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NIGHTLY AFFIRMATION
On his own, Jean-Philip Grobler, the mastermind and NYC resident behind indie-pop group St. Lucia, records ornately orchestrated mini-pop masterstrokes, coated in plucky new-wave synths and his own smooth vocals. In interviews, Grobler has talked about how important it is to him to pull off “the ’80s feel” of his songs, the bright-sounding synthetic horns […]
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A Pale Horse Named Death
After stints in gloomy Brooklyn metal bands Type O Negative and Life of Agony, drummer Sal Abruscato has a pedigree for pessimism. It’s a state of mind he thrives in, now as the frontman of A Pale Horse Named Death, a goth-metal project he started up in 2011. On two gloriously drab LPs, the most […]
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SOUL MAN
Over four decades ago, warble-throated folkie Neil Young played a couple of nights at Carnegie Hall in support of his classic record, After the Gold Rush. Both nights sold out. Now he’s playing four nights at the same New York institution and at press time demand looked equally high. Although he’s not coming back specifically […]
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KIND OF BLUE
Although Valerie June seemingly came out of nowhere, the Memphis-bred thirtysomething roots singer has been slinging her world-weary, soulful songs for close to a decade. Her August breakthrough, Pushin’ Against a Stone, just got the most attention, thanks to co-production and co-writing credits by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and some funky organ playing by […]
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GOTHIC GLOW
Even though the members of Brooklyn synth-pop duo Light Asylum came together only a couple of years ago, their oeuvre sounds as though it dates back a quarter of a century. Steeped in new old-stock reverb somebody with a Flock of Seagulls haircut likely stockpiled in a closet, the group’s music bears all the hallmarks […]
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SPLASHING AGAIN
On a particularly punky number of the Breeders’ 1993 indie-rock touchstone Last Splash, frontwoman Kim Deal sings, “I am the new year/I am the way home.” Tonight, those proclamations ring especially true, since 2013 might well be her busiest year ever. Her journey began in Brooklyn in January, when she and the reunited Last Splash […]
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GOOD YEAR
The members of the 1975 started out as teenagers, playing pop and punk covers, and now they’ve made a fusion of dance-floor-ready, new-wave–style pop-rock with a little punk sneer all their own, over and over again on their recent self-titled debut. It’s a sound best described as the Killers with a slight stuttering problem, but […]
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SURVIVAL OF THE ILLEST
“It’s lonely at the top,” confesses A$AP Ferg at one point on his debut album, Trap Lord. “All this shrimp, and nobody to share it with.” Tonight, the 25-year-old Harlem rapper will have to share some of his shellfish as he celebrates what’s turned out to be an eventful year for the A$AP Mob member. […]
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DREAM TEAM
The members of NYC’s DIIV named themselves after the Nirvana track “Dive,” but there’s hardly anything grungy about their dreamy, fuzzy take on indie rock. It’s a seductive sound that swirls about at concerts without sounding sleepy. Technically, the group’s appearance at Rough Trade is still in support of its 2012 debut, the echo-laden Oshin […]
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DYNAMITE DUO
In December 2012, this paper put Brooklyn indie-punk duo Hunters on the cover and declared the group was bringing “scuzzy collision rock back to Brooklyn.” In the story, former Smashing Pumpkins member and Hunters buddy James Iha recalled the first time he saw the prickly pair: “They went off like an explosion in the corner […]