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Music Staff Picks: The Best Releases of April

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billy woods – Aethiopes On Aethiopes, billy woods reestablishes his strengths as a storyteller, with help from producer Preservation’s experimentally jazzy beats. By now, woods has cemented himself as one of hip hop’s greatest writers, and his brooding yet clever introspection sounds especially powerful over Preservation’s musical backdropping. Samples of pianos will twinkle across some tracks, and pound discordantly on others, while electric guitars ring and horns blow. By the time the harmonica enters the equation, the beats here are unparalleled. It is an enveloping atmosphere completed by excellent percussion, which moves between hand drums, full kits, and shuffling jangles … Continued

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Soccer Mommy Hints at New Sound at Mission Creek Festival

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Overall, Soccer Mommy earned the headline spot at Mission Creek Festival with their bright-sounding indie underpinning the deeper, darker meaning looming in the lyrics. Sometimes, Forever releases June 24th and can be pre-ordered through her website. 

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On Cloud Nine with Beach Bunny

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Beach Bunny had had their first performance of their tour at the Englert Theatre. The theater quickly filled with excited young bodies thrilled to see Beach Bunny live.

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Independence Day: Director’s Cut

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On a holiday that celebrates American Independence, the directors take a moment to reflect on the rich history of political activism in music. We are not free until all of us are free. (image via Bernie Boston/The Washington Star Collection)

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Mood Ring: Nostalgia

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It’s hard to really describe the feeling of nostalgia. The dictionary definition recounts it as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.” Everyone has different triggers which throw them back into that universal sense of melancholia. You may hear a song and be swept into a brisk fall sunset in 2006. You laid in the grass watching the sunset with your childhood neighbors (but more importantly, best friends), as time stopped existing. Or maybe it was the summer after high school graduation. You were depressed and sneaked out … Continued

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Album Review: Wasteland, Baby!

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Wasteland, Baby! is full of references and asides to pop culture, politics and the spirit of survival. However you may choose to embrace or reject the void, there’s a track to speak to the contradictions of fear and hope, love and loneliness, anger and joy that buoy us from day to day. (Image via Pitchfork)

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