Category: music reviews

The Painters: A New Canvas Summer sounds and hypnotic hallucinations fill the air as Animal Collective plays on my speaker.  It seems all too fitting that Animal Collective’s new EP, The Painters, was released just as Boulder was in the midst of enjoying a heat wave that somehow managed to sneak itself into the mid-February…

Here at Radio 1190, we have about 25,000 records to our name, handpicked since 1998 with guaranteed quality. This week, I’ve put a couple great old records into rotation that we haven’t spun for a little while. They’re either old favorites or underground gems, and I think you’ll dig both. Let’s dive in. I’m throwing…

Meg Duffy of Hand Habits drops her anticipated debut album Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void) in February 2017, after having spent a few short years touring with friends and signing with Woodsist records just months before.  Recently, her following has expanded through sheer merit, gaining momentum playing guitar with other musicians on the up-and-up:…

Polyrhythms have been ruining my life. It probably started with Talking Heads. There was something about David Byrne’s lust for strange rhythmic patterns that set my brain on fire and got my feet pumping. For the uninitiated, the standard definition of a polyrhythm is “ the simultaneous combination of contrasting rhythms in music” (Merriam-Webster). You…

Priests, an activist punk rock band dwelling in Washington D.C., drop their fourth album, Nothing Feels Natural, on January 27, 2017, one week after inauguration day.  After a few years writing, recording, and re-recording, they have arrived at a piece that is sociologically stimulating and combats societal pressures.  It is a work of honesty, a…

A second self-titled album by Ty Segall is heard at a higher fidelity than previous albums, where Ty traditionally records by overdubbing. This album, however, was recorded in a live studio backed with his full band, The Muggers. We still hear noisy and powerful droning layers of melodic and percussive guitar, but less warbly.  This…

The second you throw on Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner’s new record “Drunk,” you’ll be greeted by a familiar falsetto voice that sounds like it’s echoing throughout a chamber of dreams. “Drunk” opens with the track “Rabbit Ho” which takes on a similar ambience from the intro track to his 2015 EP “The Beyond/ Where the Giants…

We have three great new records spinning this week on Radio 1190. Tim Darcy normally fronts the Canadian post-punk band Ought, but his new record “Saturday Night” brings his voice to unheard places. Rather than slinging mantras at breakneck speed (a la Ought’s 2015 release “Sun Coming Down”), “Saturday Night” is more rockabilly than punk.…

On Wednesday, Pitchfork posted an article titled “Does College Radio Even Matter Anymore.” If you haven’t read it yet, Kevin Lozano walks through the ins-and-outs of college radio history and finally decides: yes, there is still a place for college radio. Of course, we at Radio 1190 knew this all along. Radio 1190 gives us…

Priests are a post-punk outfit from Washington D.C. Our nation’s capitol has a rich history of producing bands which fight the system with attitude and ferocity, (see Fugazi), and Priests keeps the tradition alive. Their new record “Nothing Feels Natural” will keep your head spinning. Fronting Priests is Katie Alice Greer, a badass singer who…

America means different things to different people. From Chuck Berry to Kanye West, American music reflects who we are are and where we came from. This week, let’s take a look at three new records from American songwriters that explore where this country has been, and where it’s headed. With a seal of approval from…

It’s been a long week. Everybody, from those always politically active to those sucked into the bureaucratic bog, has felt a lot this week. Whether or not your presidential candidate inherited America’s unwieldy reigns, great music always speaks to us. It’s a friend when we’re lonesome, a pick-me-up when we’re dragging, and a light when…

New records from La Femme, American Football, and Savoy Motel are spinning this week on Radio 1190. Recorded half in a French castle, half in Los Angeles, “Mystère” from La Femme is a powerful record that combines European Krautrock with contemporary sounds. La Femme sounds like a version of Yelle inspired more by Kraftwerk, Neu!,…

The first time I saw Total Goth was on Record Store Day 2016. Boulder was dreary and bleak. White clouds circled around Absolute Vinyl while our collective excitement for limited edition vinyl releases was pitted against Colorado’s fog and gloom. Niko Kuklin, Melisande Osnes, and Ryan Farabee worked their amplifiers through throngs of bustling record…

Autumn is a pretty cool and a pretty season in general—the sunsets are beautiful and it’s so much more colorful! Not only is it the season of pumpkin spice, but it’s the season of sweater weather, midterms, homecoming, holidays, and hanging out because it’s too cold to go out, but not cold enough for winter…

Electronic music takes all sorts of shapes. It’s easy to write off the whole genre when you’re tired of hearing the same drops, wubs, and vocal samples blasting day-after-day from the corner of 12th and college. Don’t lose hope! This week, Radio 1190 is spinning three new electronic records that prove there’s more to the…

Radio 1190 KVCU is now on the FM dial! Tune into 98.9 FM in Boulder and hear your new favorite artist. Spinning this week are three hot contenders: we have new records from Infinity Crush, Warpaint, and LVL UP that are sure to delight you. When I was in high school, liking “When We’re Snow”…

Formerly the solo project of Jilian Medford, the Los Angeles-based trio IAN SWEET brings their A-game on their new record, Shapeshifter. Released September 9th via Hardly Art Records, the album is a versatile garage rock debut reminiscent of artists such as Guerilla Toss and Girlpool. The record’s name is incredibly apt as it shifts throughout,…

If I asked my parents about their favorite folk music, it’s likely they’d rattle off a couple of the classics: Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Emmy Lou Harris, John Prine… The list goes on. If you asked any millennial, of course it’s possible they’d toss out a few of the same names, but more likely they’d…

It’s been many months since Viet Cong announced they were changing their name for the sake of overly sensitive people. Hailing from Calgary in the north, Viet Cong was born from the ashes of now-defunct rock band Women, combining their dissonance and low fidelity with pop hooks, tight riffs and beautifully odd time signatures. Since…