That far in, it was the most interesting song sonically, having ditched the previous five tracks’ uniform dreary piano chords, muted drums and plaintive, stiff vocal melodies. Sarah Blasko’s voice turned girlish and alluring, more like that of Twin Sister singer Andrea Estella than her previous hopeful folk goddess. Despite the repeating starch of piano […]
Matt Carney
Posted inMusic
Day One — Art by Death
On one lyric of the song “Dream Circus,” Chris Wallace raps about “Robert Frost poems read from the mouth of a deer”; the next, he’s name-checking former Thunder point guard and comically small dunker Nate Robinson. It’s weird stuff, for sure, but the ACM@UCO student, who comprises art-rap duo Day One with moody musician Logan […]
Posted inMusic
Pairadime shift
In early 2010, brothers Gray and Baylor Thomas, along with friend Dan Sewell, started Pairadime as a music blog, which they still operate. The idea was to have an outlet for the music they liked, not imagining the growth it’s seen. “It’s been an absolute trip. We did not start out with this in mind,” […]
Posted inMusic
The Weeknd — Echoes of Silence
Not so fast! “Echoes of Silence” continues with the cadre of really sad characters (such as the poor girl working “for your face-lift” on “XO/The Host”) in really sad, sexually exploitive situations spelled out on The Weeknd’s first two mixtapes, without adding many new elements to that signature hazy, narcotized atmosphere of industrial beats and […]
Posted inMusic
Peer review
Zach Winters, solo singer-songwriter: Brian Payne — “Pingree Park Sessions” EPPayne’s new EP descends from the Colorado mountains with freshness and the scent of aspens. His folky textures and words brood and whisper the familiar longings of man. In “Winter Has No Room” and “Yet I Remain,” Payne carves out rivers, roots and seasons with […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In the ’zona
No, it’s not a disaster of biblical proportions. It’s a New Year’s miracle. The BCS-bound Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Insight Bowl-relegated University of Oklahoma Sooners play just four days apart in Arizona suburbs, and on a holiday weekend, no less! With the sting of Bedlam behind us (I tip my cap in congratulations to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Forecast: Thunder
Last season, Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti sent a clear message when he pulled the trigger on a trade that essentially exchanged Jeff Green, the under-performing forward he said he loved like a son, for the Boston Celtics’ defensive juggernaut Kendrick Perkins. That message? “We’re going for it.” The move suddenly shifted the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Forecast: Thunder
Last season, Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti sent a clear message when he pulled the trigger on a trade that essentially exchanged Jeff Green, the under-performing forward he said he loved like a son, for the Boston Celtics’ defensive juggernaut Kendrick Perkins. That message? “We’re going for it.” The move suddenly shifted the […]
Posted inMusic
Peach — Peachy-P
On its 15-minute debut, Oklahoma City fusion trio Peach seems content playing on words and naming the last song “Short Record.” And setting its genre at “metal” when it pulls up in the listener’s iTunes library. For all this and the casual, greasy-lounge feel of some of these songs, I wonder how serious these guys […]
Posted inMusic
The Black Keys — El Camino
It was a risky move considering the backlash that followed “Attack & Release,” the Keys’ 2008 album that many accused Burton of overproducing. I personally found his finer touches (like the banjo and piano-plinking on the drawly “Psychotic Girl”) more dramatic and fun, a refreshing departure from the rust belt-blues shtick they’d worked from the […]