Review: Dance Gavin Dance – Instant Gratification
There aren’t many albums out there these days that have true staying power. Music has become disposable like most everything else. There are so many good bands out there putting out good music so rapidly that there is little reason to stay loyal to any one album for an extended period of time, lest you might miss the next remarkable flash in the pan. Not to sell the music short, of course, but it’s become so easy to record good music and make it accessible, that so many artists are putting out such highly quality music all the time. It seems like every week a new album of the year contender is released. Team this up with society’s collective ADD, and you get music that gets tossed aside like a day old newspaper.
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Weekend Warm-Up No. 16: Hip-Hop’s Golden Age
–Words & list by Kevin Madert
After developing quickly in the late 1970s and early 1980s, hip-hop hit what most music historians consider its pinnacle in the middle of the decade. With honed, intelligent lyricism, complex interior rhyme schemes, innovative production styles, and a steady diversification of subject material, hip-hop saw itself expand in explosive fashion. In Rolling Stone‘s accurate assessment, “it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre,” during the Golden Age, which persisted well into the 1990s.
This week’s warm-up is just as much a history lesson as a tool for the fabrication and proliferation of psychitude. You’ll hear intricate narratives detailing everything from the struggles of black youth in America (“Temperature’s Rising”) to the minutiae of everyday life (“The Jam”), not to mention the occasional chest-thumping soliloquy (“The Rep Grows Bigga,” “Gz & Hustlas”).
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AltFreq Weekend Planner (4/16/15-4/18/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
It’s nearly impossible to keep track of all the events going on in the area, so we’re here to let you know what’s happening in live music over the next few days. Watch out on Sundays for our “Weekly Planner,” where we’ll cover the remaining four days of the week.
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News: Mayhem Festival Announces 2015 Lineup + Dates
–Written by Kevin Madert
You may want to grab your poncho; thrash metal pioneers Slayer are headlining this year’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival, set to begin June 26 in San Diego, CA, and conclude August 2 in Dallas, TX. Joining them on the annual summer tour of terror are King Diamond, Hellyeah, The Devil Wears Prada, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder, Jungle Rot, Sister Sin, Sworn In, Shattered Sun, Feed Her To The Sharks, Code Orange and Kissing Candice.
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Frequency of the Week No. 7: Tides of Man
You may have heard all the hooplah about the new Dance Gavin Dance album, if you read this blog at all, I’d say it would be pretty difficult to miss it. But in case you aren’t hip, Instant Gratification will be the second full length album from DGD with Tillian Pearson fronting the band. Tillian is far from new to the scene, he had previous played with Rise Records labelmates, Tides of Man. Tides of Man played to a similar crowd, representing the more technical side of the genre, though they were always more polished than Dance Gavin Dance. They were the Envy on the Coast to Dance Gavin Dance’s The Fall of Troy, for all five of you that will understand that analogy.
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New Tune Tuesday (4/14/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
Gramatik – Native Son (Ft. Raekwon & Orlando Napier)
The lead single from Gramatik’s upcoming Epigram EP sees the Slovenian teaming with an emerging talent and an established hip-hop legend to craft a too-smooth instant classic. The juxtaposition of frequent collaborator Orlando Napier’s syrupy tones and rapper Raekwon’s incendiary verses atop seriously sensual riffage amounts to some of Gramatik’s best work. The often humble producer seemed almost as excited as we were about the tune: “I’m sure you can imagine how some random kid from Slovenia must feel, realizing he just made a song with a legend.” (via Facebook)
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