That’s My Dad Podcast - Episode 1

Ólafur Arnalds - For Now I Am Winter

For those unfamiliar with the Icelandic music fetish, experimental-classical music or that one song he did on The Hunger Games soundtrack, Ólafur Arnalds is a former hardcore drummer gone neo-classical producer who’s been quietly acquiring representation as one of the most talented and ethereal musicians from Iceland. His stylistic range is one thing, but his undeniably hypnotic and captivating instrumental work functions on a thematic level so high, it feels as if it couldn’t possibly have come from human hands. Past records such as …and they have escaped the weight of darkness and Eulogy for Evolution epitomize this sentiment, featuring Arnalds most emotive compositions and performances. After a slew of EPs spanning 4 years, he returns to a comfortable, spacious LP length for his 3rd record: For Now I Am Winter.

Read My Whole Review on Listen Before You Buy

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Wavves - Afraid of Heights

To an extent, your opinion of California’s Wavves will perpetually be stuck on their breakthrough album, King of the Beach. Was it a hyper-active party filled with ruckus you regretted the morning after or was it the landmark memory of an amazing summer? Either way, in the past three years, Wavves has been a rock band that has suffered too many retrospective discussions. They had the not-so-stellar follow-up EP, Life Sux, which inadvertently informed many listeners that the party was getting lame. Which meant, considering the specifically young and reckless audience they demand for, that their ship had started sinking. Much like Best Coast‘s lackluster change of heart on last year’s The Only Place, the guys in Wavves return with some lower-key, self-loathing indie rock tunes which further dampen long time fans’ expectations.

Read My Whole Review on Listen Before You Buy

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Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience

Justin Timberlake is one of probably five pop singers that equally satisfies the desperate romantic and sonic perfectionist in me. With his god-like confidence, wearing suits for no reason, he charmingly compares women to spaceships and fruity bubblegum; Justin Timberlake is the king of making me feel like I just hit puberty and I can win over the heart of any woman I desire. Returning from the chart-topping, hit-churning 2006 record FutureSex/LoveSounds,we’re again graced with the presence of an American entertainment renaissance man with the momentously-released, grandly-produced and expectedly ambitious The 20/20 Experience.

Read My Whole Review on Listen Before You Buy

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themusicwriterscollective:

#1 - Kind of Blue by Miles Davis

I’ve spent half of my life stressing over this record and the other half hypnotized. 

Davis came into my life the minute I fell in love in jazz. You’ll find him in worlds of jazz fusion, hard bop, avant-garde, big band, but his monolithic opus stands atop the simple harmonics and rich emotions of modal jazz: a basic yet vastly open-ended framework of instrumentation fixated on chord progression. To own such a rudimentary style is single-handedly why Kind of Blue is hailed as one of, if not, the greatest jazz album of all time. 

Searching for strong melodies, exciting rhythm and fierce sax solos, the untampered easiness of Davis and company left me scratching my head, drawing out yawns to an excess. Every time I put on Kind of Blue, it was as if I had a slice of cake with a strange and total absence of flavor. Years pass, my expectations steady at a dull roar and I think to myself, “Maybe I’m trying to listen too hard.”

“I’m Alec Baldwin and you’re listening to WYNC Radio.”

There are a hundred minutes of sleep desperately holding my eyelids while driving to the airport at dusk. Briskly summoning my devices for voices or sound, I get Baldwin starting up an episode of his charming radio talk show, Here’s the Thing. The cool swagger of his vocals follows up on an arresting cymbal crash interluded by an enchanting, nearly life-affirming, trumpet piece from the iconic jazz opening track “So What” of this record. My pupils must have dilated. I swear, everything went downhill from there. 

A day later, I haggled for a cheap vinyl copy in the shady side of town. My mind lost weeks of rest in relishing Davis and his haunting minimalism. Their fingers came to life and began to reveal secrets, emotions and anxieties to myself. The line between jazz and poetry began to fade and I was slightly terrified. Scores of common truths became actualized, most importantly: less is more. You never need a giant voice or a vast orchestra to break your heart. 

Let it be Manhattan at 3 a.m.

Turn off your lights. Get a bottle of scotch. Let the needle hit the wax. Go out on your balcony. Allow yourself to simmer, to brood, to marinate. The godfathers of jazz are about to speak to you, but they’re not here to do the things performers do. Kind of Blue will not dazzle with technical ability or elaborate experimentation. The experience is a physical one.  Let not your peripherals disrupt, but to accentuate a sonic romance and an emotional musing. Begin to understand the genre from this record. If jazz were a board game, Kind of Blue would pass, go and collect two hundred bucks every single night.

- Poster designed & written by Mohammed Zain

Spring Breakers -

A tense, cold-blooded thriller thick with atmosphere, laced with dark comedy, trap rap culture and a surprisingly imaginative, no bullshit introspection on post-modern hedonism. (8/10)

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Dumbo Gets Mad - Quantum Leap

Upon initial exposure, Quantum Leap can be defined as a kooky tour guide to a distant galaxy where the ticket of admission is the consumption of  hallucinogenic mushrooms. One could fly past the wealth of sonic embellishments and nuances, yet still be swept away by Dumbo’s well-measured pop sensibilities, momentum and convivial spirits. In the first few moments in the record’s run-time, the multi-layered and groovy track “Indian Food” swings in with an impressive set of drum, keyboard and violin riffs, well-poised psychedelic vocals boasting charmingly wacky lyrics all mastered brilliantly by Kelly Hibbert, whose worked with the likes of Flying Lotus and J Dilla. With its inviting attitude and soft sonic features, the album begs for the summer to come sooner in a same way a chill-wave release would, but without ten kilos of reverb. (8/10)

Read My Whole Review on Listen Before You Buy

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We’re back. This time, with a poster.

Best Picture

Personal Pick: Django Unchained

Actual Guess: Argo

Best Actor

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln

Best Actress

Personal Pick: Quvenzhane Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Actual Guess: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained

Honorable Mention & Tie-breaker: Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln

Best Supporting Actress

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables

Best Director

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Honorable Mention: David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Best Foreign Film

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Amour

Best Animated Feature 

Personal Pick: Wreck-It Ralph

Actual Guess: Brave

Best Documentary Feature 

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Searching for Sugar Man

Best Original Screenplay

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Django Unchained

Best Adapted Screenplay

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Lincoln

Honorable Mention & Tie-Breaker: Argo

Best Cinematography

Personal Pick: Skyfall

Actual Guess: Life of Pi

Best Film Editing

Personal Pick & Actual Guess: Argo

Currently Reading: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (2 of 52)

Taken By Trees - Other Worlds

Easily one of the more under-stated releases of 2012, Other Worlds is a charming, breezy, Hawaiian-sounding lite-pop featuring some adorable, mild-mannered vocals by former Concretes member Victoria Bergman and easy-listening, tropical instrumentation to boot. (7/10)

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Nosaj Thing - Home

Home doesn’t make the mistake in sacrificing quantity for quality, nor the other way around. Subtler works in an electronic producer’s career usually indicate symptoms like lazier musicianship, unrealized sonic ideas, floozy production approaches or even the occasional experimental concept record gone horribly wrong. Like every EP and album Chung has released to date, Nosaj Thing nurtures the project with a near-masterful grip on direction and a fine-tuned, layered technical ability beaming with finesse. The sky’s the limit for Chung now: we’ve seen him produce intro- and extrovertedly now; where he wants to go next, there’s no telling. All we can do is dim the lights and let him fill the room with the beauty of another world. (7/10)

Read My Whole Review on Listen Before You Buy

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Angel Olsen - Half Way Home

Quivering like a poet suffering from insanity and yodeling to excess like a vaudeville revivalist, Angel Olsen muses with ferocious vigor on Half Way Home: a splendid avant-garde country record drenched in miserable emotion and an auspiciously darker side of folk music and songwriting. (7/10)

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