Discologist

What's in a name? Turns out a whole lot if you're in a band. Some guy named Eric has offered up a whole mess of suggestions, some good, some...not so much.  Since roundabout 2004, jazz pianist Robert Glasper has played on all your favorite records, won all the Grammy's, and blown all of the minds in the process. Marcus Dowling (Pitchfork, Bandcamp) and Marcus J. Moore (Sr. Editor, Bandcamp) j...

As the idiocracy draws ever closer, we take a look a new spin on the reality show where nine strangers are picked to makes some tunes and get judged by...Spotify. After fifteen years, Australian sample kings The Avalanches return with their new album,  Wildflower . Carrie's spawn joins us to discuss this comeback and drop some serious knowledge on our ass. To celebrate ten years of being awes...

It's official, the headphone jack is no more...at least according to Apple. We're parsing the pro's and con's and abusing the word "dongle" excessively in the process. WILCO'S BACK MOTHER F@#@ERS! But you knew that. 3 lifelong fans of the band weigh in on the alt-country fixture's latest,  Schmilco . The Flat Five (feat. Kelly Hogan) are from Chicago. The Flat Five are groovier than you,...

As of late, the music industry has seen a rise in talented African-American musicians who paint outside of expected mainstream lines for pop artists. In eschewing easy-to-consume tropes for left-of-center jazz, soul, and techno-influenced sounds, performers like Kendrick Lamar, Robert Glasper, Chance the Rapper, Frank Ocean and so many more have created a sustainable and alternative-inspired vibe....

Spotify may be winning the streaming wars, but with a new round of rights negotiations ahead, will they be stopped in their tracks by the labels. Chicago's Ryley Walker makes guitar music. Heady guitar music. On his latest album,  Golden Sings That Have Been Song , we take yet another trip into the cosmos searching for answers that we may never find. Sylvan Esso is back AF. Witness their new...

The internet has given us a lot of things, but probably its most valuable contribution to society (besides cat videos) has been access to loads and loads of stats. A recent study by Value Penguin (internet stat provider!) went ahead and ranked the quality of music cities around America. Noble goal. Dubious results. Because internet. On Lydia Loveless's fourth album,  Real,  the Ohio...

Leaks are de rigueur in this digital age, and recently the band Twenty One Pilots had a new track freed from its capitalist coil and spread forth across the digital oceans for the masses to "enjoy." This didn't sit well with the  powers-that-be, and so it was that Reddit deliver unto them the head (name) of the vile curr who would commit such a crime. Reddit said no. What now doods? At t...

FOUR long years we waited. FOUR long years we wondered. FOUR long years some of us even tweeted our frustration about it. Now that Frank Ocean's Blonde is here, what the f%$% are we gonna do with ourselves? Show Notes "Frank Ocean and the virtues of boredom" - [ Washington Post ] Learn more about Frank Ocean's latest,  Blonde  [ link ] Learn more about Noname Official Site  | ...

Sooooooo..Apple Music just bought Cash Money Records, guys. Hashtag "It's on!" Lori McKenna is one of the most respected songwriters working "in" Nashville today. On her tenth album ,  The Bird & The Rifle she's stepping out once again and proving that whether it's behind the scenes or on the big stage, she's one of the best around. On their latest album,  Ambulance ,  Sweden's...

One of the greatest potential casualties of our fundamentally damaged copyright laws may be the erasure of not just black cultural history, but the unwinding of the artistic fabric that makes up America. De La Soul knows this first hand.  On his sophomore album, soul/folk powerhouse Michael Kiwanuka aims for the stratosphere...and gets there. #spoilers Dance punk isn't dead, but it isn't...

Warner Music exec Mike Jbara is leaving the entertainment monolith to join "HD music" firm MQA. Is there new music format the future of music, or just another Ogg-Vorbis in the also-ran annals of history. Richmond, Virginia's Avers is back Omega/Whatever , the follow up to 2014's head trip of a debut,  Empty Light . Did they survive the sophomore slump? All signs point to HELL YES! Mild High...

Anticipation. Excitement. Elation. Confusion. Disappointment. This week, Frank Ocean is all of these things and more. Supremely talented Chicago MC Noname first announced herself to the world two years ago on Chance The Rapper's Acid Rap . On Telefone , she's finally stepping out on her own with one of the strongest statements on womanhood, life in the hood, and life in general that we've heard in...

Rumor has it that despite the constant cries of “foul”, 98% of all videos (over ONE BILLION) on YouTube are 100% kosher from a licensing perspective. Say what? Twenty-five years in the making, Nels Cline’s Lovers captures the passion and history of an artist who has spent a lifetime pursuing his musical truth. On his Blue Note debut, Cline mashes together original compositions with interpretations...

Soundcloud may be up for sale, and Deezer, yet another streaming music service launches in the US. Just another day in the #streamingwars. Fronted by punk legend Kathleen Hannah, The Julie Ruin is back with Hit Reset,  a savage record that's all killer and no filler. Like you expected anything less. And speaking of savage...Washington DC jazz-emo-thrash duo Dove Lady may be lacking in members...

Franz Nicolay is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, true punk philosopher, and now…an author. The Humorless   Ladies of Border Patrol chronicles Nicolay and his wife Maria’s tour through the underground punk/DIY scene of Russia and the Ukraine and is unlike any travelogue that has come before it. Immersive, poignant, and a treat for the senses , Ladies is the next step in...

Freetown Sound, the latest LP from Blood Orange (aka singer/songwriter and composer Dev Hynes), was already one of the most anticipated releases of 2016 when it dropped. But nobody could have been prepared for the seemingly infinite amount of sonic truths, social commentary, and emotional revelations set free with each successive listen.  Great albums are easy to spot coming down the pipe. Im...

A 2003 case against Ticketmaster has finally reached a settlement, which means that you, and you, and you, and YOU get vouchers to a whole mess of free shows. Orrrrrrrrrrr not. In just a few short years, singer/songwriter Sarah Jarosz has manged to become a heavy-hitting mainstay on the folk, bluegrass, and Americana scenes. On her latest release,  Undercurrent , Jarosz has built on the found...

Warner Music has delivered what may be a crippling blow to small record record stores everywhere. But does it matter?  Since 2006, Richmond, Virginia's Inter Arma has been setting the heavens on fire with an unholy mastery of metal that promises as much doom as it does unrepentant beauty. On their latest album they're upping the ante and have produced not just the best album of their career,...

RadRadHolyShitRadRadRadHolyShitRadRadRadHolyShitRad RadRadHolyShitRadIdidn'tknowrocknrollcouldbethiscoolRad RadHolyShitRadRadRadHolyShitRadRadRadHolyShitRadRad RadHolyShitRadRadRadHolyShitRadRadRadHolyShitRadRad RadHolyShitRadRadRadHolyShitRad. That's kinda what it's like listening to The Mystery Lights. This is what it's like talking with them.   The Mystery Lights Links Official Site Facebo...

Sixteen years ago,  All Songs Considered’s  Bob Boilen didn’t just change the game with his podcast about the music he loved and nothing but, he pretty much INVENTED the game. Now Bob has set his sights on the literary world with his new book Your Song Changed My Life . A collection of conversations that is “…less like a record and more like a stack of 45’s,”  Your Song Changed My L...

Mail The Horse is a BAND.  Don't call em Americana band. Don't call em a Folk band. Don't call em a Jam band. They're just a BAND. And a goddamn good one at that. Here's the part where we hang out.  SHOW NOTES Mail The Horse plays here in DC on July 17th at Songbyrd Music House.  Get yer tickets now. Check out their track "Backlash" off of the new EP Magnolia   Mail The Ho...

Word is starting to come out that Apple might be in talks to buy Jay Z's TIDAL. Is this the beginning of the end of the streaming wars or...nah...that's totally what it is. Laura Mvula's  second album The Dreaming Room , is a symphony of soul and jazz that's pushing the boundaries of both genres.  Marcus J. Moore  ( Senior Editor at Bandcamp )  and Marcus K. Dowling  ...

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote some of the mightiest rock and roll songs of all time. Recently another artist made a claim to their throne and rock supremacy. They lost. We still have questions. Nothing says America like some furious, turn-that-shit--to-eleven rock and roll, and nobody makes that music better in 2016 than Nashville's Diarrhea Planet. On their latest LP Turn To Gold , their open...

The use of cell phones at concerts continues to be a hot button topic for music fans. A new company Yonder is here to tell you where you can stick it (yer phone). Mitski is back with a new album that blows the doors off of any expectations we might have had for her follow up to 2014's Bury Me At Makeout Creek.  Paul and Maddy (Wolpow-Gindi) sit in to parse this mothef@#@er of an album. Do you...

Kanye West. He can't, he won't and he don't stop...being an a-hole. (We) Discuss. Caveman is a killer f@#@ing band who has made couple of killer f@#@ing albums. Their latest effort Otero War  continues this trend with a little bit of sci-fi epic for good measure. Do you love rock and roll? The Mystery Lights looooove rock and roll and they're here with a savage new track to testify for you. D...