Radio 1190 Blog

Chicago-born rapper Polo G diversifies his style in the release of his third album, Hall of  Fame, incorporating a star-studded list of featured artists on the tracks. The rap star emerged in  2019 with his debut album release, Die a Legend, and bursted into prominence out of the gate (Gage 2020). In his newest studio… Read more

Brandon Paak Anderson, better known as Anderson .Paak, stylized with an out of place period (which I will get to later), has become paramount to today’s West Coast R&B sound. Paak rose to prominence after appearing multiple times on legendary cali artist Dr. Dre’s 2015 album Compton. However, he entered differently into the music scene… Read more

It was the Summer of 1995 and even at the the tender age of ten I knew something was wrong. I would wake up every day decidedly unpumped for the upcoming day. After dragging myself out of bed, I would look at my Michael Jordan poster and wonder why I could not constantly live the… Read more

On Some Rap Songs, Earl Sweatshirt strives for simplicity. As he explained in an interview with Vulture earlier this week, “Incomplete sh*t is really stressful to me, and the concept of unsimplified fractions is really stressful to me.” This philosophy explains the minimalist title, but does the music on the album follow suit? Despite its… Read more

If you went to the Olive Garden recently and used the restroom, chances are you heard some nice, swinging tunes. If you listened carefully, you may have noticed that Paul Anka was crooning about teen spirit over that tender brass section, because you were hearing Rock Swings, the epic 2005 album that was tastefully chosen… Read more

As finals season approaches, Radio 1190 is packed with students diligently studying. To accompany our studies, we’re jamming to new albums from Lonnie Holley, Ian Sweet and Carbonas. Lonnie Holley is known for both his visual art and his music. Both experimental and easy to listen to, “MITH” is a collection of Holley’s thoughts and feelings… Read more

Recently, I have been binging on City Pop and various other forms of 20th century Japanese genius. Although City Pop has taken on a larger than life status in popular memory in the past decade, it lived in relative obscurity outside of the region before the internet could teleport it across time and space. City… Read more

By Max AskariAt Radio 1190, we love spinning our favorite music, new and old. This week, I’ll be looking back at an album DJs spin constantly: “The Lonesome Crowded West” by Modest Mouse. Released in 1997, Modest Mouse’s second studio album is a sprawling 74-minute LP that tells tales of road trips, American culture and… Read more

Few albums better illustrate the magic of YouTube as a music platform than Hiroshi Suzuki’s Cat. Many of my friends have a running joke about YouTube ‘classics’. That is, albums that YouTube’s algorithm seems to favor, meaning that many people end up listening to an album that lived in relative obscurity outside of YouTube. Some… Read more

As the weather cools down, Radio 1190 continues to spin the hottest records. This week, you’ll be hearing fresh releases from a handful of new favorites.  Part Time, a band under the popular rock record label Burger Records, just released their sixth album “Spell #6.” The record has plenty of pop and rock sensibilities, and… Read more

Terror, introspection, and sheer rage. The mastery of DJ Shadow’s 1996 Endtroducing is its ability to create horror out of the mundane. This record has garnered the acclaim that it deserves over the years, but now, looking back at it over two decades later, it is increasingly evident how innovative the first fully plunderphonic album… Read more

Kero Kero Bonito’s sophomore release, “Time ‘n’ Place,” continues their streak of catchy indie pop releases. Hailing from London, Kero Kero Bonito’s early releases were predominantly inspired by video game music and J-Pop. Frontwoman Sarah Midori Perry sings in both English and Japanese, creating lyrical content that distinguishes them from other acts in the Western… Read more

This week’s Blast from the Past is formatted a bit differently than usual. For listeners of my generation, compilations are an essential link between a culture that existed before we were conceived and our ears. They tell a story of what the sound of an era, city, or record label may have been, though we… Read more

Joao Donato’s 1973 masterpiece album Quem e Quem is sometimes forgotten among the tidal wave of classic Brazilian albums from the 1970’s. This is a terrible disservice to a record that I consider a true masterpiece. The only other album that I know which can so tastefully preserve a single mood over the course of… Read more

If you tune into Radio 1190 this week, you’ll be hearing plenty of soothing music. Here’s what we’re spinning right now. Goo Age is a Denver band making music that is truly innovative. In their debut record, “Chatbot Spa,” Goo Age experiments with electronic sounds that range from hyper realistic to super synthetic, and they complement… Read more