JENSEN RUFE IS BETTING that you’re going to want to watch an hour-long movie about a music scene in a tiny town you’ve never been to, and he’s bringing backup in the form of an unabashed pop band; the town is Eureka, California, and the band is the Buffy Swayze. Nestled in the upper left-hand […]
Joel Hartse
Posted inMusic
Klatronic for the People
MPO Braves the Elements and Rock Clubs
COMPOSER BREDE RØRSTAD, founder of the ambitious Music Population Project (MPP) and its realization in Portland’s Music Population Orchestra (MPO), is breaking down the wall of pretension between the classical and the indierock aesthetic. The orchestra’s music is as much Björk as Baroque, and more exciting and innovative than anything you read about on Pitchfork. […]
Posted inMusic
Look at Us!
Art Brut and the Death of the Death of Irony
THERE’S BEEN PLENTY of talk about the “death of irony” in recent years: We’re not supposed to make fun of anything anymore, or the terrorists will win. But pop music hasn’t even cared about irony one way or the other for years—heart-on-sleeve sincerity is as much a put-on in rock as an affected, snotty attitude. […]
Posted inMusic
Please Let That Be You
The Return of the Rentals, Seriously
MATT SHARP USED TO PLAY bass in one of the best bands of the 1990s. Maybe you remember them: They were called Weezer, and they used to be awesome. After their last truly good album, Pinkerton, Sharp left the band to concentrate on the Rentals, a side project that got called “neo-new wave” a lot, […]