Music - The Eastern Echo

Matt on Music: Pere Ubu's 'Lady from Shanghai'

By Matt Rice · Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013

Listening to “Lady from Shanghai,” the new album from Pere Ubu, one might come to the conclusion that band leader David Thomas doesn’t read a lot of Pitchfork. We should all be this lucky, but if you’re going to try to record weird music, it might be helpful to know what is considered the norm these days.

Rap doesn’t fit with MLK’s ideals

By Jess Salisbury · Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013

What are the implications of the materialistic lyrics found in today’s hottest hip-hop hits? Eastern Michigan University student Ivory Harris Jr., one of the minds behind “Knowledge, Power, Respect: Hip-Hop Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” was eager to find out. After conducting a study in November 2011, Harris discovered that 48 out of 50 songs on the Billboard hip-hop and rhythm and blues charts glorified alcohol or substance abuse, crime and violence and other negative themes.

Matt on Music: Yo La Tengo's 'Fade'

By Matt Rice · Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013

“Sometimes the bad guys come out on top/Sometimes the good guys lose” is the line that opens “Fade,” the new album from Hoboken-based indie-rockers Yo La Tengo. The line that ends the same song, “Ohm,” is “It’s been fun.”

Matt on Music: Dropkick Murphys' "Signed and Sealed in Blood"

By Matt Rice · Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013

The first and most memorable hook on the new Dropkick Murphys album, “Signed and Sealed in Blood,” goes, “The boys are back, and they’re looking for trouble.” That says it all, really. The album’s only hook that you might be able to remember when the music’s shut off is a cliché line that may or may not be ripping off Thin Lizzy.

Matt on Music: Top 10 songs of 2012

By Matt Rice · Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013

Here are my top 10 songs of 2012. The full top 100 will be appearing on my Echo blog soon.

Matt on Music: Top 10 albums of 2012

By Matt Rice · Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013

Here are my top 10 albums of 2012. The full list of 50 albums will be up on my blog, Matt on More Music, at www.easternecho.com in the coming weeks.

Matt on Music: 5 favorite album covers

By Matt Rice · Friday, Dec. 14, 2012

I appreciate album covers in an artistic manner, almost as much as the plastic inside of them. From the minimalism of “Beatles for Sale” to the complexity of Talking Heads’ “More Songs About Buildings and Food,” album covers give every album its own identity before you even put it on. This year has brought many good album covers. Here are my five favorites.

Matt on Music: 5 best opening and 5 best closing tracks of 2012

By Matt Rice · Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012

The opening track on an album is intended to get the listener’s attention, and to make them want to listen more. The closing track should insure they finish satisfied, although, as many albums this year showed, artists often cop out when it comes to delivering the finale. Satisfying opening and closing tracks never seem to be celebrated enough, so here are the best of 2012.

Student choirs perform Christmas show

By Cosette Girardot · Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012

Radio station WNIC 100.3 has been playing Christmas music since early November, but Eastern Michigan University’s Chamber Choir and University Choir the joined together to share and sing Christmas songs for students to enjoy at the Light and Life concert.

Matt on Music: Favorite lines of 2012

By Matt Rice · Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012

I’ve listened to a few hundred albums this year. That means I’ve listened to thousands of songs which, in turn, means I’ve listened to too many lyrics to count. Therefore, a list of my favorite lines of 2012 can hardly be official. Still, these are just the lines from this year that have hit me the hardest, that I just couldn’t get out of my head, and that made me want to quote them on Facebook.

Matt on Music: Best musical guest appearances from 2012

By Matt Rice · Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012

Musical guest appearances are wonderful when done right, and pointless annoyances when done wrong. Here are five from 2012 that were done absolutely right.

Matt on Music: Top 5 songs of 2012 from disappointing albums

By Matt Rice · Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012

This year, I was more fascinated with singles and individual songs than I ever have been before. Thankfully, I did this without losing my love of albums as full pieces. But, there is a certain charm to great singles and hidden gems resting in albums that aren’t good as a whole. So, these are the year’s five best choice cuts.

Weekend jamming creates Congress

By Carmen Bojanowski · Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012

It was approximately 10:45 on a gray Saturday morning in January 2011 when Jim Cherewick, Eric Gallippo, Ed Golembiewski and Aaron Quillen met at Ypsilanti’s Hen House and wrote six songs. This was the day that Congress was officially born.

Matt on Music: Donald Fagen's 'Sunken Condos'

By Matt Rice · Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012

Of all the “greatest bands of all time,” Steely Dan has always been one of the more bizarre ones. Featuring two core members, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, and backed by studio musicians, Steely Dan is a jazz-rock band that formed in the ’70s. What differentiates them from most jazz-rock bands is Fagen and Becker’s keen understanding of both jazz and rock, as well as their perfectionist recording style (my favorite Steely Dan album, “Katy Lied,” is famously hated by the two due to its supposedly poor sound quality).

Matt on Music: Rhett Miller's 'The Dreamer'

By Matt Rice · Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012

Since this has been such a disappointing year for music, it figures that country music would suffer. There are normally only three or four very good country albums in a good year so, in a year like 2012, it’s practically hopeless.

The Vagrant Symphony celebrates 9th anniversary with show at Blind Pig

By Carmen Bojanowski · Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012

It’s been nine years since the idea for local outfit The Vagrant Symphony was formed on Eastern Michigan University’s campus in 2003. Chris “Chewy” Anderson, the founder, Joe O’Dell, the 12th member, Alexis King, the 13th member and Bennie Phinisee, the 14th member, are the backbone of the giant psychedelic folk band that’ll be celebrating its ninth anniversary in December.

Go Radio to promote latest release in Detroit Nov. 25

By Jess Salisbury · Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012

Crafting a song with both a catchy melody and meaning involves a great deal of skill. While many of the artists currently topping the charts seem to specialize in pumping out hit after soulless hit, Florida-based band Go Radio has mastered the art of creating music that is as meaningful as it is singable.

Matt on Music: Thanksgiving playlist

By Matt Rice · Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012

It’s Thanksgiving, a time to be thankful for and appreciate all the people and things you love. As a music fan, I am probably going to spend Thanksgiving the way I spend most of my free time: listening to records.

Matt on Music: Imperial Teen's 'Feel the Sound'

By Matt Rice · Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012

As somebody who loves indie music as pop, I appreciate tunesmith bands like Vampire Weekend, Spoon and The Hold Steady more than supposed musical innovators like Animal Collective and Sigur Ros. By this measure, Imperial Teen is one of the purest indie bands around, and also one of the best.

Matt on Music: Kendrick Lamar's 'good kid, m.A.A.d city'

By Matt Rice · Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012

Every year, regardless of how flaky the music industry seems, it has a key album or two for every music fan. Since 2008, every year has brought at least one album I consider nearly perfect. In 2008, it was Vampire Weekend’s debut, in 2009 it was the self-titled “The Pains of Being Pure at Heart,” 2010 brought both Robyn’s “Body Talk” and Avi Buffalo’s self-titled album and 2011’s was Wussy’s “Strawberry.”