While it’s great to dive into heady, groundbreaking stuff or brilliantly crafted pop songs, it’s just as nice to enjoy something as beautiful and simple as the music that Jack Tatum is writing as Wild Nothing, and while 2010’s Gemini was a great listen, he’s made leaps and strides heading into Nocturne. It’s easy listening […]
Pop
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Dillard’s exclusive
Give Tara Dillard a spotlight and a stage and she is set. Earlier this summer, the Oklahoma City-based singer-songwriter released her first single, “So Long,” on iTunes and Spotify, with plans to release a full EP soon. “I’ve just released the one single right now,” she said. “The whole EP project I’m hoping to finish […]
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The XX — Coexist
The xx is the exception. The English band’s 2009 debut, xx, is a modern classic, lauded for its moody and sparse pairing of R&B and indie grooves. “Intro,” “Crystalised” and “Islands” all made splashes, and The xx went from 0 to 60 like that. So then comes the follow-up, Coexist, with the words “sophomore slump” […]
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Still whipped
Photo: Joshua Dalsimer The planet is heating up, running out of fossil fuel and getting stingy with clean air and water. World nations seem chronically on the verge of global economic collapse. Crazed gunmen and suicide bombers make daily headlines. Literacy is down, obesity is up and Kim Kardashian is a household name. Humanity, meet […]
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Animal Collective — Centipede HZ
In direct contrast to, say, Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective thrives on being inexact, and to come so close to re-creating the formula nonetheless is impressive. Centipede Hz is not half as catchy; nothing resembles “Summertime Clothes” or “My Girls,” save for “Applesauce.” What you’ve got instead are nearly a dozen jarring pop songs that split […]
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Red-hot rock
Photo: Jason Tanaka Blaney When Ohio rock act Red Wanting Blue got booked to play Norman Music Festival this past spring, the band members worried about whether they’d be able to impress the crowd. “These people have seen everything,” lead singer Scott Terry said. “I’ve never been close to a tornado, but most of these […]
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Blondie has more fun
Blondie co-founder Chris Stein hears traces of his band in a lot of contemporary rock and pop, from Garbage to Lady Gaga. It’s an impressive range of influence for an outfit once considered the ugly duckling of New Wave acts toiling in the sweaty, steamy environs of New York’s CBGB back in the 1970s. “Assuming […]
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Depth test
Photo: Laura Raczkowski Owning a recording studio and heading a small, Oklahoma record label gives Chris Harris, front man of local shoegaze three-piece Depth & Current, a certain perspective on what it takes to survive in the world of independent music: Namely, adapt or die. To that end, the Norman-based “nightmare-pop” band decided to include […]
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Matt Stansberry & the Romance — Let’s Brighten It Up
The brilliant new nine-player band brings all sorts of new layers to the formula. Stansberry’s melodies are good enough to stand on their own; the backing vocals, horn section and keys add another dimension to his sound. The title track bridges the gap between ’50s pop and soul, beaming like sunshine with a good amount […]
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Youth group
Most people play in their first band sometime in high school. But recent high school graduate Scottie Noonan — chief songwriter, singer and guitarist of Enid acoustic-pop act The Fossil Youth — is already an old pro, with half a decade of experience behind him. “It’s helped me progress a lot quicker. A lot of […]