Diffuser.fm

iTunes Festival 2013 Expands Lineup: Vampire Weekend, Kings of Leon + Paramore to Perform

Gina Vespa — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:11:29 +0000

The seventh annual iTunes Festival returns to London this fall with a number of top-name acts in tow. The fest — set to run every night of September at the Roundhouse in Camden — features more than 60 acts, including several new additions, among them Vampire Weekend, Kings of Leon, Paramore, Sigur Ros, Rizzle Kicks and Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi.

News Bits: James Murphy Writing for Broadway, David Lynch Directing for NIN + More

Diffuser.fm Staff — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:25:40 +0000

James "Don't Call Me Jazz Hands" Murphy is writing music for a Broadway show. Starring James Bond!

What could be more perfect than David Lynch directing a NIN vid? Nothing.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2013 Commercial – What's the Song?

Gina Vespa — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:57:14 +0000

With the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, you can multitask, organize your day and bring your ideas to life, a recent ad suggests. The 30-second clip for the innovative tablet features the catchy tune ‘On Top of the World’ by Las Vegas indie rockers Imagine Dragons. The track appears on both their ‘Continued Silence’ EP [...]

10 Best Ride Songs

Carlos Ramirez — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:34:35 +0000

They might have been partially inspired to form after seeing a Smiths gig, but the early work of Ride usually had more in common with My Bloody Valentine's shoegaze atmospherics than it did with Morrissey an

Sunset Strip Music Festival 2013 to Feature AWOLNATION, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Linkin Park + More

Gina Vespa — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:23:22 +0000

Back for its sixth go-round, the Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF) returns to West Hollywood on Saturday, Aug. 3. The highly anticipated California street fest features the likes of AWOLNATION and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, alongside previously announced headliners Linkin Park.

10 Truly Inspirational Songs

Carlos Ramirez — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:43:05 +0000

Today, Diffuser.fm takes a look at 10 tracks that prove it's possible to pen uplifting lines without sliding into cringe-worthy territory. Behold: 10 Truly Inspirational Songs. Play 'em loud and let the healing begin.

12 Years Ago: The Shins' 'Oh, Inverted World' Album Released

Michael Gallucci — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:00:40 +0000

Is ‘New Slang’ a life-altering song? No. Is anything on the Shins’ debut album? No. The band doesn’t make life-changing music. But it does make finely crafted indie-pop.

Zomby, 'With Love' – Album Review

Will Ryan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:22:02 +0000

Zomby’s fourth full-length, ‘With Love,’ is a monolithic, daunting and unwieldy hour and a half of music. It’s one of the more ambitious projects to emerge from the vibrant, ever-changing landscape of U.K. dance music in a while, not to mention one of the most diverse and all-encompassing electronic releases in recent memory. But Zomby [...]

Last Good Tooth, 'What's What I Do' – Free MP3 Download

Cameron Matthews — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:00:20 +0000

Rural bands often have a bit of the woods in them. Hudson Valley’s own Last Good Tooth certainly fit this description. Their latest single, ‘What’s What I Do,’ follows an odd meter, has an odd name and whispers like the wind through the lush foliage of the Northeast. Thankfully, the band’s folky stylings proved unique [...]

Spectrals, 'Sob Story' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:56:46 +0000

When Spectrals — composed of U.K. brothers Louis and Will Jones — opened for the now-defunct Girls and tossed around the idea of having one of its members, JR White, produce what would become ‘Sob Story,’ it’s unlikely anyone knew this would be White’s first post-Girls project. The fact that it is makes the record [...]

Lemuria, 'The Distance Is So Big' – Album Review

Bill Dvorak — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:09:50 +0000

Lemuria have always had musical ambitions beyond the hardcore and punk leanings of many of their Bridge Nine label mates, and on the band’s third album, ‘The Distance Is So Big,’ there’s no holding back. Each track is a perfectly fine-tuned pop song packed with hooks and replete with instrumental breaks, flourishes, clever time signature [...]

News Bits: Bono Dines With the Obamas, Postal Service Release a New Video + More

Diffuser.fm Staff — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:28:16 +0000

What’s Bono doing hanging out in pubs with Michele Obama? [Contact Music] Postal Service take us to a nightmarish laundromat in their new video. [Pitchfork] Brad Wilk is used to raging against the mahcine, but Black Sabbath made him pretty darn nervous. [Ultimate Classic Rock] Savages have extended their fall tour and announced dates with [...]

8 Artists Who Have Bled for Their Music

Carl Pettit — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:28:30 +0000

Emotionally and spiritually speaking, plenty of artists will bleed for their craft, but few are willing to actually let the plasma fly. We can’t help but be captivated by those rockers that have literary shed blood for the sake of their music. While some of our heroes have injured themselves during live performances, succumbing to [...]

Dirty Heads Hitting the Road With the Expendables, Prepping Tour Diary for Diffuser.fm

Diffuser.fm Staff — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:38:09 +0000

There's no time like summertime to spend an evening with the Dirty Heads. Mixing hip-hop, reggae, ska and rock, the SoCal foursome makes musical guacamole best consumed when school is out, the weather is warm and peeps are looking to party. This summer, as the Heads tour the country with the Expendables, they'll file weekly diary entries for Diffuser.fm. Check back every Tuesday.

10 Best Big Star Songs

Michael Gallucci — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:00:46 +0000

An entire legion of fans consider Big Star one of the great lost groups of all time. They're right. All three of their albums are worth owning, but we've broken down the 10 Best Big Star Songs for your playlist.

Sigur Ros, 'Kveikur' – Album Review

Ryan Reed — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:43:26 +0000

When critics write about Sigur Ros, they often focus on the easy bullet points: the band's Icelandic heritage (along with its lazy accompanying imagery: wafting glaciers, massive boulders, deserted landscapes), singer Jonsi's cosmic falsetto, and their occasional use of gibberish vocalizations (which critics themselves dubbed "Hopelandic"). But Sigur Ros' music has never fit easily into one stylistic box.

17 Years Ago: Beck's 'Odelay' Album Released

Michael Gallucci — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:00:10 +0000

For his proper follow-up to ‘Mellow Gold,’ Beck enlisted producers the Dust Brothers to construct a sonic landscape similar to the one they laid out on the Beastie Boys’ classic ‘Paul’s Boutique’ in 1989. Working with a similar template of scratchy old samples and dusty beats that sounded like hip-hop field recordings at times, the Dust Brothers presented Beck with ‘Odelay’’s whiplashing foundation. Beck did the rest.

Eddie Spaghetti, 'The Value of Nothing' – Free MP3 Download

Beth Kellmurray — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:00:04 +0000

Never one to subscribe to conventional genre wisdom, Supersuckers leader Eddie Spaghetti is back with his sophomore solo album, ‘The Value of Nothing,’ and once again, he’s blurring lines between classic rock, punk and country. ‘The Value of Nothing’ is the follow-up to the rocker’s 2011 solo debut, ‘Sundowner,’ which included covers of tunes by [...]

Primal Scream, 'More Light' – Album Review

Michael Gallucci — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:30:45 +0000

Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie doesn’t know the meaning of the word “moderation.” Everything about his band, his band’s music and his way of getting from point A to point B (or C or Z or whatever) is done via the most complicated route. Always. Gillespie truly believes that bigger is better and that anything short on ambition and/or pretention isn’t worth the effort. It was that way on 1991’s breakthrough record ‘Screamadelica,’ and it’s still that way on Primal Scream’s 10th album, ‘More Light.’

Empire of the Sun, 'Ice on the Dune' – Album Review

Ryan Reed — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:15:05 +0000

Empire of the Sun have never been shy about their ambitions -- and they've never been afraid of looking like idiots. The Australian duo's debut album, 2008's 'Walking on a Dream,' was as puzzling as it was delectable: a stew of electro-pop grooves and art-rock atmospheres, tied together by a ridiculous sci-fi concept and 'Dune'-esque cover art. It was also pretty damn original, though the music (released during indie-rock's glammy boom, in the wake of MGMT's debut) was largely ignored outside of their home country.