The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 

nick sylvester

Latest Articles

080404_botw_list

Punk rock redux

Blood on the Wall pump out the nostalgia
Try reimagining early punk as some physically intense and massively popular athletic contest.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  April 01, 2008
080222_altas_list

Adolescent funks

Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox takes a solo shot
Bradford Cox reminds me of my man Polyphemus — not just the one Odysseus conned in the cave but the one posted up in the countryside and pining in song for the sea nymph Galatea.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  February 19, 2008
080111_blackdice_list

Pop in a hard place

Black Dice’s Load Blown
The norms Black Dice resist are significant and strong and worth resisting.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  December 16, 2008
list_DOWNLOAD_SaulWilliams_

FARC

Stuff you've never heard and "Fuck A Record Company"
You’ve probably heard of two of the “indie” hip-hop artists below, even if they’re bypassing trad distribution models and just giving away their music.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  November 19, 2007
listDOWNLOAD_Juan

Far into the Future

Tim Sweeney's nighttime playlist
Almost every Tuesday night, New York DJ/producer Tim Sweeney live-mixes disco, house, electro, and offshoots and recombinants thereof.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  October 08, 2007
LISTDOWNLOAD_deerhunter4

Chicago-based experimental

The year of Kranky
Rarely is one label responsible for so many of the year’s best releases.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  September 24, 2007
070831_mia_list

Culture clash

M.I.A. confronts American pop protocol
If there were two golden rules worth following for this reviewer gig, they’d be never conflate an artist’s backstory with her product, and never read other people’s reviews.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  September 05, 2007
070831_tmnt_list

The dark side of the rainbow

The new medium of the YouTube mash-up
Does the simple fusion of audio to video count as high-quality entertainment?
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  August 29, 2007
07615_artbrut_list

Not better off dead

Art Brut find their way in the post-punk world
Three years ago, London’s Art Brut debuted with a punk-rock song called “Formed a Band.”
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  June 12, 2007
070608_deerhunter_list

Sonic couth

Deerhunter and Seefeel bring the right noise
Music is more or less a mess of tensions. Deerhunter, "Wash Off" (mp3)
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  June 04, 2007
list_prinzhorn

In anticipation of summer

Summer songs for regular people
Here are four reminders of what this summer holds for the lot of us.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  May 22, 2007
070525_maximo_list

Subtle stars

Separating Maxïmo Park from the pack
In the gaps between words are the things that really intrigue me,” sings Maxïmo Park frontman Paul Smith on “Girls Who Play Guitars.”
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  May 21, 2007
070427_list_50

Blowing up

The ringtone champs
I’m guessing most people know this by now: album sales continue to tank.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  April 23, 2007
070406_timbaland_list

Production lines

Timbaland’s shockingly bad Shock Value
The guy builds songs.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  April 09, 2007
070330_gui_list

Technophilia

Brazil’s Gui Boratto embraces IDM
The year being 2007, had I started off telling you this new Gui Boratto album is “intelligent dance music,” you’d have stopped reading right then and there.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  March 27, 2007
070309_arcadefire-list

The down side

Finding the heart of the Arcade Fire
This is the same kind of self-alienation that dominated Funeral , except now there’s no tunnel, no back seat, no time for wishful thinking. Arcade Fire, "Black Mirror" (mp3)
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  March 06, 2007
061222_clipse_list

Guest lists

 What 30 of the Phoenix 's music critics liked this year
What small, private lists like this remind us is that big, honking institutional lists are largely fictions, mirages of a consensus that no longer exists, if it ever really did in the first place.
By PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF  |  January 02, 2007
061117_knife_list

Pointed pop

The bemused machinations of the Knife
Beyond the technophobia, and the pomo paralysis, and the communications-breakdown undertones, the Knife's  Silent Shout ’s other devastating reminder is that all recorded music is a lie. Blade runners: Our interviewer goes around, over, through, and under the Knife.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  November 14, 2006
060901_list_download.jpg

Metal mixes

Let's dance
Without naming names, I have to say I’m not crazy for all this Franco-filter-metal dance music that’s been making so many indie-dance party playlists lately — lots of overdriven guitars set incongruously to boilerplate four-to-the-floor beats.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  August 29, 2006
060825_herbert_list

House party

Matthew Herbert, August 23 at Irving Plaza
U’d rere Skye is the Morcheeba chick, who could have been a pretty hip/cool high school chorus instructor ($25/hour) if she hadn't right-place, right-timed herself as trip-hop's last girl scout.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  August 29, 2006
060825_pharrell_list

Pop goes a Neptune

Pharrell Williams raps his way into a corner
Pharrell is a fascinating rapper when he lets himself go — so why does In My Mind blow so hard? Listen to the best of the Neptunes throughout the years
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  August 24, 2006
060825_juelz_list

The street scene

The magic of the mixtape
Without getting into the history and the morality of mixtapes, it’s worth mentioning that Pharrell isn’t the first rapper who’s scored more artistic points with a mixtape than with a sanctioned label release. Pop goes a Neptune: Pharrell Williams raps his way into a corner. By Nick Sylvester
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  August 22, 2006
060825_kelis_list

Pharrell's greatest hits

Fourteen years of rumpshaking beats
From Wreckx-N-Effect to Fam-Lay
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  August 22, 2006
060721_lily_list

MySpace celebrity

Lily Allen’s Web-tastic career
No charm, little grace, what’s left of Alright, Still by the end are rich young Allen’s swipes at her poor, old, and obvious targets, horrific classism, the worst kind of celebrity self-obsession. Lily Allen, "Smile"  (mp3)
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  July 31, 2006
060728_list_download.jpg

Notoriously stingy labels

Get them while you can
A bunch of labels still refuse the unedited, half-decently coded MP3 as a mechanism for publicity.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  July 25, 2006
060714_list_download

The Daytrotter sessions

A trip to Rock Island, IL
Since it’s just not good enough anymore to start a blog and offer stolen MP3s, a new site called  Daytrotter  is inviting indie bands to its ragtag studioand recording tracks for them, then giving away four “Daytrotter Session” songs for download.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  July 11, 2006
060609_list_gnarls.jpg

Hype writers

Gnarls Barkley punch all the right keys
St. Elsewhere has songs about Inspector Gadget, Transformers, necrophilia, and various kinds of monsters. Fun fun fun. Fantastic Voyagers: your soundtrack to summer . By Nick Sylvester
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  June 08, 2006
060609_list_gnarlsbar.jpg

Fantastic voyagers

Your soundtrack to summer
What will be this year's songs of summer? Here are the top contenders. LISTEN: Nelly Furtado, "Maneater" | Keane, "Is It Any Wonder?"
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  June 07, 2006
060519_download_list

Life got you down?

Misery loves company
A few days ago, my computer went to shit on me, something I never thought would happen.
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  May 15, 2006
060421_list_download

Slow dives

Shoegaze standouts
Surely the Interpol dick-riding will end soon, yes?
By NICK SYLVESTER  |  April 24, 2006

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group