Category: ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Half Japanese’s “Perfect”

Oh sure, this is hardly a perfect record by normal-folk standards, but it is a perfect Half Japanese record. And

February 21, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Deep Sea Diver’s “Secrets”

In those moments of reckless abandon and unabashed displays of appreciation, metalheads will headbang, air-guitar or air-drum along to the

February 20, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Mac McCaughan’s “Staring At Your Hologram”

In 2015, Superchunk/Portastatic/Merge Records ringleader Mac McCaughan released Non-Believers, his debut solo album and one of the year’s most surprising

February 18, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Various Artists “Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze (1988-1995)”

The term “shoegaze” or “shoegazing” is just as amorphous an idea as the gauzy sound made by its long list

February 16, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Crooked Fingers’ “Crooked Fingers” And “Bring On The Snakes”

Amidst Archers Of Loaf’s late-’90s shamble into long, deathlike hibernation, guitarist/vocalist Eric Bachmann “nearly set his dick on fire with

February 14, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: The Fall’s “Wise Ol’ Man”

For a band as prolific as the Fall, you’d think a stopgap EP would be unnecessary. Like most releases of

February 14, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Basia Bulat’s “Good Advice”

With the help of producer Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Basia Bulat brings a rich, melodramatic sheen to her confessional

February 13, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

R.I.P. MAGNET Senior Writer Jonathan Valania

Essential New Music: Junior Boys’ “Big Black Coat”

In the decade-plus since the swoon-worthy early singles that introduced their then-innovative blend of cutting-edge electro-pop and burnished, twilit R&B,

February 12, 2016 / ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC