McCartney III Imagined Due Out April 16 on Capitol
Apr 08, 2021By Mark Redfern
Paul McCartney is releasing McCartney III Imagined on April 16 via Capitol. It features remixes and covers of songs from McCartney’s 2020 album, McCartney III. Now he has shared a remix of the album’s “Slidin’” done by Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien (who also releases solo music under the name EOB). More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is releasing a new album, Daddy’s Home, on May 14 via Loma Vista. Now she has shared a video for the album’s second single, “The Melting of the Sun.” St. Vincent co-directed the video with Bill Benz and it has a retro ’70s feel, complete with a title card saying it’s a rip from a Betamax video. More
Plus Sons of Kemet, CHAI, Storefront Church, POND, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Other Notable New Tracks
Apr 02, 2021By Mark Redfern (with Joey Arnone and Emma Goad)
Welcome to the 12th Songs of the Week of 2021. In the nation was gripped (or more accurately, traumatized) by the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is releasing a new album, Daddy’s Home, on May 14 via Loma Vista. Now she has shared the album’s second single, “The Melting of the Sun,” via a lyric video for it. More
Plus Silk Sonic, Mdou Moctar, James, and a Wrap-up of the Week's Other Notable New Tracks
Mar 05, 2021By Mark Redfern (with Joey Arnone)
Welcome to the eighth Songs of the Week of 2021. It was a fairly quiet week on the news front, with President Joe Biden’s pandemic stimulus bill getting closer to passing in the Senate, but without a minimum wage hike.More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has officially announced her new album, Daddy’s Home, after previously teasing it last week with a series of outdoor advertisements, and shared its first single, “Pay Your Way In Pain,” via a video for the track. More
Daddy's Home Potentially Due Out May 14 on Loma Vista
Mar 02, 2021By Joey Arnone
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has been busy promoting her upcoming album Daddy’s Home, which is allegedly set to be released on May 14 via Loma Vista. Last week, a series of ’70s-inspired posters were put up across New York City which announced the album’s release, and last night, Clark shared a teaser video for an upcoming song titled “Pay Your Way In Pain.” More
Daddy's Home Might Be Due Out May 14 via Loma Vista
Feb 24, 2021By Mark Redfern
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has potentially announced a new album. Photos of outside advertisements for the album have showed up on social media and Reddit. More
Julia Stone has shared a video for her new song “We All Have,” which features Matt Berninger of The National. The video was directed by Gabriel Gasparinatos, and features his cousin Jesse, a second-generation Abalone diver. Stone’s forthcoming album, Sixty Summers, will be out on April 16 via BMG. More
Beck released a new album, Hyperspace, last November via Capitol Records. Now he has shared a remix of the album’s “Uneventful Days” by St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), which ups the funk. More
Miranda July Directed the Lyric Video; Tour Dates Announced
May 29, 2019By Christopher Roberts
Sleater-Kinney have shared a brand new song, “Hurry On Home,” via a lyric video for the track. St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) produced the song and Miranda July directed the video (and also appears in it). They have also announced some tour dates. More
In 2009, very few people thought that the Annie Clark of 10-years-later would perform at the Grammys. In February 2019, at the storied awards ceremony, the musician best known as St. Vincent joined forces with the massively popular British singer Dua Lipa for a medley of their respective songs “MASSEDUCTION” and “One Kiss.” More
Filmed During Her Telethon, Video Features Beck, St. Vincent, Jeff Goldblum, Jim James, Mac DeMarco, Jason Schwartzman, Danielle Haim, and More
Mar 28, 2019By Christopher Roberts
Jenny Lewis has shared a video for “Red Bull & Hennessy.” It is made up of behind-the-scenes footage from her recent live-streamedOn the Line Onlinetelethon/variety show and features cameos from Jeff Goldblum, St. Vincent, Beck, Danielle Haim, Mac DeMarco, Jim James, Jason Schwartzman, Nikki Lane, David Arquette, King Tuff, Natasha Leggero, Tim Heidecker, Vanessa Bayer, and more. More
Annie Clark Also Won Two Grammys Last Night; Beck, Kacey Musgraves, and Childish Gambino Also Won Grammys
Feb 11, 2019By Christopher Roberts
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has shared a new video for “MASSEDUCTION,” the title track to her acclaimed 2017 album. She also performed the song on the Grammys last night with British pop singer Dua Lipa, in a mash-up with her song “One Kiss” and a little bit of Aretha Franklin’s “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” thrown in for good measure. More
Plus Arctic Monkeys, Childish Gambino, Margo Price, David Byrne, Weezer, The Decemberists, and Others Get Nominations
Dec 07, 2018By Christopher Roberts
The 2019 Grammy Awards nominations have been announced. Despite expanding the major categories from five nominees to eight this time, it’s still the usual collection of mainstream pop, R&B, and hip-hop artists, with rock generally shut out of the main categories. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released a new album, MassEducation, last week via Loma Vista. It is a stripped down version of her last album, 2017’s MASSEDUCTION. The album was recorded in two days and just features Clark on vocals and Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) on piano. Last night she stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live!, who is doing a week of shows in Brooklyn, and fittingly played the MassEducation version of “New York,” backed only by Bartlett on piano. More
Love Is Magic Out Now via Partisan and Bella Union
Oct 12, 2018By Christopher Roberts
John Grant released a new album, Love Is Magic, today via Partisan in the U.S. (and Bella Union elsewhere) and it’s our Album of the Week. It was a strong week for new albums and the new albums by Kurt Vile and Jaakko Eino Kalevi could’ve just as easily taken the crown and there are eight runner-ups this week in total. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has released a new album, MassEducation, today via Loma Vista. It is a stripped down version of her last album, 2017’s MASSEDUCTION. The album was recorded in two days and just features Clark on vocals and Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) on piano. More
Annie Clark Serves Up Sultry Appetizer to Saturday Set
Oct 06, 2018By Joshua Mellin
After a blistering first day in Austin’s Zilker Park that included performances by David Byrne, The National and Paul McCartney, Texas’ own Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, slinked to the Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheate stage for an Official ACL festival late show. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has announced a new album, MassEducation, that is a stripped down version of her last album, 2017’s MASSEDUCTION, and has shared one of its tracks, a reworked version of “Savior.” More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her latest album, MASSEDUCTION, in October 2017 via Loma Vista. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2017. Back in June she shared “Fast Slow Disco,” a new, more dance floor ready version of the album’s delicate string backed track “Slow Disco.” Now she has shared a third version of “Slow Disco” that takes it in the other direction, to a more stripped down, piano-backed sound. It’s fittingly titled “Slow Slow Disco.” More
The first-ever Grandoozy festival came to a close Sunday in Denver, Colorado. Photographer Joshua Mellin captured a gallery of St. Vincen’ts powerful final day set. More
“I called her and said, ‘I am dying to have you bring your St. Vincent-ness to this.’” – Sheryl Crow
Jun 25, 2018By Christopher Roberts
Sheryl Crow has shared a brand new song, “Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You,” that features St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark). While the collaboration may seem a bit unlikely, the two met at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit show, where they performed Crow’s “Riverwide” together. Crow approached Clark to collaborate on the song and bring her “St. Vincent-ness” to it and Clark responded favorably. More
Plus Underworld and Iggy Pop, Father John Misty, St. Vincent, Johnny Marr, and a Wrap-up of the Week's Other Notable New Tracks
Jun 01, 2018By Christopher Roberts
There were some solid contenders for this week’s Songs of the Week list. It was a toss up between #1 and #2, it could’ve gone either way. If we were doing a “Best Use of a Song in a TV Show This Week” list, then first place probably would’ve gone to the use of U2’s “With or Without You” in the surprising and amazing series finale of FX’s The Americans. More
Other Openers Include Grizzly Bear, Kamasi Washington, and Perfume Genius
May 29, 2018By Christopher Roberts
Florence + the Machine (aka Florence Welch and backing band) is releasing a new album, High As Hope, on June 29 via Republic. Now she has announce some North American tour dates that stretch from August until October. More
Reflecting on the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination
Apr 06, 2018By Stephen Mayne
This week we look at Martin Luther King Jr. and the impact he had half a century on from his death, plus there’re sanctions, walls, pay gaps, reworked wedding songs, and Superorganism. More
Janet Jackson, The xx, Car Seat Headrest, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lucy Dacus, Mount Kimbie, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, The Breeders, U.S. Girls, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Others Set for 15th Anniversary
Mar 30, 2018By Christopher Roberts
FYF Fest has announced its 2018 lineup. The event is due to take place July 21 and 22 at Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. The headliners are Florence and the Machine and Janet Jackson. More
Plus St. Vincent, Jack White, Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Parquet Courts, Lykke Li, Stars, and More
Mar 21, 2018By Christopher Roberts
This year’s Lollapalooza is going down August 2-5 at Grant Park in Chicago and now the lineup has been revealed. The headliners are The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, Jack White, Arctic Monkeys, Travis Scott, The National, Vampire Weekend, and Odesza. More
"Mystery of Love," Written for Call Me By Your Name, Lost to Coco's "Remember Me"
Mar 05, 2018By Christopher Roberts
Sufjan Stevens was among the performers at last night’s 90th Academy Awards ceremony, performing his song “Mystery of Love” from the film Call Me By Your Name. Stevens’ performance featured a backing band that included St. Vincent(aka Annie Clark) and Moses Sumney. More
It would be inaccurate to say a lot of us started 2017 with optimism overflowing, but there was a certain relief at having put 2016 to bed. While the misery of a Trump White House still lay ahead, some comfort came from sweeping away the detritus of that car crash of an election. More
Plus The Weeknd, Eminem, Fleet Foxes, alt-J, Perfume Genius, Moses Sumney, Angel Olsen, First Aid Kit, Japanese Breakfast, and Others
Jan 03, 2018By Christopher Roberts
Coachella has announced the lineup for their 2018 festival, which goes down in Indio, California over two weekends in April (with the same bill each weekend). Friday April 13 and 20 is headlined by The Weeknd, Saturday April 14 and 21 is headlined by Beyoncé, and Sunday April 15 and 22 is headlined by Eminem. More
Another Dark Year Was Brightened By a Plethora of Fantastic Albums
Dec 30, 2017By Mark Redfern
2016 was regarded as a fairly rough year by many, but 2017 was no walk in the park either. 2016 was mired by the deaths of several beloved musical icons (David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, and Sharon Jones among them) and the disappointing and divisive Presidential election, but in 2017 we had to deal with the ramifications of said election (we’d say that roughly 95% of the musicians we interview likely don’t support many, if any, of President Trump’s policies). More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her new album, MASSEDUCTION, back in October via Loma Vista. Last night she stopped by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to be interviewed by Noah about the album and its cover art. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her new album, MASSEDUCTION, back in October via Loma Vista. Last night she stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform “Slow Disco.” She did so in a fake church set, with a string section sitting in pews in front of her. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her new album, MASSEDUCTION, last month via Loma Vista. Now she has shared a video for “Pills.” Philippa Price directed the clip, which plays off the theme of the song and features various stylish looking people taking pills and dancing. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her new album, MASSEDUCTION, last month via Loma Vista. Today she was the musical guest on Ellen, where host Ellen DeGeneres also gave out copies of the album to the audience. Clark was backed by four dancers clad in red thigh high boots and masks. At one point the camera cuts to DeGeneres as she sings along to the song. More
Fellow Guests Johnny Depp and Josh Gad Joked About Her Album Cover
Nov 06, 2017By Christopher Roberts
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her new album, MASSEDUCTION, last month via Loma Vista. On Friday night she was the musical guest on the BBC late night talk show The Graham Norton Show. She performed MASSEDUCTION track “Los Ageless,” playing her guitar and dressed like she was a stylish member of The X-Men, while backing dancers with guitars moved in silhouette on the other side of a screen behind Clark. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her new album, MASSEDUCTION, last Friday via Loma Vista. Today she was the musical guest on Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 show. She was interviewed by Mac, performed MASSEDUCTION tracks “Los Ageless” and “New York,” and also covered The Clash’s “London Calling,” backed only by an acoustic guitar. More
“政権腐敗” Translates to “Power Corrupts” and is a Japanese Version of “Masseduction”
Oct 16, 2017By Christopher Roberts
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) released her new album, MASSEDUCTION, last Friday via Loma Vista. Now a Japanese bonus track has shown up online, “政権腐敗,” which is pronounced “seiken fuhai” and translates to “Power Corrupts.” St. Vincent also stopped by the BBC music show Later… with Jools Holland and covered Patsy Cline’s classic “Crazy.” More
Plus Fischerspooner, Django Django, Belle and Sebastian, and a Wrap-up of the Week's Other Notable New Tracks
Oct 13, 2017By Christopher Roberts
Last week we didn’t do a Songs of the Week post simply because there truly were hardly any new tracks worth considering for it. But this week there was a wealth of exciting new music. To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last seven days, we have picked the seven best this week had to offer, along with highlighting other notable new tracks shared this week. Check out the full list below. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is releasing her new album, MASSEDUCTION, this Friday (October 13) via Loma Vista. In last night’s episode of the BBC music show Later… with Jools Holland St. Vincent performed “New York.”More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is releasing her new album, MASSEDUCTION, this Friday (October 13) via Loma Vista. Now she has shared another song from the album, “Pills.” More
Plus Benjamin Clementine, Moses Sumney, Weyes Blood, Margo Price, Alvvays, and a Wrap-up of the Week's Other Notable New Tracks
Sep 08, 2017By Christopher Roberts
Of late we’ve been presenting the eight best songs of the week, but last week we expanded it to a Top 9 because there were so many strong choices. This week we kept it as nine, but because we had trouble narrowing the list down in a week of solid new songs, but few obvious standouts. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has announced her new album, MASSEDUCTION, and shared another song from it, “Los Ageless.” MASSEDUCTION is pronounced as “mass-seduction” not “mass-education” and is due out October 13 via Loma Vista. More
New St. Vincent Album Expected Soon, On Tour This Fall
Aug 31, 2017By Christopher Roberts
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) recently shared a brand new song, “New York.” It was our Song of the Week. “New York” is likely the first taste of her fourth album, the follow-up to 2014’s self-titled one, which she has been working on with Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff. Now she has shared a video for “New York.” More
New St. Vincent Album Expected Soon, On Tour This Fall
Aug 30, 2017By Christopher Roberts
The American jewelry company Tiffany & Co. recently launched their fall 2017 campaign and it starred St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), among others. Now Tiffany has released a new ad that features St. Vincent covering The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love.” More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) directed one segment (“The Birthday Party”) of the horror film anthology XX. It featured four different horror tales, each directed by a different woman, and released back in February. More
"There's Only One" Campaign Also Stars Janelle Monáe, Zoë Kravitz, Elle Fanning, and Others
Jul 26, 2017By Christopher Roberts
The American jewelry company Tiffany & Co. have launched their fall 2017 campaign and it stars St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), Janelle Monáe, Zoë Kravitz, Elle Fanning, model Cameron Russell, and Bolshoi Ballet dancer David Hallberg. More
Plus The National, Temples, Widowspeak, Deerhoof, Girl Ray, EMA, and a Wrap-up of the Week's Other Notable New Tracks
Jun 30, 2017By Christopher Roberts
Despite leading up to a long holiday weekend, it was a packed week for great new songs. Quite a few notable artists shared new songs this week, including Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, The National, Liam Gallagher, Neil Young, Mogwai, Weezer, Broken Social Scene, Toro Y Moi, and more. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has shared a brand new song, “New York.” It’s likely the first taste of her fourth album, the follow-up to 2014’s self-titled one, which she has been working on with Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has announced a fall tour she’s dubbing the “Fear the Future Tour.” She has also shared a funny announcement video for the tour. The dates go down this October, November, and early December and include shows in Europe and America. More
Support Under the Radar on Patreon for at Least $1.00 a Month to Access Exclusive Content
Apr 27, 2017By Christopher Roberts
If you support Under the Radar‘s Patreon page at the minimum contribution of at least $1.00 a month you get access to our Patreon-only feed featuring exclusive content only available to Patreon supporters. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has been named the official ambassador for Record Store Day 2017 and has shared a funny video to announce this. Record Store Day happens on April 22 this year. More
XX is a new horror anthology film that features four segments, each directed by a different woman. Of note is the segment The Birthday Party, which marks the directorial debut of Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), who also co-wrote it. More
St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark is apparently a big Dallas Cowboys fan, which is no surprise since she’s from Texas. A new NFL commercial features St. Vincent’s instrumental solo electric guitar rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and a new behind-the-scenes documentary features Clark discussing her passion for the Dallas Cowboys. More
Today a remake of the 1977 Disney film Pete’s Dragon comes out. It’s getting surprisingly good reviews and stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, and Karl Urban. More
Last night The National played The Greek Theater in Los Angeles and they debuted a brand new song entitled “Prom Song 13th Century (Frankie & Johnny).” What made the performance special was that it was a duet with St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), who joined the band onstage. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has shared a cover of The Golden Girls theme song. Although, if Clark didn’t say it was a cover of the opening titles music to the beloved senior citizen ‘80s sitcom we wouldn’t have known it was one. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) performed at a benefit concert at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City last night, dressed as a toilet. She did a new song, as well as “Bring Me Your Loves,” “Marry Me,” and others. More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has covered The Rolling Stones’ “Emotional Rescue” for the soundtrack to the new film A Bigger Splash. The film stars Tilda Swinton as a rock star and also features Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, and Dakota Johnson. Luca Guadagnino directed the film, which is out today in U.K., but not out in the U.S. and Canada until May 13 (via Fox Searchlight). More
At the Trans-Pecos Festival in Texas St. Vincent Also Plays on Some of Lewis’ Songs
Sep 28, 2015By Christopher Roberts
Jenny Lewis performed at the Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love in Marfa, Texas last Thursday and brought a special guest onstage, St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark). Clark played drums on Lewis’ “Just One of the Guys,” collaborated with Lewis on the unreleased song “Girl on Girl,” and performed her own song “Cheerleader.” The set ended with a cover of Deee-Lite’s “Groove is in the Heart.” More
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is the star of a new short documentary over at Nowness. Alan Del Rio Ortiz directed the film, which follows Clark back to Texas, where she grew up (although she was born in Oklahoma). In it she sings the American national anthem at a little league game and wanders around the Texas countryside. More
Taylor Swift likes to bring special guests up on stage with her at each of her shows and last night at Los Angeles’ Staples Center she brought out the one-two punch of Beck and St. Vincent. More
St. Vincent's Mixtape Delivery Service Airs on Beats 1 Radio
Jul 01, 2015By Christopher Roberts
Apple Music launched this week and a big part of the service is the Beats 1 Internet radio station. St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is one of the celebrity DJs involved in the enterprise and she hosted her first Beats 1 show last night. More
Performed This Weekend in Brooklyn at Part of Contemporary Color
Jun 29, 2015By Christopher Roberts
David Byrne’sContemporary Color project features color-guard teams doing interpretive choreography while musicians perform live. After a recent show in Toronto, this past weekend the event was staged in Brooklyn. More
Back in April The Chemical Brothersannounced their first new studio album in five years, Born in the Echoes, due out July 17th via longtime label Astralwerks. More
Before We Forgot How to Dream Out June 2 via Rough Trade
Apr 30, 2015By Christopher Roberts
When SOAK (aka the 18-year-old singer/songwriter from Northern Ireland named Bridie Monds-Watson) played Under the Radar‘s day party at SXSW this year, the audience was in rapt attention, despite the fact that she was performing solo acoustic, just her voice and her guitar. More
Last night St. Vincent was welcomed as the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she performed her new single, “Teenage Talk.” More
As previously reported, last night St. Vincent, a.k.a. Annie Clark became the first solo female artist to win a Grammy for Best Alternative Album since 1991. More
On Feb. 10 St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark will deliver a deluxe edition of her heavily lauded self-titled album, featuring a number of exclusive bonus tracks and a remix of “Digital Witness” by Darkside. More
Before closing this past weekend, for the past several months the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago had been providing visitors with an extensive retrospective exhibition on the career of David Bowie. More
Issue 52 Also Includes Interviews with Jenny Lewis, The War on Drugs, James Franco, Ariel Pink vs. Panda Bear, Jason Schwartzman vs. Real Estate, the Cast of The Walking Dead, "Weird Al" Yankovic, The Flaming Lips, Sharon Van Etten, and More.
Dec 19, 2014By Christopher Roberts
Under the Radar is excited to announce the full details of the Best of 2014 Issue, which is about to hit newsstands and will be out all of January and February. It features St. Vincent on the cover and interviews with some of the artists behind 2014’s best albums. More
St. Vincent/Annie Clark has spent the year proving her status as a guitar goddess, so it’s no accident that the video for St. Vincent cut “Birth in Reverse” casts the musician as some kind of musical deity.More
When she isn’t performing on Saturday Night Live comedian and actress Vanessa Bayer stars as Janessa Slater, the worst media consultant to ever work the industry in Above Average‘s ongoing web series “Sound Advice.”More
Joining the likes of Jenny Lewis, Conor Oberst, OutKast, CHVRCHES, The Decemberists, and The Flaming Lips, St. Vincent will be issuing an exclusive piece of music for this year’s Record Store Day Black Friday event. More
Eight years into her solo career, Annie Clark says she still feels like a new artist. She might as well be, she says, since her fourth St. Vincent release is the first to resonate very far outside of the indie rock universe. More
For Throwback Thursdays we will be posting classic interviews from the Under the Radar print archives to our website. For this Throwback Thursday we revisit our 2007 article on St. Vincent. More
Over the course of three albums—each arguably better than the last—Annie Clark has established herself as one of indie rock’s most reliably innovative acts. But as her strengths (dazzlingly ornate arrangements, intricately designed wordplay) have generally trended toward the cerebral, the literate, and the sophisticated, her music has never felt particularly dangerous. More
Annie Clark struggles to explain why she decided to go the eponymous route for her fourth St. Vincent album, acknowledging that self-titling a record is usually reserved for either definitive statements or debuts. More
If you’ve followed Annie Clark’s musical project St. Vincent at all, you know that her albums can be somewhat of a rollercoaster ride with peaks and valleys not only in time signatures and tempos but in genres and styles. More
Although there were many impressive bands peppered throughout the week, no day of Sled Island packed quite the star power of Saturday, when St. Vincent and Spiritualized performed. St. Vincent opener Doug Hoyer was also a major highlight as well. (Let’s hear it for the little guys.) More
Last fall, Annie Clark emerged from 18 long months on the road—which included the Strange Mercy tour and her Love This Giant gigs with David Byrne—ready to work. Rather than take the standard time off to recover and recalibrate, Clark dove right into songwriting again, expelling the last year and a half’s worth of ideas into these 11 new tracks. The simply-titled St. Vincent arrived far earlier than anyone would have expected from such a busy artist, but it doesn’t feel rushed; rather, it’s the product of a musician on an inspired streak. More
I had a thought while eating dinner last night: it’s nice to cover a festival with food options that involve something other than eating a pile of grease. Among other such deep revelations I also saw Philco Fiction, Baroness, John Maus, Frank Ocean, St. Vincent, Ane Brun, and Björk. More
It must be difficult for a songwriter who possesses great wit, extraordinary performance skills, and an ear for complex arrangements to not want to show off now and again, and St. Vincent’s Annie Clark wasn’t immune from flexing her skills on her first two releases. More
I go to a lot of shows. But rarely—if ever—am I as fired up about an opener as I was about seeing Wildbirds & Peacedrums open for St. Vincent. Lighter already aloft (metaphorically anyway) but the end of their eight song set I was ready to quit my job and start following them around in a van. More
SXSW is a guessing game. There are many hundreds of bands playing at so many different venues, that you can have a fantastic or a lousy time depending on who you see and how well you second guess how long it will take to get into each venue. The goal is to spend most of your time seeing as many great bands as possible, and as little time possible waiting in line or sitting through sets from bands you don’t want to see just to make sure you’re in the venue in time to see the bands you do want to see. Your enemies are late set times and the varying degrees of sound quality at Austin’s many venues. More