Traviss Cassidy

Leisure

Deadbeats

Rewind your memories to July 31, 2004. Modest Mouse’s “Float On” was sailing along at number one on Billboard’s U.S. Modern Rock Track chart, and Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” was on its way to number three. Fast forward to August 21, 2007. Vice Records released This Is Next: Indie’s Biggest Hits Volume 1, an indie-rock compilation designed to “reach beyond the core album consumer and toward the casual buyer.” Is this the death of indie rock as we know it?

By August 30, 2007

Leisure

Critical Voices: Caribou, Andorra

Manitoba’s 2003 breakthrough album, Up in Flames, was the musical equivalent of an overstuffed toy box; blissed-out paeans to the gods of ‘60s psych-pop and modern electronica, and more ideas than most artists crank out in an entire career spill from every side. One name change and two records later, we have Caribou’s Andorra, an album that trades in the nearly unbridled experimentation of Up in Flames for a more approachable—and ultimately less exciting—sonic palette.

By August 24, 2007

Leisure

Deadbeats: a bi-weekly column about music

Music can be a promiscuous art form, and a good musician will exploit all of its whorish tendencies. As genres evolve, they sleep around with different musical styles, take what they want and leave without calling the next morning.

By May 3, 2007

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Field

Axel Willner, Stockholm native and sole member of electronic outfit The Field, has a gift for making the most out of the least. His recently released debut, From Here We Go Sublime, deftly exploits the hypnotic potential of musical repetition with little more than a few looping samples and austere techno beats. Though the album’s lack of variation is an acquired taste, each track is pure bliss for the patient of ear.

By April 19, 2007

Leisure

Grindhouse: yummy, bloody, puss-filled fun

Sporting tight leather booty shorts, soaked in blood and roaring at 9,000 RPM, ‘70s exploitation films appeal to humanity’s basest of desires and all the better for it. With Grindhouse, a double feature ode to trash cinema complete with fake (and hilarious) movie trailers, directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez try to rekindle America’s passion for the drive-in experience, missing reels and all.

By April 12, 2007

Voices

U-Haul: not the mover for U

Moving can be a pain in the ass, especially when you have to do the job yourself. The myriad boxes, unwieldy dollies and delicate china sets will make you want to submerge yourself in a pool of packing peanuts, never to surface again. But depending on which do-it-yourself moving company you call, you may have another problem to add to the list—your truck blowing up.

By April 12, 2007

Leisure

Getting political with Ted Leo

New Jersey native Ted Leo isn’t your typical semi-knowledgeable, politically-charged artist. He’s a punk rocker, yes, but he also earned an English degree at the University of Notre Dame. In his recent interview with the Voice via e-mail, Ted discussed in depth the political themes that run through his latest release, Living with the Living, demonstrating a mastery of syntax seldom seen in the world of indie rock.

By March 22, 2007

Leisure

Black and white and pop all over

Beach Boy Brian Wilson once claimed he was making “teenage symphonies to God.” Wilson knew, perhaps better than any musician of his time, that a great pop song can be deeply spiritual, each melody crafted as an offering to some unknown musical deity.

By March 15, 2007

Leisure

Getting politcal with Ted Leo

New Jersey native Ted Leo isn’t your typical semi-knowledgeable, politically-charged artist. He’s a punk rocker, yes, but he also earned an English degree at the University of Notre Dame. In his recent interview with the Voice via e-mail, Ted discussed in depth the political themes that run through his latest release, Living with the Living, demonstrating a mastery of syntax seldom seen in the world of indie rock.

By March 15, 2007

Leisure

Critical Voices: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible, Merge

The music that tugs most at our heartstrings is often the most divisive. In one camp you have those who prefer their music served raw and doused with emotion; in the other you have vicious detractors shouting labels like “emo” and “over the top” with bitter disapproval. The Arcade Fire’s emotive debut, Funeral, won over both camps by shrouding many of its emo leanings in ambiguity and lyrical imagery.

By March 1, 2007