Lo-Fi
Neutral Milk Hotel Announce New Box Set, Share Unreleased Single “Little Birds”: Stream
Neutral Milk Hotel, the indie rock project led by the reclusive Jeff Mangum, have readied a new archival box set, titled The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel, for release on February 24th via Merge. The vinyl compilation includes the group’s two full-length LPs, 1996’s On Avery Island and 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, as well as two 10-inch EPs, three 7-inch singles, and an exclusive 12-inch picture disc of the concert album Live at Jittery Joe’s, which features a 1997 performance by the band originally released in 2001. The Collected Works marks the digital debut of several tracks initially included on a 2011 compilation self-released by Mangum, and expands on the previous offering with a double LP edition of On Avery Island, a remastered and extended tracklist for the 1...
A Decade of Beats: How Chillhop Went From an Unknown Blog to Redefining Lo-Fi Music
If we had to decide what the soundtrack of the post-2010 Internet was, lo-fi would be the only reasonable answer. Since the terms “lo-fi hip-hop” and “chillhop” started circulating more than a decade ago, the genre has undergone quite the metamorphosis. What was once a score for the geekiest places on the web—spread by young kids in the form of amateur mixtapes with anime-inspired art—became a mainstream sensation that even Will Smith and Disney tried to exploit at one point. Between these two points in time, the history of lo-fi is far from linear, but it’s easy to pinpoint its protagonists. Without a shadow of a doubt, one of them is Chillhop. For anyone remotely familiar with lo-fi music, Chillhop and its iconic Raccoon mascot are essentially synonymou...
Bill Callahan Announces New Album YTI⅃AƎЯ, 2022 Tour Dates
Bill Callahan has announced his new album, YTI⅃AƎЯ, which, in case you didn’t guess, is the word “reality” spelled backwards. The project will arrive on digital platforms and CD on October 14th via Drag City, with the vinyl edition releasing next year. He also unveiled a new run of California tour dates (grab your tickets here). The lo-fi artist’s main collaborators on YTI⅃AƎЯ were Matt Kinsey on guitar, Emmett Kelly on bass/backing vocals, Sarah Ann Phillips on piano/backing vocals, and Jim White on drums. In a statement, Callahan explained the motivation behind the album. “I wanted to make a record that addressed or reflected the current climate,” he said. “It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse their love, their kindness, their anger, rouse anything in them. Get their sen...
Is the Anonymous Creator of Bitcoin Communicating Through Music?
As the legend goes, Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto vanished from the Internet and was never heard from again in April 2011, now over a decade ago. However, there’s no doubt the world is more eager to hear from him than ever before. Today Bitcoin trades over $45,000, Tesla has the crypto on its balance sheet, and AMC Theaters recently announced they’re aiming to accept it as currency by the end of this year. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but we have to at least explore the possibility that Nakamoto is communicating to us another way: via music. An EP titled Bitcoin, released in February 2021 has gained some buzz due to the fact that the artist credited with the recordings is the elusive Bitcoin founder himself. Interestingly, Bitcoin is a lo-fi album...
Olivia Rodrigo Remixes Are Everywhere—Here’s 5 of the Best
The contemporary music scene’s pop icon-in-waiting, Olivia Rodrigo, has been pumping out hits like a broken printer. The 18-year-old songstress recently dropped her hotly anticipated debut album SOUR, which categorically dominated both the airwaves and headlines. As of yesterday, May 25th, the record currently occupies all 10 spots of Spotify’s Top 50 – USA chart. It’s an utterly dominant debut and one that sets the tone for an inescapable, innately talented artist we’ll be hearing for decades. Naturally, DJs and dance music producers have flocked to Rodrigo’s music like influencers at an Urban Outfitters Coachella sale. Her brand of bedroom pop is ideal for remixing, chock full of melancholic acoustic riffs, angsty lyricism, and...
Tash Sultana: “You Can Never Have Enough Guitar”
Kyle Meredith With… Tash Sultana Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Tash Sultana grabs some hang time with Kyle Meredith to talk about Terra Firma, a record that finds them collaborating with other writers and musicians for the first time on an album. The Australian groove artist tells us about having a new Fender guitar line and being a saxophonist in their high school band. Sultana also talks about finding their center while writing these songs after losing focus of themself while traveling the globe, and being absolutely in love with their partner. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wed...
Phoebe Bridgers, Beck, Jeff Tweedy Cover Daniel Johnston Songs for Livestream Tribute: Watch
Yesterday mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Daniel Johnston. In honor of his memory, Electric Lady Studios organized “Honey, I Sure Miss You”, a livestream tribute headlined by Phoebe Bridgers, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and Beck. But as it turned out, Johnston himself stole the show in a previously-unreleased home video. The event was named for Johnston’s 1991 track “Honey, I Sure Miss You”, and was organized with the cooperation of the Johnston estate. The musical memorial opened with a teaser of Johnston playing piano, followed by a few words from the man of the hour: “Hello, this is a recorded message,” it begins. “I am Dan Johnston. Though I am not with you physically, I am with you in heart. With all my heart. And I am thinking about you in hope that you are doing fin...
Daniel Johnston Livesteam Tribute to Feature Phoebe Bridgers, Jeff Tweedy, and Beck
Phoebe Bridgers and Jeff Tweedy (photos by Ben Kaye), Daniel Johnston (photo by Amy Price), Beck (photo by Amanda Koellner) Daniel Johnston tragically passed away one year ago today. In remembrance of the lo-fi legend, a livestream tribute event headlined by Phoebe Bridgers, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, and Beck will be broadcast tonight. Titled “Honey I Sure Miss You”, after Johnston’s own 1991 song of the same name, the online music memorial will also feature performances from Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Devendra Banhart, and Maya Hawke, as well as The Lemon Twigs, Lucius, and Jesse Harris. Additionally, Johnston’s family is expected to show a previously unreleased home movie of the late songwriter. The tribute will stream on the website of New York’s famed Electric Lady Studios, as well as...
Anna McClellan Announces New Album I saw first light, Shares Two Singles: Stream
Indie pop songwriter Anna McClellan has announced a new album titled I saw first light, set to arrive November 20th. To accompanying today’s news, the Omaha musician has shared two new singles, “Desperate” and “Pace of the Universe”. The record is McClellan’s third full-length to date and second for Father/Daughter Records following her 2018 album Yes and No. Early on in her career, the Nebraska-born singer-songwriter was cosigned by Frankie Cosmos, which gave her profile a boost and placed her in a league of comparable contemporaries. Like Cosmos and others such as Florist and Dear Nora, McClellan makes soft, relatively lo-fi twee pop with intimate subject matter and clever lyrics. Unlike those other acts, though, McClellan’s songs have a woozy and whimsical swing to them that’s distinctl...
Hinds and CHAI Form a “UNITED GIRLS ROCK’N’ROLL CLUB” on New Song: Stream
Whether you think Hinds are the Spanish CHAI or CHAI or the Japanese Hinds, there’s an undeniable kinship between the bands. So even though they live in different corners of the world, it was probably only a matter of time before the two bands joined forces. Today, they’ve released their oh-so-fitting collaborative single “UNITED GIRLS ROCK’N’ROLL CLUB”. The trilingual track (Spanish, Japanese, and English) sees the eight musicians reveling in the joy of collaborating with fellow female artists. “Because we have been fans way longer than in bands,” they sing together. “And now the music has more power in our hands.” In a joint statement, the bands said, “‘UNITED GIRLS ROCK’N’ROLL CLUB’ is a song that screams GIRL POWER. You might be from different countries, different languages, but at the...
beabadoobee Announces Debut Album Fake It Flowers, Shares “Care”: Stream
Filipino-British indie rock wunderkind beabadoobee has announced her debut album, Fake It Flowers. As a first look at the highly anticipated project, she’s sharing a new single called “Care”. According to a statement, Fake It Flowers is due out sometime later this year through Dirty Hit Records, the English indie label home of The 1975, Wolf Alice, and former Artist of the Month Rina Sawayama. The full-length follows last year’s Space Cadet, an EP that contained the Pavement-referencing single “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus”. The forthcoming album’s lead single “Care” picks up where that project left off, but is also a welcomed continued evolution of her lo-fi bedroom style, which has drawn comparisons to The Moldy Peaches. Her vulnerability here is noticeably more raw, as the 20-year-...
Bill Callahan Releases Gentle New Song “Pigeons”: Stream
This September, Bill Callahan will drop a new album titled Gold Record. The esteemed folk songwriter is teasing the project today with the first single and opening track, “Pigeons”. Set in the heart of Texas, the gentle tune sees Callahan reflecting on marriage from the perspective of a limo driver who often shuttles around newly hitched couples. “Well the pigeons ate the wedding rice and exploded somewhere over San Antonio,” he sings. “I picked up the newlyweds and asked them where they wanted to go/ They said, ‘We don’t know, we don’t care, anywhere… just go.’” Ride along by streaming it below. Editors’ Picks Gold Record, the follow-up to his solid Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest from 2019, officially arrives September 4th through longtime label Drag City. As promised, Call...
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