- SXSW was last week. The New York Times published some sort-of critical pieces on the wide-spead “sponsorship” at the festival. “Big Money Upends a Festival: South by Southwest Festival Starts to Feel Corporate” & “A New Model for Music: Big Bands, Big Brands
- Arcade Fire is so unpredictable at times, like when they performed a cover of Boyz II Men’s “Motown Philly”
- 2 writers from Gawker visited the American Girl Cafe and wrote about it. The results are humorous, especially if you held a love of those dolls as a child.
Of this week’s new releases, I listened to The Black Lips‘ Underneath the Rainbow and Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene)’s Darlings. Drew’s album is more acoustic while The Black Lips presented a more country-influenced album.
There is also the debut album from Perfect Pussy called Say Yes to Love. This is a ferocious punk-rock album from the girl-fronted group an definitely recommended to fans of that genre. The album was streaming on NPR First Listen, but you can also stream some of their songs on Bandcamp.
Taking Back Sunday released their Happiness Is album. It is a solid emo effort from the band, who is back to their “classic” lineup.
And finally, War on Drugs released Lost in the Dream, which is a very enjoyable follow up to 2011’s Slave Ambient. This album was also on NPR First Listen last week (the associated story is a good read).
Stay tuned for next week when I post my initial thoughts on The Hold Steady‘s Teeth Dreams (streaming now on iTunes).
