Artist: Ka
A cross between Earl Sweatshirt and Ghostface Killah, Ka is a Brooklyn-based FDNY Captain turned rapper who’s been on the scene since the ‘90s, starting out with the underground hip-hop crew, Natural Elements. Relatively inactive for quite some time after, Ka was reintroduced on GZA’s 2008 release “Pro Tools,” before the release of his debut solo LP “Iron...
Swedish garage rock band The Hives have released their first full-length album in five years, but don’t stray far from their signature style.
The album, titled “Lex Hives,” is irritatingly hyper-repetitive at times. The opening track, “Come on,” consists only of the lyrics “everybody come on,” sung over a canned track of a cheering crowd. Intended as a pump-up album...
Honestly, I wanted to like Grouplove’s latest effort, “Spreading Rumours.” I really did. And while not completely devoid of good songs, bland and uninteresting are some of the only words I can use to describe the band’s second album.
“Spreading Rumours” starts off on a fairly strong note. The haunting “I’m With You” proves that Grouplove is capable of a...
Boiling with manic depressive energy, Xiu Xiu returns to the experimental rock and punk scene with their eighth studio album, “Always.” Frontman and founder Jamie Stewart made a name for himself and his band with their angst-filled lyrics and riotous music. Xiu Xiu has never been good at pleasing the masses, and this album is no different. The band...
Ask your sister, best friend or the kid you just met in geology lab if they have heard of Vanessa Carlton. I am willing to put my money on it that they have, but may only recognize her through her greatest commercial success, “A Thousand Miles,” after it was intertwined into a movie-long comedic joke in the Wayans brothers’...
“The Chief” is the debut studio album by Jidenna, the Nigerian-American hip-hop and R&B artist previously best known for his Grammy-nominated single, “Classic Man.”
The album starts strong with “A Bull’s Tale,” a song about Jidenna’s childhood in Nigeria. The track begins with narration from Uncle Palmwine, a fictional character based on the advice Jidenna received from various family members,...
He actually does no such thing. But, he did drop two albums within two weeks and that’s pretty crazy. There is something to be said about the rate at which trap artists push out music: Native Atlanta artist and trap music architect, Future released two full-length LPs within a week of each other. These two projects, respectively titled “FUTURE”...
When I was in the 10th grade I had a classmate I had self-declared as my enemy. Internally, I hated him. He probably hated me. Everything I did, he tried and successfully did better. I would raise my hand, he’d raise his higher. I would do extra credit, he did extra, extra credit. Currently, though, I feel I am doing quite...
Drake is having a great year. In February, he dropped his unannounced mixtape, “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” to much fanfare and critical acclaim. He followed that up by entering a bitter feud with rapper Meek Mill that resulted in the diss tracks “Charged Up,” “Back to Back” and another single, “Hotline Bling,” which dominated the charts....
Highlander Radar: What did you think of performing at UC Riverside compared to other venues? How was the crowd?
Mikel Jollett: It was awesome, it was exciting; I like playing for a college audience because a lot of the world events that the songs are about affect kids that are in that age range.
Steven Chen: I went to UC Berkeley...