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Band meeting: Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder, Ira Wolf Tuton and Chris Keating are hunched around a kitchen table to brainstorm song names. Double-entendres, commercial potential, stealing lines from poetry and revising “cheesy” lyrics are all discussed. “The Children. I mean that’s a stupid title,” says Wilder, reading the sheet in front of him. “It’s not catchy at all,” agrees Keating. Woodstock, April 2009: They’ve been jamming new material constantly, discussing possible comparisons, being their worst critics and best editors. It goes on in the living room, downstairs in the studio, even outside around a fire, where trees line the horizon like a barcode. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 34% [?]

Beach House – Holy Dances

There’s a knock at the door. A German-sounding man in his fifties politely asks if Beach House would mind letting two crack-smoking sisters use their dressing room for a while. Tensions are high. It’s late 2007 and Baltimore’s dream-pop duo are topping a variety bill that has attracted only a handful of people to one of London’s smallest venues. For a little-known band, this does not feel like an auspicious beginning. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 59% [?]

Toro Y Moi – Blessa

Chaz Bundick’s voicemail makes him sound like the Zodiac killer. It’s amusing at first, a stoner having a laugh, but downright creepy by the umpteenth time you‘ve heard it. When he finally picks up, hours later, Bundick asks what day it is and seems unsatisfied with the answer. He sounds nervous; leaving fumbling gaps between his words. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 51% [?]

Wayne Coyne is about to reveal the meaning of life. He’s sitting in his living room in Oklahoma City, in a compound resembling Edinburgh Castle, staring at a giant inflatable sun and reclining on an oversized couch made of white fur. The dog he’s petting thinks the couch is its mother. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 15% [?]

“Whoops!” – tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus is falling off her seat. She’s vivacious, engaged and sailing on nervous energy, barely recognisable from the person who introduced herself with the words, ‘Listen, I’m nervous’, just hours before. She was postponing the interview and skipping dinner, she explained, to make sure her voice was in the right shape. From a distance, there seemed little reason to be jittery. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 15% [?]