Music: The Measure, The L Magazine

The Doors Don't Suck

Henry Stewart — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:05:00 -0400

There's no band in lower regard within hip circles these days than the Doors. They're like the anti-hipsters.…

Tackling the Iraq War... in Song!

Henry Stewart — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:38:00 -0400

Quagmires and the Known Knowns, a song cycle about the Iraq War by composer Marie Incontrera, has its world premiere tomorrow at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. The Brooklyn Art Song Society's first commission draws its text from political speeches.…

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Great GoogaMooga Canceled

Henry Stewart — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:56:00 -0400

The parks department, the Prospect Park Alliance, and the organizers of the Great GoogaMooga, the music and local food festival that's been going on in Prospect Park all weekend, decided earlier to cancel the festivities today, the last day of the festival, citing the poor weather and potential for damage to the park because of how soggy it was out there. People who paid for VIP passes will have the cost refunded; the rest of us just won't have a thing to go to today, I guess.…
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Titus Andronicus Desecrated Confederate Flags on Stage in Georgia

Henry Stewart — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:50:00 -0400

Apparently confusing The Monitor's Civil War references with a sympathy for the rebel states, a fan brought Confederate flags to a Titus Andronicus show in Athens, Georgia, on Wednesday and proceeded to hand them out to the crowd during the band's performance of "A More Perfect Union." It made frontman Patrick Stickles "made enuff 2 kill," he posted to Twitter, adding, "These flags ended up in my mouth, on fire, and on my sweaty asshole."…
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It's Weird That the Coolest Songs on the New Daft Punk are the Ones With Indie Rock Singers

Jeff Klingman — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:35:41 -0400

If you were any where near Twitter on Monday, you know that the insanely hyped new Daft Punk record, Random Access Memories, leaked to the Internet. With all the money and production effort went into making all those millions of advance teaser videos, you know the label had to be pretty bummed that they couldn't quite get over the finish line by posting their own legal stream first, though they obviously had one ready (if you also didn't know that somehow, it's on iTunes and available to stream directly to the cave you are living in).…
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A Booze Playlist: The 20 Best Drinking Songs

Kristin Iversen — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:00:00 -0400

Drinking and music go together like, I don't know, two things that go together really well, in a really sloppy, perfect kind of way. They just fit.…
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Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings Makes You Feel Real Calm (But Maybe Also a Little Edgy)

Jeff Klingman — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:22:00 -0400

One of the many notable events going on during Red Bull Music Academy's benign reign of corporate arts patronage this month is the New York City premiere of Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings installation. The piece, first developed in 2006 and debuting in the US in a 2007 San Francisco show, is what's referred to as a "generative work."…
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Was the Kriss Kross Sprite Ad the Catchiest Rap Jingle of All Time?

Jeff Klingman — Thu, 02 May 2013 10:15:26 -0400

Last night, word hit the Internet that Chris Kelly, aka "Mac Daddy" of 90s hit-making kid rap duo Kris Kross, had died of a "possible drug overdose" at age 34. That is super sad, and way too young.…
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Guessing the Soundtrack to Zach Braff's New Kickstarter Movie

Jeff Klingman — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:43:00 -0400

You guys, we did it! Zach Braff gets to make Wish I Was Here, his follow-up to Garden State, without those Hollywood suits telling him to compromise his vision!…
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Should We Care What Kim Gordon Thinks About The Sex On Girls?

Virginia K. Smith — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:55:00 -0400

Well, insofar as we should care what anyone has to say about a TV show with a deceptively small viewership, yes. We should.…
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How We All Just Gave In to French Pop Bands

Jeff Klingman — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:29:00 -0400

For decades, France’s biggest influence on American alternative culture was in film and fashion, an impossibly stylish people who needed to be seen to be appreciated. Lately, the country is dominating our ears.…
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Tribeca 2013: Mistaken for Strangers Like a Documentary About the Mona Lisa's Frame

Ryan Vlastelica — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:31:00 -0400

Mistaken For Strangers
Directed by Tom Berninger

This documentary about the Brooklyn rock band The National centers on lead singer Matt Berninger's fuck-up brother Tom, who toured with the group as a roadie and fumbled a documentary out of the experience. Given that the band is one of the best and most exciting out there, this is akin to a profile on the Yankee's water boy, or close-ups of the Mona Lisa's frame.…
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5 Places to Visit, 5 Items to Buy at This Year's Record Store Day

Jeff Klingman — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:12:58 -0400

So, after a week filled with just no joke awful shit, in which filing taxes counted as a pretty delightful romp, comparatively, we are all in need of some pure weekend holiday joy. Luckily, Record Store Day, our favorite made-up music nerd holiday cum cry for help from an industry that keeps on taking beatings, is tomorrow!…
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Karen O Isn't The Reason This New Yeah Yeah Yeahs Record Is Good

Jeff Klingman — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:44:45 -0400

Karen O is a very odd rock star. She became an icon without really doing the deep, conceptual work of coming up with a defined character to perform as, let alone tweak from record to record.…
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This Daft Punk Hype Blitz Is Silly, Confusing, and Super Effective

Jeff Klingman — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:44:52 -0400

Hey everybody, did you hear that there's a new Daft Punk album coming out? It's been hard to miss. At a Coachella Festival pretty heavy on chill French guys doing kinda weird collaborations with notable R&B fellas, the electronic duo trumped everyone by just sitting in the VIP area, drinking froofy cocktails, and playing a prerecorded trailer for Random Access Memories that announced some of its details.…
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VIDEO: Tony Danza Rapping for Marty Markowitz

Henry Stewart — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:38:00 -0400

At Marty Markowitz's final State of the Borough address last night, Tony Danza did a rap—"you've heard of Vanilla Ice? I'm Italian Ice"—listing famous Brooklynites and sort of making their names rhyme, something he'd first done for Markowitz at last year's Brooklyn Book Festival.…
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8 Bands You Need to Hear: Best of the Rest

Lauren Beck — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:00:00 -0400

It's become common acceptance that New York City is overrun by bands. Bands are everywhere.…
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Guantanamo-Themed Coachella Party Is Not Going Over Well

Virginia K. Smith — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0400

Festival season is in full swing, which means at least a couple of things. Ideally, it means that you'll get to party a lot, travel a little, and see bands you like (or new bands that you're going to like).…
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You Should Really Watch Deerhunter's Rad New Song from Fallon Last Night

Jeff Klingman — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:04:00 -0400

Last night on Late Night, in a shocking turn of events, one of the best rock bands we've got premiered a new noise-pop song from their upcoming album in the form of a loud, snarled live performance as opposed to a widely disseminated, embeddable widget. (Well, they streamed it on YouTube too later...)…
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Full-Album Nostalgia Concerts Are Kind of Sad, Right?

Jeff Klingman — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:00:03 -0400

Tonight, at the Bell House in Gowanus, The Breeders play the first in a series of concerts reviving their 20-year-old record Last Splash in full, ahead of a recently announced lavish anniversary re-issue. They are hardly the first band to go this route.…
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The Coolest Debut Album of 2013 (That Not Enough People Are Talking About)

Jeff Klingman — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:39:03 -0400

I've been grumping a bit lately about how the album has started to slip out of our pop cultural conversation, except for the newsiest of newsmakers, and the buzziest of buzz bands. But what album would I choose to talk about, given the chance to do so on the website of an actual publication, you might ask?…
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5 Rock Solid Predictions For Brooklyn's VMAs

Virginia K. Smith — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:07:00 -0400

So, it's officially happening. We've arrived.…
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The 5 Best Songs from Twin Peaks

Henry Stewart — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:35:00 -0400

Today is Dyker Heights native Angelo Badalamenti's birthday, and, in celebration of the renowned composer best known for his David Lynch collaborations, there'll be a Twin Peaks costume party at The Owl's Head wine bar—WHERE THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM—tonight in Bay Ridge (as close to Dyker Heights as you'll find someone willing to throw a fucking Angelo Badalamenti party). While I raid my closet to see if I can pull off a One-Armed Man costume, I figured we could all get into the mood by listening to the best tracks from Julee Cruise's first two solo albums, with lyrics by Lynch and music by Badalamenti, many of which were used on Twin Peaks.…
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5 International Bands Coming Through New York This Week On Their Way Home From SXSW

Jeff Klingman — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:00:55 -0400

Now that it drags out over 10 days, following coverage of Austin's SXSW megafestival from afar has sort of seemed like war correspondence, describing a compressed arc of nervous excitement, confusion, blood, fatigue, and a deep longing to return home. A victim of its own wild success over the past 10 or 15 years, even as the music business itself keeps on its incredible shrinking industry course, South By now seems defined as a magnet for any brand with money to spend to get their logo into a few hundred smartphone photos, even if they are partially blocked by Prince.…
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5 More Acts Whose Return Albums Would Be a Huge Deal

Jeff Klingman — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:15:00 -0400

In an essay posted on the site today, I make the argument that even with streaming first listens of new records becoming a music industry standard, actual conversation about work from new bands and career artists has somewhat waned due to the trouble ong-playing records have breaking into the easily digestible, quick-hit news culture of the Internet. There are always exceptions, of course.…
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