Julia Holter makes a kind of music that could be too cerebral to be fun. She holds multiple degrees in composition and studied under avant-garde musician Michael Pisaro. Her early records are highbrow-conceptual, inspired by Euripides and Virginia Woolf. She called her most recent album Aviary after learning that birdcages were considered storehouses for memories…
All posts by Rich Bradley
“All Day” – Kanye West
Kanye West – All Day / I Feel Like That Music Video Do I have to write about Kanye? Of course I don’t. I’m the only one making me do this. But since I’m going to anyway, maybe the question is, why is this entry harder to write than the others? Kanye West has always…
“Snow Is Falling in Manhattan” – Purple Mountains
It took me longer than it should have to get David Berman. Like a lot of people, I was exposed to Silver Jews mainly because Stephen Malkmus had been in the band, reducing it in my mind to a Pavement side project. In reality, Silver Jews predated Pavement and was the primary vehicle for Gen…
“Daydreaming” – Radiohead
Radiohead was the most important band in the world to me between the ages of 13 and 25 or so. No other music can ever do to me what Radiohead did then, when my wiring was at its most fragile. Their mark is indelible, not only as shepherds of my musical taste, but as the…
“Danny Nedelko” – Idles
Earlier this year, the frontman of Nottingham electro-punk band Sleaford Mods accused Idles of class appropriation. “I thought they were kind of a street band,” he told The Guardian, “but it turns out they’re not working class.” He went on to explain why he found their unabashedly progressive second album, Joy as an Act of…