Best Albums of the 2000s. Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now: Nerve Edition. Ever wondered what the Nerve office sounds like? Other than the screaming, that is. by Nerve The Nerve office is home to two bass players, several guitarists, a former piano child-prodigy, and a host of other assorted music nerds. So this week, we conspired to assemble our first-ever in-house Five Albums — it’s populated entirely with picks from our devoted staff. Enjoy this little glimpse into our office jukebox. 1. With the opening horn line of “Ballad of Jimmy Tanks,” Scandalous announces Black Joe Lewis’ intent to compromise the structural integrity of your home with his raging Texas boogie. Listen: “Booty City” 2. This is more an album you should have been listening to four years ago, but since odds are you weren’t, check it out now. Listen: “Face of the Earth” 3. Channeling The Shins by way of Talking Heads, The R’s second LP De Fauna Et Flora delivers thirteen off-kilter power-pop gems.
Listen: “On Our Minds” 4. Listen: “Night Air” 5. Listen: “I’ll Take Care of You” Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now. The Dutch Rolling Stones, vintage post-punk and more in this week's Five Albums. by Wim aka Ramone 666 Each week, titans of the mediasphere give Nerve their music recommendations.
This week: obscure picks from across several genres by Wim aka Ramone 666 of music blog For the Sake of the Song. It'd probably easier to pick 500 albums you should be listening to right now instead of five. So I just went for the top of my eclectic listening pile and took it from there. 1. Karen Dalton, In My Own Time (1971) I've probably played the soulful In My Own Time more often than any other album over the last couple of years. Listen: “In A Station” 2. Call me an aging hipster for all I care, but I grew up on post-punk and often still pine for the adventurous spirit of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, when creativity was running rampant, boundaries were few and far between, and political engagement was less a choice for punk bands and more of a requirement.
Listen: “Skank Bloc Bologna” by Scritti Politti 3. 4. Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now. From Providence to Washington Square in this week's Five Albums. by Randy Abramson Each week, titans of the mediasphere give Nerve their music recommendations. This week: time-traveling picks by Randy Abramson of the music blog RockTorch.com, a site “dedicated to bringing you music recommendations from the people who know music best – the artists themselves.
" 1. Amy Cook, Let the Light In (2010) Cook’s husky voice sounds like she knows she’s on the brink of making it big on this stellar collection of songs, produced by Austin alt-country guru Alejandro Escovedo. Ben Kweller and Patty Griffin are in the credits, but Let the Light In isn’t just about famous friends: “Get It Right” and “Hotel Lights” stand out as two of the most gorgeous songs I’ve heard in years. Listen: “Hotel Lights” 2. Uncut once called Nile a “one man Clash.” Listen: “Rich and Broken” 3. Listen: “Saint Rosa and the Swallows” 4. Listen: “Let’s All Go to the Bar” 5. Listen: “Hand Me Down” Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now: Road Trip Edition. This week's curator: KCRW DJ Raul Campos by Raul Campos Five albums perfect for soundtracking your next road trip. Every so often, titans of the mediasphere give Nerve their music recommendations. This week: KCRW DJ Raul Campos. I had to make the trek from Los Angeles, California to Tucson, Arizona on Friday. 1.
Previously known as The Shakes, the band has added their home state of Alabama to their name. Listen: "Hold On" 2. A very wise radio guru once gave me this advice: when in doubt, play The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. Track: Listen: "Wild Horses" 3. Novalima’s Afro-Peruvian vibe makes you want to just get up and dance. Listen: "Festejo" 4. What better way to begin my drive than with El Camino, which literally means "The Road" or "the Way?
" Listen: "Sister" 5. Being a DJ means you're always looking for extended mixes of songs, and so it was a beautiful sight when I first noticed the lengths on some of the new tracks for this self-released album. Listen: "One Sunday Morning" Five Musicians to Follow on Spotify. Ever wondered what Snoop Dogg listens to? Besides himself, that is. by Alex Heigl Dubious profit-sharing agreements aside, Spotify is pretty great.
It’s an easy, no-frills way to see what your friends are listening to and appropriately scorn/laud them for it. But you know what’s better than seeing what your friends are listening to? Seeing what musical celebrities are listening to. 1. Radiohead’s resident guitar weirdo is on Spotify under the name mrmarmite. 2. Rollins, despite now having spent more time doing spoken-word and standup than getting in the van, will always be the an angry muscle-bound guy to a lot of people. 3. Reznor may be edging away from downward spirals and more towards fancy high-falutin’ pursuits like “composition” and “film-scoring,” but his Spotify profile reveals a nice mix of high and low music, serious and non-serious: one of his playlists is titled “(real men wear) parachute pants.” 4. 5. Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now. Guilt-free downloading alert: three of this week's Five Albums are available for free from the artist. by Arthi Aravind Every two weeks, titans of the mediasphere give Nerve their music recommendations.
This week: Arthi Aravind, DJ at WCWM and blogger at Phoenix and Fireworks. If fairies listened to electronic music, this would be in their libraries. M∆DE:IN:HEIGHTS layers delicate female vocals over well-crafted, bass-heavy beats. Listen: “Viices” 2. All of the songs on this psychedelic album flow into each other wonderfully, buoyed by their intricately layered melodies. Listen: “2080” 3. Birdy Nam Nam uses turntables as musical instruments to create spiky, chopped-up electro, perfect for either the dance floor or a really big pair of headphones.
Listen: “The Parachute Ending” 4. Williamsburg, Virginia-based Car Seat Headrest is the nom de guerre of one Will Toledo. Listen: “My Boy (Twin Fantasy)” 5. Listen: “Penny” Ten Albums You Should Listen To In 2012. The next 21 could be in here. by Alex Heigl 2012 is three days old and I'm already drooling over this year's upcoming releases.
A lot of these are still up in the air: at this time last year, Watch the Throne was allegedly dropping in February. But my fingers are still crossed for these, the most anticipated albums of 2012. I will gladly die in the Mayan apocalypse if I finally get to hear D'Angelo's follow-up to Voodoo. 1. Seventy-seven-year-old Leonard Cohen might have a few years on Tom Waits in their battle for the title of "Most Grizzled Literate Old Man Chronicling the Human Condition," but they're not weighing on him at all. Listen: “Show Me the Place” 2. Sleigh Bells were either awesome or grating in 2011, depending on your particular taste and how much your could stand their "BOOM BOOM *girl vocals* SUPER LOUD GUITAR" formula. 3. Dr. Listen: “Control Yourself” 4. 5.
Listen: “Unknown Title” Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now: Under the Radar. Under the radar picks from, er... Under the Radar. Each week, the titans of the mediasphere give Nerve their music recommendations. This week’s edition is brought to you by Laura Studarus of Under the Radar. 1. Acid House Kings, Sing Along with Acid House Kings (2005) A perennial favorite, and one I’m sure will be canonized as one of the hallmarks of ‘00s indie pop. Acid House Kings were adorably singing about love (and all things twee) back when Tigermilk was still a glimmer in Stuart Murdoch’s eye — and over the years have continued to trump Belle and Sebastian in terms of consistent quality. Listen: “This Heart is a Stone” 2. Almost every Still Corners track captures that most crucial of cinematic moments: the one where madness is revealed, the lover is accidentally killed, and the fog closes in, leaving the protagonist confused, disoriented, and alone.
Listen: “Endless Summer” 3. Listen: “Shapeless and Gone” 4. Listen: “Seven Stars” 5. Listen: “IFUCKINGLOVEYOU” Five Albums You Should Be Listening To Right Now: Pitchfork Festival. The best picks from Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival, in your very own home. by Tyler Grisham and Larry Fitzmaurice Every now and again, Nerve asks the titans of the blogsphere for their music recommendations. This week's picks come straight from the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, which is happening July 13-15. Tyler Grisham and Larry Fitzmaurice are editors at Pitchfork, and they were kind enough to grace us with their picks.
You can find more information about Pitchfork Music Festival here. 1. Vancouver's Brian King and David Prowse may call themselves Japandroids, but the hard-charging rock they bash out is no joke. Listen: "House That Heaven Built" 2. Clams Casino has provided beats for rappers from Lil B to Soulja Boy, A$AP Rocky, and the Weeknd. Listen: "Wassup" 3. Over the past decade, Hot Chip have carved out a unique space in music, somewhere between the borders of dance, R&B, blue-eyed soul, and straight-up pop. Listen: "Night and Day" 4. Listen: "Gun Has No Trigger" 5. Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now: Catalpa Festival Edition. The best of NYC's Catalpa Festival, right at your fingertips. by Alex Heigl This weekend, Catalpa Festival takes over Randall's Island in NYC. Aside from the the thrill of seeing Snoop Dogg perform Doggystyle in its entirety, Catalpa offers a variety of up-and-coming bands from across a wide range of genres.
Here are five of our picks. Check here for more information about Catalpa, including the full lineup, scheduling, and ticket information. 1. The Big Pink, Future This (2012) Combining the more engrossing, space-y aspects of M83 and Spacemen 3 with a distinctly British sensibility, The Big Pink differentiate themselves from the hoi polloi of synth-wielding hipsters mostly by being really loud.
Listen: "Stay Gold" 2. Listen: "No One Will Know" 3. Listen: "Ryde On da Regular" 4. Listen: "Moonshine" 5. Listen: "Goldie" The Nerve Mixtape With Bret McKenzie. The Flight of the Conchords star and Muppets composer shares his go-to seduction playlist with us. by Alex Heigl Bret McKenzie is probably best known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, though he's also the motherflippin' Rhymenoceros and the Academy Award-winning composer of "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets (out on DVD and Blu-ray today).
He's also a master of seduction: you haven't truly been wooed until a curly-haired kiwi sings R. Kelly to you over the phone. You can listen to his mixtape on Spotify. 1. R. I picked this one mainly because of the opening a cappella refrain, which goes [starts singing] "My mind telling me no, but my body, my body's telling me yes. " 2. Those Frenchies, they’re pretty good with the sexy. 3. I find Paul McCartney the most romantic Beatle — I was going to go with "Blackbird," but I’m going to stick to "With a Little Luck," mainly because of the sexy synth solo. 4.
This one works perfectly for the heavy kissing. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now: Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good. Husband-and-wife folk, power-pop, and more from one of the best-titled blogs we've ever had contribute to Five Albums. by Matthew Gross Every now and again, Nerve reaches out to the titans of the blogosphere for their music recommendations. This week's contributor is Matthew Gross, from the excellently-named Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good. 1. At first, Allo Darlin’ seem like any number of cloying indie-pop bands: good for a few spins until the next thing comes along to fill the "girl playing ukulele" void.
Listen: "Capricornia" 2. “I Belong in Your Arms” is a monster of a song, and on any other album it would tower above all the others. Listen: "I Belong in Your Arms" 3. The Clearing isn't one of those albums that makes you flood your various social networks with excitement over how good it is. Listen: "Tuck the Darkness In" 4. Though it was written in the wake of some hard times, Leaving Atlanta does what all good pop music does and hides its troubles under a layer of bubblegum. 5. Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now: KCRW. A wonderfully eclectic, globe-trotting Five Albums to kick-start your summer. by Anthony Valadez Every now and again, the titans of the mediasphere give Nerve their music recommendations.
This week: Anthony Valadez, DJ at famed Los Angeles public radio station KCRW. He also released his second full-length album, Just Visiting, on L.A.'s Plug Research. Check out his show here and check out his blog for photos and more. 1. Melbourne's Hiatus Kaiyote is onto something special — island soul permeated by thunderous bass drum and heavy snares, mixed with lush guitar chords and vocals. Listen: "Nakamarra" 2. Listen: "Bashful" 3. Listen: "Arrocha" 4. Listen: "No Pares Hasta Tener Lo Suficiente" 5. Five Albums You Should Be Listening to Right Now: Ongakubaka.
Hot garage rock for those cool summer nights. by Dan from Ongakubaka Every now and again, Nerve asks the titans of the blogsphere for their music recommendations. Specializing primarily in garage and psychedelic music, Ongakubaka is a music blog that serves as a platform for new artists and labels to share their releases and get the word out about the life-saving power of rock and roll. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [DVD] Radiohead - From The Basement 2008 [Full Show] [1080p] Radiohead - The King Of Limbs From The Basement [Full Show + Supercollider] Jango - Free Music -- Listen to Music Online - Internet Radio. Unhear it - get that damn song out of your head! Drinkify.