[Playlist of the Week] 10 Music Videos for the End of School
As finals rear their ugly heads around the corner, the season of cabin fever for students everywhere begins. While studying proves to be more difficult by the hour, we’ve put together a video playlist to push you through the last days of spring semester.
2014 Music Festivals Announcement Round Up
Music festivals in America and abroad are beginning to hit critical mass. It's our generation's sign of approval to any artist if they find themselves on a bevy of festival lineups come summer, they're doing something right. Perhaps the most prevalent "music for the people" approach in the industry, festivals allow acts both large and small great opportunities for exposure and listeners the chance to attempt to take it all in. The spring/summer of 2014 is shaping up to be one of the largest festival seasons in recent memory and event organizers have wasted no time announcing jam-packed lineups that look more like an iTunes playlist than a real concert experience. We gathered together lineups from festivals from coast to coast and even beyond to give you the most full, in-depth guide to diving into festival season, check them all out on the following pages.
[RH Photos] Vampire Weekend at Stubbs in Austin (4/24/14)
Photos by Tim Fraga
Last week, New York's Vampire Weekend hit Austin for back-to-back sold out shows in Stubb's backyard. The first time I had seen Vampire Weekend perform live was last year during ACL 2013. It might have been the beer or the rotation of joints being passed around that had me in such a good mood, but vibing out to Vampire Weekend perform to a massive crowd in Zilker Park couldn't have been any better. When I heard I would be able to see them in a smaller setting like Stubb's, I was pretty excited to get back to that happy place. Unfortunately, due to some last minute change of plans, I wasn't able to attend the show. Lucky for us, however, we have photos from Tim Fraga to gives us a glimpse of what went on.
Best Music Projects of 2013
Photo by Bryan Lamb
With new projects from established musicians like Daft Punk, Kanye West, and Neko Case to up and comers like Chance the Rapper, Lorde, Disclosure, 2013 was a huge year for music. Through a very scientific method, the Ruby Hornet staff has gone through the eclectic mix of 2013's various project releases from hip hop, R&B, indie rock, soul, techno, EDM, and more to deliver our definitive list of 2013 music projects. Check out our list below!
Grading the Grammy Nominations
As the music industry has evolved over the past decade into the digital world, things have changed quite a bit. Hard copies are hardly ever bought anymore, nor does anyone seem to buy whole albums at all, as the iTunes Store model has taken over and the industry has increasingly become about what the consumer wants as opposed to what the labels want the listeners to hear. While this has resulted in a sort of musical reawakening, creating a culture where listeners can stream, download or play any track they can think of with the touch of a button, music has expanded at a rapid pace, creating new genres and sub-genres and infinite new off-shoots that don't fit cleanly into any one established genre or sound.
Standing behind this industry, bearing the largest prize of all, is the Grammy Awards. This year, the award show enters its 56th installment and, while a dance music category was finally introduced last year, the judging seems more out of touch than ever, but of course this has been an issue for some time. The Grammys are like Social Security. You don't really care about it much until you're too old to get up from the sofa. Generations have rallied against the award for years. In 1991 Sinead O'Connor simply refused to show up and boycotted the show, despite being nominated in four categories. After winning "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1998, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder stood onstage perplexed and, staring at the golden trophy, said into the microphone, "I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything." It's not news that the team behind the Grammy Awards has been out of touch for some time, but at no time in history has it been so blatantly about the money in an industry that today makes significantly less money than it used to. It's macroeconomics of the current American condition played out with celebrities and gold gramophone statues. Plus, Kanye already spoke out. So, for this latest round of Grammy nominations, I figured I would sift through who was chosen and offer up my own choices for the top prizes in music this year.
[Video] Vampire Weekend's Baio: "Mira"
Vampire Weekend's Chris Baio has made a living playing bass and providing backing vocals to the indie rock band's uptempo, sunny sound since the groups inception. Today, he released a video for his own solo work. Performing under Baio, he has plans to release a solo EP titled Mira, for which the video is for. Check it out below, its a crazy collage of different facial shots, should be fun.
http://youtu.be/feaFllGZ-H0
Chromeo: "Sexy Socialite"
Brooklyn duo Chromeo is back with the second dance single from their upcoming project, White Women. The [air have been building their funk/dance aesthetic for a minute now and it seems to be coming together on all sides with their latest releases that come across more polished and cross-genre able than anything to come out of the Chromeo camp to date. The album is rumored to have guest spots from the likes of Solange, Toro Y Moi and Vampire Try "Sexy Socialite" on here below and take a listen for yourself.