13 Best Songs of the Week: Jay Som, Luke Temple, DIIV, Lightning Dust, and More

Aug 23, 2019 Christopher Roberts

Welcome to another Songs of the Week. It was another incredibly strong week for new songs. Last week we ended up with a Top 12, instead of our usual Top 10, and here we are again, except this time with a Top 13. Like last week, there are also a whole lot of honorable mentions.

Keeping Score – Emile Mosseri on His Score for “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”

Aug 16, 2019 Web Exclusive

Honestly, you can’t imagine any other music in The Last Black Man in San Francisco.

My Firsts: Boy Scouts

Aug 13, 2019 Web Exclusive

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Boy Scouts, aka Oakland, CA-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Taylor Vick.

Penelope Isles on “Until the Tide Creeps In”

Aug 07, 2019 Web Exclusive

Brighton based four-piece Penelope Isles are one of the hottest acts to emerge from the UK scene this year. Formed by brother and sister duo Jack and Lily Wolter who originate from the Isle of Man, and completed by rhythm section Becky Redford (bass) and Jack Sowton (drums), Penelope Isles have already spent the first half of 2019 playing a staggering number of shows across the globe while amassing a legion of devotees in the process.

25 of the Best Elton John Songs You’ve (Probably) Never Heard

Jun 10, 2019

Rocketman is here. And it's spectacular. As such, I've got Elton on the mind.

I didn't go to the church of Jesus Christ when I was a kid. I went to the church of Elton John. Still do. We had portraits of Elton and his lyricist Bernie Taupin framed, matted, and hanging in the hallway as if they were fuckin' family members. LOL. Mom took me to my first concert in 1994. I was 11. It was Elton and Ray Cooper at the Greek Theater in LA. In 7th grade, I had a picture of Elton on the front of my school folder and one of Taupin on the back. Caught a lot of shit for it too. It was middle school, it was the mid-'90s, I was a weirdo.

So I'm a mega-fan for sure.

When people ask me where to start with Elton's catalog, here's what I tell 'em: All the studio albums from the 1970 self-titled Elton John through 1976's Blue Moves are essential. That's 10 albums people. 10 ALBUMS IN 6 YEARS. All of them essential. And no, we're not gonna get into anything after Blue Moves. Don't have time. Too controversial. But do check out 1981's The Fox and 1983's Too Low for Zero if you have the appetite.

Those 10 studio albums aren't just essential because of their brain-scramblingly good singles, but also because the non-single album tracks are Just. Un. Real. To celebrate all that incredible music and the release of Rocketman, I've compiled 25 of the very best Elton John songs I reckon you've never heard.

What'd we miss? BRING IT.

 By Kenny S McGuane

OFF Festival 2019 in Katowice, Poland, August 2, 2019

Aug 16, 2019 By Jimi Arundell

Having never been to Poland before, I am unsure what to expect from OFF Festival and as I approach the ominous looking makeshift entry gates built out of three shipping containers, a light plane immediately hurtles within spitting distance overhead to haphazardly land in the adjacent field. 

PLAYlist 45: Nobjects

Aug 16, 2019 By Brad Walton

Nobjects is the brainchild of Ludovic Gimlet and produced by Pegasus Spiele.