BDWPS Podcast #57

In the latest episode of BDWPS, I take a look back and some of the highlights from my week spent at SXSW in Austin, Texas. You will hear new music from Spoon, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Cherry Glazerr, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Pill, and Girlpool. We also continue our look back at Bob Dylan’s 1964 release, The Times They Are A-Changin’.

Check it out HERE, or better yet, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher (search: BDWPS). 

Tracklist:

Spoon “Do I Have to Talk You Into It”

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever “French Press”

Cherry Glazerr “Told You I’d Be With The Guys”

Hurray for the Riff Raff “Rican Beach”

Pill “Vagabond”

Girlpool “123”

Bob Dylan “Boots of Spanish Leather”

SXSW 2017

This year’s SXSW was one of good fortune. It seemed like everything went our way – from transportation, to a plethora of engaging shows, to one fantastic food truck choice after another. To sum up, this SXSW 2017 was one of the best I’ve attended in years, and here are some reasons why.

BDWPS Podcast #56

In this episode we take a look at some of the best albums to come out so far in 2017, including Japandroids, Austra, Cloud Nothings, Jens Lekman, and Ty Segall. I also discuss some of my favorite films of 2016.

Check it out HERE, or better yet, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher (search: BDWPS).

Tracklist:

Japandroids “Near to the Wild Heart of Mine”

Austra “Future Politics”

Cloud Nothings “Modern Act”

Jens Lekman “Evening Prayer”

Ty Segall “Warm Hands”

Public Enemy “She Watch Channel Zero”

Bob Dylan “The Ballad of Hollis Brown”

Sampha “Process”

Sampha

Process

[Young Turks; 2017]

Rating: 8

A lot has happened since Sampha’s promising 2010 debut, Dual EP. Instead of capitalizing off of his first effort, Sampha instead spent the next seven years supporting his mother as she suffered with cancer. She passed away in 2015, and he would soon after discover his own health scare in the form of a lump in his throat. The result of this seven year hiatus from releasing music is Process, an album with a depth and maturity far exceeding that of most debut, full-length efforts.

Video Clip of the Week: Father John Misty “Pure Comedy”

Since I spent the entire month of January listening only to albums released in 1974 (you can hear about it HERE), I’m currently playing a game of catch-up on 2017 releases. I’m hoping to have an album to review by next week, but in the meantime, the BDWPS.com page has been stagnant for the past week and a half. To fill some space, I thought I’d share my favorite release of the year so far in the video for Father John Misty’s “Pure Comedy.” I’m sure many of you have already seen it, but if you haven’t, it’s a glory to behold. The song is also pretty great. Hopefully the site will be back to its normal routine in the next week or so.

BDWPS Podcast: Episode #55

In this year’s “That 70s Show” episode, we take a look at the music that shaped 1974. It was a year of many genres nearing their end while future genres were just beginning to bud in the underground.

Check it out HERE, or better yet, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher (search: BDWPS).

Tracklist:

Leonard Cohen “There is a War”

Gil Scott Heron “H2O-Gate”

Funkadelic “On the Verge of Getting It On”

Cluster “Caramel”

King Crimson “Fallen Angel”

Robert Wyatt “Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road”

Roxy Music “All I Want is You” John Cale “Fear is a Man’s Best Friend”

John Cale “Fear is a Man’s Best Friend”

Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of 2016

Since we are only in the infancy of 2017, I thought I’d post a list of my top 10 favorite hip-hop albums of 2016. While many of these also appeared on the Top 40 Albums of 2016 list and  the Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2016 podcast, I wanted to focus in on a genre that had a really great year in terms of creative output. As you will see, my taste in hip-hop leans toward the more experimental and alternative, but if you’re interested in reading about some of the most innovative, thought-provoking hip-hop albums of 2016, this is the list for you. For some of these posts I used excerpts from past write-ups (I hope you don’t mind!).