Singles by Future Islands

Future islands, as singer Samuel T. Herring puts it, is a "performance art band" that attempts to "make music that makes us, and our fans, feel something”. Their new album, Singles, clearly met that goal.

The band is native to North Carolina: Herring and bassist William Cashon, the core of the band, met at ECU. Later joining them was Gerrit Welmers on the keyboard. Though Herring at one point put the band on hiatus as he dropped out of ECU due to a drug addiction, the band slowly recovered as they moved to Baltimore and began their first tour. Their second album, In Evening Air, is woven with Herring's personal turmoil, as he went through a "terrible breakup that was so, so sad." Four years later with Singles, Future Islands retains the booming heartfelt vocals from previous albums, and introduces more catchy synth chords than before.

Herring calls Cashon and Welmers his two best friends. The band has lived in Baltimore since the band members left ECU, Herring got rid of both his construction job and his drug addiction, and they performed at the Depot and fell in love with the energy of the city. Since then, the band has been touring relentlessly but calling Baltimore home.

Future Islands'performance of "Seasons (Waiting On You)" on The Late Show with David Letterman, however, encompassed in one song what the band is all about-- raw, unfiltered, human emotion. Herring won the audience over with his signature growls and earnest dance moves. The music video for the same song features cowboys doin' their thang-- riding horses, going to the rodeo, chilling in fields. It's pretty unclear what Future Islands intended to portray with this music video, with random, disconnected scenes but at least the scenic images are nice. The video for "A Dream Of You AndMe" features stop motion shells and nostalgic childish art projects-- like glittery pipe cleaners-- floating around the screen, which closely resembles the mild chaos of dreams. Herring also does solo hip-hop performances, which closely resemble a dad-going-through-a-midlife-crisis.

Herring, Welmers, and Cashion chillin' on some teeth

The intro song, "Seasons (Waiting on You)" kicks off the album with discoesque synth beats that repeat throughout the song. Herring's bellowing vocals, however, bring us back to 2014, as he sings of growing tired of waiting for the ambiguous "you". Paired with his frustrated dance moves like on The Late Show With David Letterman, the overall tone of this song is fed-up. The climax of the album is in "Fall From Grace", as Herring, overcome by a building rage that angsty teens and screamo music and probably the devil can relate to, wails "WAS IT ALL INSIDE OF ME." After a moment of fear, the song calms back down. The album as a whole parallels human emotion: the tension in a suppressed emotion, the obsession with a certain thought shown through repetition, the outburst, and the calm as a result of the outburst.

Let's Be Still by The Head and The Heart

            The second full album from the Head and the Heart came abruptly into the charts as the band followed up their debut album, The Head and the Heart, three years earlier. After not making much of a stain in the indie charts, The Head and the Heart continue to delay to make their own identity. Yet another indie folk-rock band from Seattle, Washington, the Head and the Heart encompasses six members, with one female vocalist.

The Head and the Heart by The Head and the Heart was the first time we really got to know the band, with record-selling tracks including, "Rivers and Roads" and "Sounds like Hallelujah", it seems the band used just about every innovative song idea they had. As we anticipated what the quirky new band with the sheep mask and gargantuan woman album cover had to bring, we received a mix on unoriginality, repetitiveness and similarity in their second album Let’s Be Still.   

The Head and The Heart Album Cover

This beachy album is an easy listen, and it is no doubt a joy to blast in your car; it makes you feel as if you’re driving in some dramatic movie scene. Yet, put this album in a playlist with Of Monsters and Men, Vance Joy, or The Lumineers, you might not know when Let’s be Still is really playing. Through this thirteen track album, we learn little to none about the band. Their female vocalist, Charity Rose Thielen, makes herself much more apparent on Let’s be Still than she did The Head and the Heart, slightly altering the bands over all sound. Every member of the band definitely has musical talent that is perfect for a semi-known indie band, but in Let’s be Still, The Head and the Heart are trying just too hard to be exactly that semi-known, elite, and adored indie-band. 

Let's Be Still Album Cover

            Though let’s not “judge an album by its cover”, the very posed photograph of two band members is what they chose to resemble Let’s be Still; the whole essence of the album definitely does give off the “laying in grass, watching the clouds, and not really listening to the album because you are so lost in your thoughts” vibe. Many of the tracks included in the album embody just that; the track “Summertime”, has about four alternating lines that is easy to tune out and just have as background music. When “Summertime” is over, the lyrics “Summertime / I’ll make you mine” will undoubtedly run through your head, and your heart, for a couple hours. Hopefully “Summertime” was not where you stopped though, the following track “Shake” is one of Let’s be Still’s pride and glories.

            “Shake” starts off with a strong beat, much like that of Artic Monkey’s sound, and it is a song about beginnings and ends of a relationship, memories, and includes an analogy of nature and wind in comparison a deceased relationship. “Shake” is a song from the album that really shows who The Head and The Heart is, as does the music video for the song.

                      Since the video is just a montage of the band recording, traveling, and playing in a field, by the sixth track we really get a look into The Head and the Heart's essence and what they are like as a band. The combination of Charity Thielen and Josiah Johnson voices are strong and melodic to the lyrics “And the memories we made / Will never be lost, no / And the look on your face / We both knew the cost / But the wind, yes, the wind keeps howling” and “Even if it was a mistake / I can’t forget your face / Even if it was just a day / You won’t forget the one / Who’s making you shake”. The song kicks off with a bass drum and clap which transport you to the middle of a crowd at a euphoric arena; you can imagine, in the arena, The Head and the Heart opening for some well-known indie band that they hope to one day be. The shake in the song is a relatable one to a wide audience; a song with breakup and mistakes as the context, it's hard to see how it couldn't be a hit.

            The next winner song on Let’s be Still is their namesake itself, “Let’s be Still”. Although a little different from their normal sound, “Let’s be Still” has a definite happy-go-lucky feel. The acoustic guitar, simple drum beat, and electronic keys give this simple song the vibe of exactly what the song speaks to: “Just for a moment, let’s be still” and “You can get lost in the music for hours, honey, / You can get lost in a room. / We can play music for hours and hours / But the sun’ll be coming up soon”. The voices fade off at the end, and it’s at the last beat of the music, your consciousness ceases to exist; if you’re lying in bed at night, the last beat of the music will commence your sleep.

                                                           Live Acoustic "Let's Be Still"

            Over all, Let’s Be Still was a success for The Head and the Heart despite their lack of originality and variety. The band has yet to leave their “opening-act” stage, and with their recent work, will probably always be an opening-act band. Though The Head and the Heart has not become a headlining band from Let’s Be Still, there’s no denying that even though they’re not lyrical geniuses or even have much personality portrayed in their music, Let’s Be Still is an enjoyable album including talented musicians on each track. 

Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper

Chance the Rapper's new album is more like an emotional roller coaster than a mere mixtape. I guess it's just a reflection of his personality-- in an interview with Rolling Stone, Chance calls himself "many thing… constantly evolving, and it's just the beginning" . Taking listeners from euphoric to on the verge of tears to anxious to euphoric all over again, Acid Rap speaks the voice of Chance's fellow Chicagans who are constantly in danger. Acid Rap, his second album, did much better than his first-- even receiving a nomination for the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards. Like Macklemore in a way, Chance uses his popularity from his music to make powerful statements, as he described the drug obsessed, gang ridden, unstoppable Chicago neighborhoods. He even put the album up for free download here so his messages could reach everyone.

The entire album is filled with sounds. Even though I could do without the piercing "agh!" that's all over the place, the mixture of reggae-y beats, piano, saxophone, and choral voices is really working out for Chance.

"Pushaman/Paranoia", though constantly changing tone, somehow works really well. Chance excitedly yet suavely sings about the "Pushaman", or drug dealer. Then, about three minutes into the songs, the beat fades and slows down, clearly paralleling the narrator's high. Then comes the sudden, heartbreaking, lyric, "They murking kids; they murder kids" that can't possibly be missed. Chance, or Chance's character in this song, seems to note the drug problems in his neighborhood yet at the same time cannot avoid these problems. This same concept appears in "Cocoa Butter Kisses", where Chance touchingly misses his mother and grandmother's kisses, but, Chance wails,  because of "cigarettes on cigerettes/ my mama think I stank".

But it's okay, guys, because in "Everybody's Something" Chance tells us that "everybody's somebody's everything/…/ nobody's nothing". And, since "what's better than followers is falling in love", as we learn in "That's Love", maybe the world just needs Chance the Rapper to spread some love.

Pizza Underground at Kings Barcade

The murmur of chatter turns into a starstruck silence, as Mccauley Culkin comes out with that recognizable smile. He still has his childhood squinty eyes and chubby cheeks-- the only difference between him now and him during his Home Alone career  is his scraggly auburn ponytail. Culkin introduces the opening act, Toby Goodshank, and disappears behind the curtain. A sigh of relief as Goodshank announces his last song is followed by some man named PussyJoel in a ski mask who dances around a projector with cat pictures. As this concludes, the crowd anxiously waits for Culkin and the other pizza enthusiasts.

Any impatience is made up for when the members of The Pizza Underground surprises the crowd with boxes of cheese pizza! Culkin on the shekere (a type of gourd instrument), Matt Colbourn on Guitar, Austin Kilham on keyboard, Deenah Volmer on tambourine, and Phoebe Kreutz as the self-proclaimed "girl-hitting-the-pizza-box-with-a-drumstick" start on their medley of Velvet Underground covers; the meaningful lyrics of the 60's hippie band, however, were replaced with delightful puns.  Kreutz, in an interview with Vulture, calls the band "more of an art project than a band-band". Looking around at Kings Barcade, the crowds' response was in accordance with this title: the usual dancing at Kings-- whether it be the full-out mosh or the calming sway-- was missing. Instead, the crowd responded to the band's medley with constant chuckles.

Pizza eating Culkin-- I gave this poster to Culkin after the show.

Childhood Culkin is pizza-- I also gave this poster to Culkin after the show.

Those there for the music were in the wrong place. While some would label the band as "pathetic" and "druggies", I rank the band somewhere between notably clever and borderline genius. The emotional puns of "Cheese Days" (which parodies Velvet Underground's "These Days"):  "I've been out walking/ I don't do too much toppings/ cheese days…/don't ask for pepperoni/ not today" somehow work  really well to dramatize ordering a pizza. "Pizza Gal" parodies Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale", which maintains the warning aspect of the Velvet Underground song, but instead comically warns the listener that "here she comes/ better hide your slice" for "everybody knows she's a pizza gal".  Combined with their other songs like "Delivery Man", "Take a Bite of the Wild Slice", the Pizza Underground's medley successfully honors pizza.

Check out the band's blog!

Cheese pizza from the band! Yum!

Kurt Cobained parodied Nirvana songs, singing in the past tense

"Do you like pizza? Do you like puns? Then this is the show for you!"
Culkin clearly has retained something from his childhood acting days.