Music
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The Stranger Things Mixtape
If you haven’t been watching Stranger Things, you’re probably being chased by a monster in “the upside down.” The show’s soundtrack is a mashup of synth-laden soundscape themes and ’80s throwbacks that’ll have Gen Xers’ hearts yearning for that simpler, cellphone-free era. And…
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Fifteen Theories on Boys Don’t Cry
Between the mysterious live stream on Ocean’s website and the release date that came and went, no one is really sure what Frank Ocean has planned for his new album Boys Don’t Cry. But the good people at okayplayer. have some the thoughts:…
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Looking Back to New Jack City
The 1991 cult film New Jack City is once again examined and celebrated this week, with okayplayer. publishing one piece celebrating its soundtrack, and another with a behind-the-scenes reflection from the film’s star Ice T. The artist talks about playing a cop for his first…
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Ode to Connie Converse
A singer-songwriter out of New York in the 1950s, Connie Converse is one of those musical singularities that are periodically unearthed to our great benefit. An ode to her melancholy, intelligently trapped songs sums up the beauty of her music: Converse’s…
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Song of the Day: “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”
Mournful is the best way to describe Leadbelly’s voice in the song popularized by Nirvana on their live album, MTV Unplugged in New York. While Nirvana’s version captured the attention of audiences, the original lament was recorded by a canonized blues…
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Albums of Our Lives: My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade
The summer before my final year at college, my fear started to manifest as an anxiety disorder specializing in sickness and disease.
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This Week in Posivibes: Teenage Fanclub
There are groups you love as a teenager, and whose music becomes a memory, something entwined in your life, but no more directly relevant to it than old episodes of Grange Hill or drinking cider in churchyards. There are records…
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Vinyl in Space
Jack White now has claim to a scientific achievement: he led the project to launch a vehicle that played the first vinyl record in space. The high-tech record player cleared our atmosphere to broadcast “A Glorious Dawn,” from Carl Sagan’s famous TV series Cosmos.…
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Remembering Lou Reed
It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years since Lou Reed’s passing. In remembrance of his work and legacy, Laurie Anderson organized a day-long tribute to her late husband on Saturday, with readings, exhibitions, film screenings, and concerts. Readers of Reed’s lyrics…
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Upcoming Album from Dinosaur Jr.
Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, Dinosaur Jr.’s eleventh album, is out August 5 from Jagjaguwar. In the meantime the album’s second track has been released, and it’s grade-A stuff according to Henry Rollins (although that’s not a huge surprise). Listen to “Goin Down” and…
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DC Punk for Everyone
Dischord Records has made its entire discography available on Bandcamp, meaning that anyone can immediately become an expert on what it took many of us at least a full year of high school to collect via mixtape. The archive includes seminal DC…
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Song of the Day: “Sweet Virginia”
“Tryin’ to stop the waves behind your eyeballs,” Mick Jagger sings on “Sweet Virginia,” a determined country shuffle off their seminal 1972 record, Exile On Main Street, an album frequently mentioned on Best Of lists and widely hailed as one of…