Review: bülow's "Damaged Vol. 2" EP
"Damaged Vol. 2" gives us candid insight on how @bulow lives, loves, and reflects upon life, and we're all aboard for the ride as the talented pop singer-songwriter progresses toward stardom.
Most of us can relate to the simplicity of being a teenager. We didn’t worry about paying bills or keeping the fridge stocked with food. So long as we focused on making excellent grades and maintaining our GPA, we were guaranteed a chance to make something of ourselves at a great university or college.
What happens after one reaches ‘success’?
With airy vocals engulfed with a warm bass line melody with chime-like accents, "Honor Roll" takes us back to a time where life was uncomplicated. Pensive, contemplative, and habitually high off of edibles, bülow reminisces about her youth, her fear of growing older, and her reluctance to be sober.
"SAD AND BORED" gives us a more understanding on bülow’s need for self-medicating. The song starts with a somber churning bass synth line overlaid by a combination of crisp percussive snare hits and hand claps. bülow begins, speaking of being trapped in basement, smoking “herb”, and sipping on Hennessy. Arpeggiated melodic backing vocals then enter, which better convey the slightly unhinged mental fatigue bülow endures being alone and bored since her boyfriend is currently in jail. DUCKWRTH is featured on the song, adding his own reasons for self-medicating.
"You & Jennifer" begins like a pop ballad with chords gently resounding from the piano. bülow’s signature bass and drum combo drops in, giving the song a modern shape. This sincere heartfelt ballad is a shout out to the ex-lover of bülow and his new girlfriend, Jennifer. bülow once envisioned a future with this love and wants no hard feelings between the two of them. However, she is clearly relieved she pursued what is best for her.
"Damaged Vol. 2" gives us candid insight on how bülow lives, loves, and reflects upon life, and we're all aboard for the ride as the talented pop singer-songwriter progresses toward stardom. Her EP will drop this coming Friday, June 8th and will be available on all streaming services.
Dopecausewesaid's Beats N Bars Festival Recap
Recently I had the privilege of attending the 2nd Annual @beatsnbarsfest which was hosted in my hometown, the Bull City: Durham, North Carolina...
Recently I had the privilege of attending the 2nd Annual Beats n Bars Festival which was hosted in my hometown, the Bull City: Durham, North Carolina. The first night of the festival was hosted at Pinhook, a popular yet eclectic performance venue used for local bands, DJs, open-mic nights, karaoke, and trivia. The second night of performances was hosted in a large parking lot behind the Pinhook and apartments adjacent to the venue. The stage was set up in the center of parking lot’s far end. Several food trucks and pop-up shops were stationed on the outer edges of the parking lot catering to people who came to support all the groups that performed live that weekend.
I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I walked into the performance area. Today mainstream rap music is dominated by Chance the Rapper, Lil Uzi Vert, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar: all of these rappers are very talented in their own right. Aside from J. Cole, none of these rappers hold roots in North Carolina. Almost all of the rappers I saw perform that weekend were from Durham or had a close relationship with Durham in another sense. Furthermore, all of these rappers were incredibly talented; the entire time I couldn’t stop thinking about why more people didn’t know about this event and why it wasn’t getting more coverage. Don’t get me wrong: the festival had a great turn out. However, I have high hopes that next year we’ll be able to share more of what Durham has to offer with the rest of the world.
There’s been a lot of hype about G. Yamazawa ever since he released “North Cack” earlier this May. The Durham born and cornbread-fed rapper put himself on the map with the release of this song. I was extremely grateful witnessing him perform at the Beats n Bars Festival. Here’s the video in case you haven’t already watched it…
DeFacto Thezpian was among the many Durham-native rappers that came out to perform for the festival. He performed alongside Lil Bob Doe at the beginning of the festival and with G. Yamazawa and Kaze towards the end of the night.
The most memorable moment of the night was Kaze’s freestyle set at the end of his performance. With help from the audience, Kaze freestyled about whatever was in his line of sight OR whatever was handed to him from the audience. At some point a woman took off her shoe and tried to hand it to Kaze so that he could freestyle about it.
Needless to say this festival was amazing considering that I walked into it with zero expectations. I’m impressed with what my hometown has to offer and I encourage everyone to attend the Beats n Bars Festival in 2018. You won’t regret it.
Here are some photographs from that fateful night.
Review: Sampha's "Process" Album
This is my second time reviewing this particular album by @Sampha. I’ll admit that the first time...
This is my second time reviewing this particular album by Sampha. I’ll admit that the first time I reviewed the album I didn’t give ‘Process’ its due justice; I was more caught up with Sampha’s unique appearance and similarities to other artists. The more and more I listened to the album, the more it grew on me: what’s truly unique about Sampha is the lengths he has taken produce such a wide variety of individually complex and beautiful soundscapes on his latest release ‘Process’.
Dive into a world of extreme anxiety and vulnerability as Sampha takes us through his journey of escape in the second song on this album, ‘Blood On Me’. Sampha immerses us in a soundscape of rhythmic percussive instruments and his own ambient vocal samples before introducing an ominous piano melody. Take note on how breathless Sampha sounds as he’s singing throughout the song: you can hear the anxiety and fear he feels as he sings about running away from the inner demons he’s dealing with in this song.
Genius released an artist interview where Sampha breaks down the production of ‘Blood On Me’. I’ll include it at the end of this review.
‘Kora Sings’ is upbeat and whimsical, a dramatic change in sound compared to ‘Blood On Me’. Despite the mood created by the bright and playful kora used to create the melody the song is deeply introspective as Sampha illustrates a story of a mother weeping over her child. *A kora is a 21-string West African lute/harp.
‘(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano’ is beautiful in its simplicity. The ballad features piano, a bass drum, and Sampha’s voice, both singularly and arranged in a chorus. Sampha shares with us his intimate relationship with his childhood piano and how it helped him cope with hardships as he grew up.
Sampha creates a variety of songs with producer Rodaidh McDonald on his debut release ‘Process’. Check the album out on iTunes and watch the music videos release on YouTube.
Stream/Download "Process" by Sampha
Review: Leroy Jelks' "Shadow Boxing With The Lights Off" Mixtape
Bringing us vibes from North Hollywood, we hear @Jellyfilledflow divergent sound in “Shadow Boxing With The Lights Off” where we...
Bringing us vibes from North Hollywood, we hear Leeroy Jelks divergent sound in “Shadow Boxing With The Lights Off” where we hear about Jelks experience with mental illness, shadowboxing, and his relationships with the people around him. Immediately you are thrown into a city soundscape enveloping you into a thickly discordant theme, a window into his life.
‘Boxing’ begins with a slightly disjointed neo-soul melody with a certain swagger, a rhythm Jelks adopts throughout the entirety of the mixtape. He describes himself like a “scarecrow” that goes where the wind blow, almost as if to say that people would not expect someone with his frame to box.
Set to a loop of someone sighing disinterestedly, ‘Lights Off’ talks about a relationship with an estranged individual and his assured desire to move towards a better relationships while recounting the times he’s made mistakes much to the hinderance of the other individual. A soft jazz piano melody can be heard behind the sighs, with drums (no bass) eased in.
“Get it how you live it, and spread it how you live it”, a mantra repeated in ‘Midas Touch’ as Jelks recalls advice given to him by mentors as he made his cross-country move from New York to California. Set to a jagged, uneven, propulsive melody of synthesizers, bells, and drums Jelks reminds us that “all that glitters isn’t gold”.
Throughout the mixtape Leeroy Jelks we hear his lyrics voiced tenaciously and candidly, making him a very memorable rapper. Jelks combines a variety of genres of music to create the multilayered release that is “Shadow Boxing With The Lights Off”.
Album features Ra Power, Mason Dean, Solo, Amante
Songs produced by Makotoh Thovo, ‘96, OKVSHO, D’Unkown, August Henrickson
Mixed by Marcosdavid Manuel, Leeroy Jelks
Stream/Download "Shadow Boxing With The Lights Off" Mixtape
Review: Meenindeath's "HighThoughtsNConversations" Mixtape
With "HighThoughtsNConversations", meenindeath will challenge the way you think about present-day rap music and deliver it to you with beautifully produced melodies and complex lyrics equipped with sharp wit...
Meenindeath is a Miami-native rapper affiliated with the art collective Rich Old Beggar, a circle featuring art of all media of artists across the country. Making a point to emancipate himself from the idea of modern rap, meenindeath brings us “HighThoughtsNConversations” as a commentary on society, drug culture, and concepts of idealism and realism as they apply to our perception of life and death over somber, melodic, down-tempo instrumental loops.
The mixtape wastes no time introducing us to the rapper’s inner thoughts in ‘Ice Cube Defines Negativity’. Rapping over lazily undulating strums of guitar and percussive from a simple drum set, meenindeath confronting adversity, hostility, and negativity and translating those hardships into his own success.
Next up on the list of noteworthy tracks on this mixtape is ‘In The Morning’. Reintroducing the undulating melody now on a slightly muted guitar, we get a taste of exceptional wit flaunted as he freestyles about ‘musical nihilism’ and his placement in the rather materialistic and superficial soundscape of modern-day rap.
‘Possible and Impossible’ is quite possibly the most somber of all tracks on “HighThoughtsNConversations”, examining the current legal status of marijuana in America, materialism of his generation, perception of African-Americans in American culture, and the controversy we enjoy with all of these topics. The fractious lyrical content is smoothed out by a sinuous bassline coupled with a percussive backbone which creates a track with a flavor of neo-soul.
meenindeath will challenge the way you think about present-day rap music and deliver it to you with beautifully produced melodies and complex lyrics equipped with sharp wit. He’s definitely an artist to follow over the next coming years.
Stream "HighThoughtsNConversations":
Interview: Youngstown, Ohio Based Alternative Hard Rock Band Alteras
Dopecausewesaid's Jade Oladosu recently connected with Youngstown, Ohio based alternative hard rock band @AlterasBand during their tour stop in Raleigh, NC for an exclusive interview...
Alteras is an alternative hard rock band from Youngstown, Ohio and was founded with the common belief that making music was vital to their well-being. The band’s mission is to provide music for whomever who needs it most, touching the hearts of the listener is the main goal of each and every piece by Alteras. Our very own brand ambassador Jade Oladosu connected with the band for an exclusive interview during their tour stop in Raleigh on August 3rd.
After reading our interview with Alteras, be sure to follow and support them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all things Alteras! I encourage you to check out the band’s clothing line MisPrint as well!
What’s the origin behind the band’s name?
Alteras is a latin word that means “you change” or “you alter”. It kind of encompasses how we write our songs: we don’t write to produce the same type of song each time. ‘Broke’ and ‘Could Ever Love’ are two very different songs. One is a heavier post-hardcore song and the other is similar to a melodic ¾ waltz. The band name also represents the idea of embracing change.You never know if something is worthwhile if you don’t try it out at all.
When did you guys first start the band?
The band took on many forms before we became the band we are today. We started in high school playing music for fun and this continued on into college. Mike and I (referring to band members Mike Dulay and Jake Clansen) graduated from college and put our all into it. It took awhile for us to get the right members; we’ve been writing since 2010, but we officially performed with all of our current members in 2015.
The band current consists of Jake Clansen, Mike Dulay, Zack Orr, and Tony Costarella.
Where have you toured previously?
We’ve toured in 25 states total, mostly on the east coast. Our favorite state to tour in is Texas and we’ve already been 3 times since January! Texans really love metal music. One of our favorite places to go after shows is this place called Buc-ee’s: it’s like Sam’s Club meets Dave and Buster’s plus a gas station and every dream you’ve ever had.
What is the weirdest thing that’s happened on tour?
We played a show right outside of Newark, New Jersey in an industrial part of town. When we arrived at the venue, we see a cardboard sign placed outside on the ground that has “Show Parking” written above an arrow drawn in sharpie marker.
The venue is this huge warehouse surrounded by other warehouses, so seeing this sign and nothing else was a little bit questionable. Anyway, we go around the back and park, walk up to the venue’s giant front door (which also has the venue name written on cardboard in sharpie laying right next to it) and knock.
No answer. We knock again.
The door creaks open and this strange man peeks out the door and asks, “what do you want?!”
Confused, we nervously reply, “We’re here for the concert…”
He yells back, “Does this look like a concert venue to you?!”
He throws the door open and says he’s just joking. He introduces himself as Tito, the venue manager.
We performed in this huge warehouse with other local bands and it ended up being one of our best shows on that tour. But things still got weird after we performed. We finished up our set, and while we’re waiting for the next band to go the concert is crashed by S.W.A.T. officers. Tito, the weird guy, ends up getting handcuffed and arrested, but he was released the next day. We think someone might have called in the event to the police, thinking that something nefarious was going on in the warehouses late at night.
What other awesome things have happened on tour?
One of the best things about touring is that you get to meet so many different people interested in same things and same music and you vibe and get to know them on a personal level. It’s such a great feeling knowing that people you’ve met months ago on one tour are coming back to listen to you when you’re touring again in the same area.
We also get to bond with other bands on tour. You hear a lot of horror stories about bands having beef with each other, but we’ve grown really close with all the bands we’ve ever toured with.
Connect with Alteras: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Review: Two Cheers' "Rollick" Album
“Rollick” by @twocheersmusic is yet another feel-good summer album I recommend listening to. The album features a unique combination of influences from the 80s...
“Rollick” is yet another feel-good summer album I recommend listening to. The album features a unique combination of influences from the 80s, the post-punk era of the 90s, and the ever-evolving indie pop genre of this decade. Bryan Akcasu, the vocalist and lyricist for the album, has a sweet boyish voice that charms you into a carefree caprice. Head to the beach, or the pool, with a bottle of wine in hand, lay out, and let the pleasant waves of Two Cheers’ new release wash over you.
The album opens with ‘Over My Shoulder’, a upbeat, but unusual, love song illustrating the lyricist awe and adoration for a companion who shines with such a vivacious and bright presence.
‘Woman…’ begins with a fuzzy synth melody supported by a slow swaying rhythm and bittersweet lyrics. ‘Too Late’ begins with stronger presence of 80s synth melody that continues throughout the album. From here we hear the album transition through themes heard over the past decades. ‘Love You to Death’ takes us back to a mild memory of the 90s post-punk era with the harmonies created by the deep, brooding bassline and synthesizer combo.
The album ends with ‘Rest of My Life’, a steady and easy-going conclusion to “Rollick”. The song features our favorite 80s synth melody rolling and swelling throughout the song to create an upbeat, yet relaxing, summer vibe.
Stream/Download "Rollick" by Two Cheers
Review: TJ Stafford's "All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This" Album
There is no single emotion that can describe "All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This" as a whole; @tjstaffordmusic unabashed display of all of his emotions washes over you, song after song...
When I first started “All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This”, I was anticipating a very dark and brooding album about love, lust, and what was lost.
‘Crazy’ brings the raw and rugged edges of the darker side of love: the pain of wanting the love another until it drives you absolutely insane. ‘Catch’ gives the listener a softer parallel of ambiance. Both songs pull the listener through the Stafford’s emotional heartbreak, but ‘Catch’ reveal a pensive and almost wistful take on the pains of love.
The album then takes a sharp turn for optimism. We still experience the same raw emotion felt in the two opening songs, but we now get to savor Stafford’s sultry voice in self-assured and bold themes featured within the songs ‘Fame’ and ‘Keep It Grooving’.
You can hear his lust for attention in ‘Fame’ as he craves for the love of everyone who’s here to learn his name. He demands for “15 minutes of love”, no negotiation of how much he’s going to take from you, but he assures you that you’ll soon be a fan.
Honestly, he’s not wrong. I’m definitely a fan of this album. ‘Keep It Grooving’ brings you to a crass, carefree high in the album featuring raw guitar riffs that switch out with a funky bass as the chorus eases back in; it’s the perfect song to enjoy on a hot, humid summer day!
We return to a certain feeling of darkness, this time accompanied with insecurity and cold apathy in the tracks ‘World of Wonder’ and ‘I Don’t Mind’, before quickly being warmed by
Stafford’s audacious charisma in the album closer ‘Get Up’.
There is no single emotion that can describe this album as a whole; Staffords unabashed display of all of his emotions washes over you, song after song. “All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This” offers us an anthology of his mental, his mantras, and his core with this summer’s release.
Stream/Download "All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This" by TJ Stafford
Review: Skyler Cocco's "Reverie" LP
@skylercocco new album "Reverie" embodies deep frustration and anger personified by intoxicatingly sweet vocals backed against a rugged foundation of rhythmic and bass guitars...
Photo by: Joe Carrotta
Reverie embodies deep frustration and anger personified by intoxicatingly sweet vocals backed against a rugged foundation of rhythmic and bass guitars: a feeling that can be described as silk running over sandpaper. Cocco moves us past these tumultuous emotions to suspend us within the sublime ambiance of “Awake” and the namesake “Reverie”, only to ease us into refined themes of grungy reminiscent of the former half of the compilation.
When you’re traveling through this album, keep your ears open for:
“Pretty Thieves”: This song has an opening reminiscent of the post-punk/grunge themes of the 1990s, though it quickly dissolves into the dream-like grunge pop Skyler Cocco is known for.
“Awake”: Consider this track the palette cleanser of the album. Ethereal and almost spectral, this lyricless song suspends you in the wake of the frustration experienced in “Perfect Muse”
“Draining”: Here we have a refined complements of vocals, drums, and rhythmic & bass guitar melding together to give that unique feeling of “silk running over sandpaper”. Being the last song on the album, Cocco leaves us wanting more of this ethereal grunge vibe.
Skyler Cocco brings us this album as documentation of her experiences with the loss of her father, her struggles with depression and anxiety, and the presentation of her growth as she matured and developed the skills to cope with her past experiences.
Here is some insight into the album featuring Cocco’s own words:
Reverie is a trip inside my mind during the formative years of post high school through my first few months as a college graduate.
Personally, I was adjusting to life without my dad, struggling to separate my passion for music from his absence, coping with sleep paralysis and vivid nightmares brought on by depression and anxiety, and beginning my first romantic relationship in college.
But my story is one that I never allowed myself to tell before. Reverie gave me a chance to release the chains I put on my emotions.
It let me disclose how draining it is to pretend you are happy, how you can be your own worst enemy, how hiding your emotions can lead to reckless behavior and how frustrating it is to be dropped into an adult world after the bubble of college.
Although writing Reverie was not the easiest process, as I had to relive a lot of situations I’ve done my best to block out, I needed to make this record not only for myself but for those who have coped with loss, depression, and the fear of adulthood.
With this, she presents to us an uniquely energizing grunge-pop debut album and takes us through memories experienced in her youth.
