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One Track Mind: Greenland, Evil Spring
Standout Track: No. 5, “Silver Spring.” Greenland likes to pay tribute to The Replacements, and here it looks to a hallmark of that band’s (and many others’) 1980s sound: the chorus effect, which...
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One Track Mind: Technophobia, “Waltz Demise”
Standout Track: “Waltz Demise,” the first release from new three-piece synth-wave band Technophobia. The song channels a feeling of being lost in ink-black darkness. “Oh godhead/Can't you hear...
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One Track Mind: The Beginner’s Mynd, “Hazy”
Standout Track: No. 1, “Hazy,” a psych-pop song that’s not as sunny as it seems. The track derives an upbeat sheen from its Lennonesque vocals, pleasant guitar jangle, and happy Farfisa organ tones,...
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One Track Mind: Brenda, Aminals
Standout Track: No. 1, "Make a New Friend," a shambolic indie-rock number with a disco-driven beat. On it, singer and guitarist Dave Lesser, a 28-year-old Capitol Hill resident, complains about...
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One Track Mind: Pleasure Curses, “PNKLKR”
Standout Track: No. 1, “PNKLKR” (“pink licker”), a cool synth-pop single built on a hand-clappy drum sample by Jugzy Jord, a.k.a. Jordan Gelling. The rest comes from Pleasure Curses’ main producers,...
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Scout Niblett on Her Make-Out Album Cover, Talking to Herself, and Snow White
Skim through the lyrics of Scout Niblett’s latest album, It’s Up to Emma, and the common threads are pretty easy to spot: anger, disappointment, desire. Something—or more accurately, someone—went...
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One Track Mind: The Walking Sticks, Send the Night
Standout Track: No. 1, "Send the Night," a mildly funky pop tune crafted by the Silver Spring twins Max and Spencer Ernst, 23, and McLean vocalist Chelsea Lee, 22. A synthesized flute opens the track...
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Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan on D.C.’s Old Days, Yo La Tengo, and Aging Out of...
After a nine-year hiatus, indie-rock ensemble Superchunk jolted back to life in 2010 with what might have been its strongest album yet, Majesty Shredding. On that punchy, tightly wound record,...
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Wayne Coyne on the Flaming Lips’ New Album, Their Super Bowl Commercial, and...
As a teenager, I considered Oklahoma City’s alternative-rock weirdos the Flaming Lips to be my go-to “happy” music. Thoughts of frontman Wayne Coyne’s endearingly off, high-pitched voice and the...
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One Track Mind: Big Hush, “Winner”
Standout Track: “Winner,” a sweetly fuzzed-out rocker from D.C. five-piece Big Hush. A My Bloody Valentine melody shines through the track’s big washes of distorted guitar, and its hiss-shrouded vocal...
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