Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 01/29/2012

Support Women Artists Sunday: Seeker Lover Keeper

Seeker Lover Keeper

There an awful lot of acoustic bands that come around these days. Oftentimes it’s hard to differentiate between them (largely because there’s a factory somewhere that makes most of them). But don’t lose faith! Sometimes good ones come along. They have brilliant lyrics and are incredibly heartfelt. Speaking of good acoustic bands, how bout that Seeker Lover Keeper!

There’s a very bizarre phenomena that happens in the American music scene where a lot of times, bands that have enormous success in other countries fail to even get mentioned in any conversations. That’s why you haven’t heard of Seeker Lover Keeper despite their debut album going gold over in Australia (and Australia’s developed a great music scene! Angus & Julia Stone, The Temper Trap, Cut Copy just to name…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 01/8/2012

Support Women Artists Sunday: Joy Askew

Joy Askew

“When writing about myself I would always start by saying that I was ‘originally from the North of England’… in fact that’s not true but I grew up there from age 5 in Newcastle, famous for its coals and shipbuilding. The place was grimy, cold and hard but full of character and culture, with many theaters and concert venues and legendary clubs. Newcastle was frequented by the likes of Bob Dylan (Don’t Look Back) and Jimi Hendrix (his manager Chas Chandler, bassist for the famed Newcastle Band The Animals was a true Geordie and my father was his headmaster!) I love the English movie Get Carter set in Newcastle and starring a young Michael Caine, it really reflects well a lot of what this once Roman Northern garrison town…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 12/11/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Birdy

Birdy

You wanna feel like you’ve done absolutely nothing with your life? Just look at what the amazingly talented Birdy has done already. Birdy, at the age of 15, has just released her first studio album. Yeah, at fifteen. She can’t drive yet, but she can sing and cover songs like its her job. If you’re in the UK you’ve heard of her, but for everyone else, here’s a profile.

Jasmine Van den Bogaerde, also known by her stage name Birdy, (born 15 May 1996) is an English musician known for winning the music competition Open Mic UK in 2008, at the age of 12. Her version of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” was released in January 2011, peaking inside the top twenty of the UK Singles Chart and in some European territories.…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Lauren M on 12/2/2011

My New Hermione: Miranda Lambert

Miranda Lambert: The New Ultimate Heroine?

Ever since the beginning, Hermione Granger has been praised as being the first female character who showed girls that it is ok to be the hero of the story, to be smart, to stick up for yourself and to not take a back seat to the boys. Now that the series is over, who will us girls look to for inspiration? I think I may have found our answer in the music world.

You may know her as an outlaw of country music. Or you may know her as Blake Shelton’s “honey bee.” Or you may have no idea who she is. Her name is Miranda Lambert and she is my heroine: she’s my new Hermione. Bet she’s never gotten that comparison before.

Miranda first came to the…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 11/20/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: The Carolina Chocolate Drops

Carolina Chocolate Drops

It’s time for some, bring out your fiddle, folk music!

The Carolina Chocolate Drops is an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina, United States. Its 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, and was number 9 in FRoots magazine’s top 10 albums of 2010. Formed in November 2005 following the members’ attendance at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, the group grew out of the success of Sankofa Strings, an ensemble that featured Flemons, Giddens and percussionist/banjoist Sule Greg Wilson, with Robinson as an occasional guest artist. The Drops are one of the two known full-time African American string bands. There were originally three members: Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, and Justin Robinson, who…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 11/13/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Polica

Polica

CMJ was without a doubt, the greatest week of my life. If you ever have an opportunity to go to a festival such as CMJ or SXSW which have concerts all the time over a one week period, with all sorts of new acts, DO IT. I got to see previously featured Dum Dum Girls (sounded great but were a bit lackluster live to be honest) and An Horse (totally kickass) in this week of music explosion. The best part of CMJ is finding those under the radar bands that sound amazing. Hence I present Polica.

Polica were the first warmup for Dum Dum Girls and played a fantastic little set (I snagged the setlist as to be expected). Polica has a band composition like none I’ve seen before. Polica is…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Emily A on 10/30/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Tati Kalveks

Tati Kalveks

Tati Kalveks is an 18-year -old girl from London who, as she describes it, is producing some beautifully poignant and funny songs. Her topics spread over a whole array ­of things, from female grooming habits to her love of gingers.

In one of her greatest songs, “Because I’ve Got Breasts“ (or ‘B.I.G. Breasts’ for short) she sarcastically celebrates the fact that everyone in her life is more than happy with her to enter into an unstable career as a musician because one day she is going to marry a rich wealthy man. Why? Because she’s got breasts, of course.

Says Tati about the song: “This one churned itself out of a song about not getting enough done, after enough people (family) pointed out to me that work is way overrated when I…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 10/23/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Austra

Austra

If you’ve ever heard an Austra song, you would know it. Few bands in my repertoire have such a unique and distinctive style. Even their covers of rock out songs like The Strokes’s Alone Together are spun into truly original arrangements that capture the dark synth essence that is Austra. Austra was one of the biggest buzz bands at SXSW this year and have even started touring with the likes of the wonderfully talented James Blake. I had the pleasure of seeing Austra back in Cleveland with Cold Cave which was quite the spectacular spectacle. Austra manages to be dancey while maintaining a creepy allure that leaves the listener in a dazed state of desire for more.

The band consists of Katie Stelmanis (lead vocals) who sounds like a weird vocal…

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