Midway through my video chat with Cootie Catcher, guitarist/vocalist/beatmaker Nolan Jakupovski suddenly wields a prop: “This, I think, is what we want to sound like.” He’s holding a copy of the Pastels’ 1998 remix album Illuminati, on which the Glasgow indie greats have their songs reworked by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab, and Jim O’Rourke. “A lot of …

On this date in the infamous year of 1988, the late, great “Human Orchestra” Biz Markie released his debut full-length album Goin’ Off on Cold Chillin’/Warner Brothers Records. Produced exclusively… The post Today in Hip-Hop History: Biz Markie Dropped His Debut Album ‘Goin’ Off’ 38 Years Ago appeared first on .

On this day in Hip Hop history, The Roots released their fourth studio album, Things Fall Apart. Widely regarded as the group’s breakthrough project, the album elevated them to mainstream… The post Today in Hip Hop History: The Roots Released Their Fourth LP ‘Things Fall Apart’ 27 Years Ago appeared first on .

King Tuff’s return is imminent. The psychedelic garage rocker Kyle Thomas made his new back-to-basics album MOO shortly after leaving Los Angeles and returning to Vermont, the place where he’s from. He recorded it on the same Tascam 388 that he used to make his 2013 debut King Tuff Was Dead. On the LP’s first… The post King Tuff – …

Back in 1999, Faith No More/Mr. Bungle frontman Mike Patton started the noise-rock supergroup Tomahawk with the Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison, Melvins/Cows bassist Kevin Rutmanis, and John Stanier, the absolute beast of a drummer who’d already been in Helmet and who would later join Battles. Tomahawk have been intermittently active since then, though Rutmanis was eventually replaced by longtime …

Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois on May 26, 1926, and the Miles Davis estate and Sony Music — and probably to a lesser degree Warner Bros., which owns his last few releases — are celebrating the legendary trumpeter’s centennial this year. I fully expect to see a ton of reissues, and possibly some new vault material, all year …

I was mightily impressed by Maintenant Jamais, last year’s album from francophone Montreal psych band Population II. They’re following it up this April with a new EP, Gimmicks. Lead single “Magouilleux” sits in the middle of the five-song tracklist, and it makes for a sprawling centerfold. Powered by bleary keyboards and propulsive bass, the track… The post Population II Announce …

Toto members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro wrote “Africa,” the band’s immortal 1982 chart-topper, because Paich had just seen a late-night TV documentary about poverty in Africa and because he was excited to try out the horn sounds that he could make on a new polyphonic keyboard that he’d just bought. Paich and Porcaro had never been to Africa when …

The 79th British Academy Film Awards, aka the BAFTAs, went down Sunday night at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another was the night’s biggest winner, earning Best Picture and Best Director. Fresh off his Grammys wins, Ludwig Göransson’s Sinners won Best Original Music (there is no category for best song at the BAFTAs). British screen …

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