PLAYLIST: Memorial Day 2012
While we just LOVE sitting around on the Internet, our hope is that you are only reading this right now because you're waiting for another burger off the grill. Yes, it's officially summertime! Here's your Memorial Day 2012 playlist, featuring some of our recent favorites, including the perfected-rock of The Men, Sean Kuti's worldly rhythms, the Jagger-tipped rock of Foxygen, Pears' highlife by the water, Highlife's seance 'round the fire and much more. Download away, stream it from your phone and, no matter what, go outside and enjoy yourself. See you tomorrow!
Weekend Playlist 05.25.12
Early release and a holiday weekend make for good spirits all-around. So does new music! Here's some favorites from the week, including the simple beauty of Katie Kate, throwback awesomeness of Foxygen, Sebastien Tellier's international disco, a killer Orbital remix and more. Check back on Monday for our Memorial Day playlist and get even more free MP3s! Until then, Mark Morrison foreva'.
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: Ramblin' Songs
One of my favorite genres isn't as simple as 'rock' or 'dance.' It can take any form, really, as long as it's about drifting, getting away and exploring the darker side of this fine country of ours. Yes, I'm a sucker for songs about rambling, trains, making peace with God, murders, rivers and pretty much anything timeless, American, on the open road and having nothing to do with Drake. (Love you Drizzy!)
Here's a special playlist of some favorites from the obvious (Hank Williams and The Allman Brothers' very different songs called "Ramblin' Man") to dusty spiritual classics (Mississippi Fred McDowell, Blind Willie Johnson) and some that are just perfect for getting in the car and going who-knows-where (Bob Dylan, Skip James, Elvis Presley, Townes Van Zant).
Whether your trip is mental or you're really running away, this one should come in handy.
PLAYLIST: Indie Tracks: The Windish Agency Spring Releases
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The Windish Agency, a Chicago-based artist booking company, has one of the most stacked rosters in the music world. Really, they have so many of our favorites that we asked them to curate some special Spotify playlists highlighting their touring artists and their newest releases. Here's the first one – a spring-ready mix that features bombastic rock from Japandroids, Hot Chip's dance mastery and some sun-drenched indie-pop from Best Coast.
Weekend Playlist 05.18.12
On the week we mourned Donna Summer and Chuck Brown, watched a tech bubble nearly explode with the Facebook IPO and celebrated major releases by indie-darlings Beach House and Best Coast, the fantastic music just kept rolling in. Check out our weekend playlist for ya proof. Featuring highlife dusty dance from Pears, the Dead-meets-fried folk of MV & EE, Doseone's nasally riffing, muscular rock from Crocodiles, remixes from Active Child and Fort Romeau plus more, there's a free MP3 somewhere in here that shall warm your cold, cold heart. We promise!
8tracks PLAYLIST: Independent Spring
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Uh, newsflash! We at RCRD LBL love ourselves some playlists. That's why we formed a partnership with fantastic playlist/Internet radio site 8tracks. Here's our new one. It's called "Independent Spring" and features some of our favorite recent indie rock tunes as chosen by editor-in-chief Carter Maness. Now go get jangly and enjoy the weather.
Weekend Playlist 05.11.12
With new Animal Collective, Azealia Banks, Meek Mill, Four Tet and The Walkmen, it was like a musical birthday this week – no matter your taste. Keep on discovering with our weekend playlist, which includes free MP3 downloads from the dark '90s-inflected indie of 2:54 to the party-rocking anthemics of IamSu!, PHILM's rock and much more.
PRIMER: Queer Culture & Music
Posted by Elise Peebles
Tags: primers, guides, playlists, spotify playlists, dance, electronic, hip-hop, rap, rnb
When I was growing up in a city with a tanked economy, dark basement parties were the only places to be. Sweating it out to the thundering bass of hip-hop and r&b was a right of passage, and whoever could shake, twerk and drop it the best was crowned king or queen.
Music and dance have always been forms of empowerment for disenfranchised communities around the world, and urban creativity has produced some of the most popular music genres to date through cultural cannibalism: a process that intertwines multiple marginalized identities and cultures to create the best sounds and craziest moves.
Urban queer culture, our subject here, has had a profound impact on pop music in the past fifty years. Ballroom and drag scenes reinvented house music in the '80s and birthed voguing – a dance style that mixed performance art with break dancing and inspired Madonna, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga to name a few.
Today, queer culture continues to reinvigorate genres and trends. Ideas of sexual and bodily expression mix with dancehall call-and-response to create bounce – a genre that hails from the project buildings and poor neighborhoods of New Orleans. Also called "sissy bounce," this music is usually fronted by genderqueer men (like the legendary Big Freedia) and recently got into the hands of influential artists like Diplo and Nicki Minaj.
