household name, but to electronic music fans the Canadian musician’s resume speaks for itself. Standing as a one-time member of the veteran industrial group Front Line Assembly, and one half of the long-standing electronic duo Delerium, for the better part of the past decade and a half Fulber has […]
- Thunderball “Enter the Brahmin” (Influenza) ()
Smooth tempos, sitars, retro-future samples? It must be the return of Thunderball, the stylish kids from DC all grown up after half a decade spent tuning their forks as members of Fort Knox Five.” While succinct and to the point, Urb‘s introduction to the DC-based trio glazes over the near decade-long process of experimenting which […]
- iamamiwhoami presents “To Whom It May Concern” finale ()
A “live concert” was teased from the mysterious iamamiwhoami this past September 30, with a tentative date of November 11 listed as the due date for the vague performance. Recently posting a video which hinted at a snag in the original plan, Joanna Lee and crew unveiled the 16th of November as the new kickoff […]
- Kanye West “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” Review ()
Much has been made of Kanye West‘s outrageous behavior, his perceived narcissism, egotistical public outbursts, and general air of superiority. But there’s something to be said for a man who lives his life as his own biggest fan; especially when symptoms of which materialize in efforts such as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Winking in […]
- Oh Land “Sun of a Gun” (Influenza) ()
Nanna Øland Fabricius’ life has offered the vocalist an interesting series of events that, had the Dane had her way, would have likely never materialized into a career in music. While born to a classically trained opera singer, Fabricius adopted an obsession for dance as a child, and by the age of 10 she had […]
- Metric “Black Sheep” (Influenza) ()
No strangers to acclaim, Metric’s Polaris Music Prize and Juno Award nominations have contributed heavily to the Toronto-based quartet being recognized as one of Canada’s highest regarded rock acts. That said, the band is seemingly perpetually on the brink of something greater. With the release of last year’s Fantasies—which debuted atop Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart—the […]
- Rihanna “Loud” Review ()
It’s hard to believe that Rihanna‘s new album, Loud, is already the 22-year old’s fifth studio effort. Actually, with all that the singer has accomplished to this point in her career, it’s also hard to believe that she’s still only 22 years old. The way she presents herself in public and on stage is reminiscent […]
- Kid Cudi “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager” Review ()
On the surface Kid Cudi‘s Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager is an ambitious 17-track drug-fueled diary detailing dark times and the forces behind them. Beneath the surface however, Rager is a cautionary tale which captures Cudi’s shift away from one stage of his life to the next. As he explained […]