Email Author Mike Madden

2013 Stories by Mike Madden

• Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires

  published May 1, 2013

  Like his Daptone labelmates Sharon Jones and Lee Fields, Charles Bradley records music influenced almost exclusively by the soul titans of his... More >>

• Danny Brown

  published April 24, 2013

  Detroit rapper Danny Brown once recorded a mixtape with G-Unit roughneck Tony Yayo. He also claims Love's Forever Changes as his favorite... More >>

• Pissed Jeans

  published April 17, 2013

  For obvious reasons, hardcore/noise-rock records are never the trendiest stuff out there. But with February's Honeys, Pennsylvania's Pissed... More >>

• Jim James

  published April 17, 2013

  "I want a new life," sings Jim James on the fourth track of February's Regions of Light and Sound of God. To a certain extent, he already... More >>

• The Men

  published April 9, 2013

  Maybe they were lazy in picking a name, or maybe the Men chose their moniker because it's so generic it has no particular sonic connotations.... More >>

• Sigur Rós

  published April 2, 2013

  Sigur Rós is a band so singular that only a small number of adjectives will suffice when describing them. Over the past decade and a half,... More >>

• Iceage

  published April 2, 2013

  The sixth song on Iceage's second album, "Morals," was inspired by "L'Ultima Occasione," a 1965 piano ballad by Italian pop singer Mina. Bit of a... More >>

• Animal Collective

  published March 13, 2013

  The one constant of Animal Collective's nearly decade-and-a-half-long career is that the Baltimore-founded quartet has always lacked continuity.... More >>

• The Gaslight Anthem

  published February 27, 2013

  Every year, more young bands seek to inherit Bruce Springsteen's legacy of brains-meets-brawn heartland rock. One of the best is the Gaslight... More >>

• Testament

  published February 20, 2013

  Though not one of the hallowed Big Four, Testament have certainly been more reliable over their three decades than Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, or... More >>

• Yo La Tengo

  published January 30, 2013

  Indie vets Yo La Tengo have dabbled in so many different sounds — light psychedelia, early-'60s pop, mambo, borderline No Wave — that... More >>

• The Vaccines

  published January 30, 2013

  There's always a surplus of bands emerging from London, but the Vaccines have made their way to the top of the deluge by being some of the best at... More >>

• Yo Gotti

  published January 16, 2013

  It's not like Yo Gotti is trying to beat you over the head with intellect. He names songs "Young Nigga Thuggin'" and "After I Fuck Ya Bitch,"... More >>