David Markey is not a film director. He is the kid down the street who is always trashing the neighborhood and chasing his clown-masked friends with a Super 8 video camera. He is the Southern California boy who was surrounded by moviemaking as a child, and who couldn’t think of any other way to have fun during the long, balmy summers. Cut Shorts, a compilation of Markey’s work, reeks of amateurism and mindlessness; but despite this (or because of it), it still captures the …

For a lot of girls, there is always that one best friend they can count on. The friend who you’ve had since at least high school, who knows everything about you. The friend you’ve done really stupid things with; the friend who, even in the midst of a giant storm of annoyances, you automatically called when everything was going wrong; and the one friend (who you aren’t fucking) that you can stay up all night with and not get grumpy. So imagine a day …

Okay, Indie Kids, let’s play Imaad Wasif trivia. We’ll start with the easiest question: what extremely popular (well, in indieland) band is Wasif touring with? Yes, you with the horn rims and asymmetrical haircut. No, the one to your left… Correct! It would be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Now, name two of the three bands he’s been associated with before this solo release. Okay, you, the girl in the Sesame Street shirt who needs to eat a sandwich…Oh man, you totally nailed all three. He …

As anyone who has had the misfortune of taking a postmodern theory course knows, nothing can escape its history. And usually, this historical entrapment is the biggest downfall of most modern music: singers, as we know, have a knack for getting ensnared in the coil of their influences. So with that in mind, you might be tempted to ask who is this Destroyer, with his Tyrannosaurus Rex and Ziggy Stardust feel?
Well, listen up kids: despite the fact that this album was loved by …

Myths. When David Bowie came to New York City in 1971, he thought a certain Lou Reed was still fronting the Velvet Underground: that notorious band whose early Factory associations had given them a very Warholian fifteen minutes of fame, but whose last two years of existence had been wrought with both personnel problems and public indifference. Of course, by then Lou had long gone solo — his breakthrough album, Transformer, would be produced by Bowie less than a year later — but at …

The Precious EP
Semi-Precious Weapons
(fettY)
In today’s pop world, old genres don’t die…they just go dormant for a decade or two. Hell, the last five years alone have seen an absurd amount of musical rebirths: from punk to post-punk, garage rock to prog rock, disco to old-school hip-hop. Obviously I could waste my time here on the pulpit with the usual complaint about how music just isn’t original anymore, it’s all self-regurgitating garbage, blah blah fuckin’ blah. But I’m of a mind to accept these retro doldrums as a sign of the …