LIVE REVIEWParlour Tricks @ Mercury Lounge
Carena Liptak
TRACK PREMIEREDel Sur "In My Room"
Del Sur--a beach pop band from decidedly un-beachy Philadelphia--specializes in whimsy done mellow. The group is both youthful and young: young because their debut EP H.A.G.S. comes out at the end of January 2015, and youthful because of their penchant for simple melodies that repeat each other and...
Carena Liptak
INTERVIEWLily and Madeleine
Over the course of the past two years, Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz, teenage sisters from Indianapolis, have had a performance go viral on Reddit, written their first original songs, gotten signed to Asthmatic Kitty, released two full-length albums and an EP, and played several tours. The duo's most...
Carena Liptak
INTERVIEWBuke and Gase
When Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez met in 2000, Sanchez had already been building instruments for years. For him, constructing the instrument came part and parcel with creating sound. When he speaks about creating his gase--a guitar-bass hybrid, and the namesake of one-half the duo Buke and...
Carena Liptak
PLAYLISTA Spooky Scary Halloween Playlist
So you're throwing your annual Halloween party but you shot your wad on all the holiday classics ( the Monster Mash, the Time Warp, the Purple People Eater, etc, etc) on last year's mix. So you're going as Will Smith circa "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and you're looking for something seasonal to...
Carena Liptak
ALBUM REVIEWFoxygen "…And Star Power"
When I was in college, I spent a lot of time dating musicians, which meant I spent a lot of time sitting in on band practice. By "dating," I guess I mean puttering around somebody's basement, falling asleep on an old, bottomed-out couch, my French homework in my lap. Or being invited over to "hang...
Carena Liptak
LIVE REVIEWImelda May @ Irving Plaza
Imelda May radiates light when she’s on stage--and not just because of her bright red lipstick. The Irish rockabilly singer brought an ebullient grace to her set last Monday at Irving Plaza, beginning with the immaculate-as-always platinum blonde quiff set on top of her dark ponytail, and ending...
Carena Liptak
TRACK REVIEWDMA's "So We Know"
When DMA's signed to Australian indie label I OH YOU this February, the Newtown trio was so freshly minted that they hadn't even played a show yet. That isn't to say they were totally green--all three members (Tommy O', Matt Mason, and Johnny Took) had gigged extensively with previous bands--and...
Carena Liptak
ALBUM REVIEWJustin Townes Earle "Single Mothers"
The delightfully bespectacled Justin Townes Earle dependably releases a record every year or so, and has done so since 2007. He can be counted on for more than just punctuality, too. Not one of Earle's records is a dud: at worst, he's palatable and bland, and at his best, he expertly shines a light...
Carena Liptak
ALBUM REVIEWODESZA "In Return"
Since its inception in late 2012, the Seattle-based electronic duo ODESZA (Harrison Mills/Catacomb Kid and Clayton Knight/BeachesBeaches) has been both prolific and consistent. In particular, the pair made an unlikely fan out of this usually-EDM-ambivalent listener last November with the soulful...
Carena Liptak
ALBUM REVIEWHelado Negro "Double Youth"
After a slew of collaborations (Bear In Heaven, Devendra Banhart, Julianna Barwick, and others), Roberto Carlos Lange retreated inward to make Double Youth, his fourth full-length release as Helado Negro. Recorded largely in Lange's home studio in Brooklyn, the album is constructed with simple...
Carena Liptak
ALBUM REVIEWWeyes Blood "The Innocents"
Just now, I googled “1960s witchy psychedelic folk,” grasping, I guess, for a manageable term that encapsulates both Nico’s glamourous theatrics and Brigitte Fontaine’s quirky darkness. I’m sitting at a table in the pool-house out back of a big and beautiful summer home on the coast of Maine, where...
Carena Liptak