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Heavy Culture: Oxymorrons on Queens Upbringing, Haitian Heritage, and Fighting Stereotypes
Heavy Culture is a monthly column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music, as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their craft. The latest installment of this column features Deee and KI of the band Oxymorrons. Oxymorrons are keeping busy in 2022. After kicking off the year on the ShipRocked cruise, the band is currently wrapping up a tour with Grandson and Royal & The Serpent. Heavy Consequence recently caught up with brothers Deee and KI of Oxymorrons to discuss all things music and culture. The vocalists spoke candidly about their upbringing in Queens, New York, their Haitian roots, and how that shaped who they are and their music. They also discussed their 2021 release, ...
Pranary Business School Teaches Entrepreneurs How to Get Investors
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Gorillaz in 10 Songs
This article originally ran in 2017 and has been updated. Ever felt overwhelmed by an artist’s extensive back catalog? Been meaning to check out a band, but you just don’t know where to begin? In 10 Songs is here to help, offering a crash course and entry point into the daunting discographies of iconic artists of all genres. This is your first step toward fandom. Take it. Isn’t it frustrating not being able to box something in? Not being able to name it because the goddamn thing is so busy evolving that it slips through your fingers? Sure, they might be a bunch of cartoon characters, but there’s always been something a little darker than meets the eye going on with Gorillaz. They’re pockmarked and weathered, garish, rough around the edges, the residents of Banksy’s Dismaland as counterpoin...
Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast Turns 40: Bruce Dickinson Reflects
Certain years have seen the release of an overabundance of classic metal albums. And 1982 was undoubtedly one of them. Case in point, the arrival of Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance, Venom’s Black Metal, Scorpions’ Blackout, Kiss’ Creatures of the Night, and Accept’s Restless and Wild all within that particular calendar year. However, most metalheads would probably agree that the top metal release of ‘82 was Iron Maiden’s tour de force The Number of the Beast — which celebrates its 40-year anniversary on March 22nd, 2022. Lead singer switches in already established rock bands seem to not work out far more times than they do. But Maiden were one of fortunate ones — when Paul Di’Anno (who provided vocals for Maiden’s first two albums, 1980’s self-titled debut and 1981’s Killers) was re...
How Turning Red and The Baby-Sitters Club Prove We Need More Teen Girl Tales
It’s a bit funny to remember how, thirteen years ago, the enemy of fandom had a face, and it was Robert Pattinson. This is a bit of an exaggeration, except maybe it isn’t, when one remembers how the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, that annual orgy of fandom love, featured a nasty undercurrent of young men “protesting” Twilight‘s invasion of Hall H. In the year 2022, of course, Pattinson has now been embraced to some degree by the fanboys as our newest on-screen Batman. But while that might have changed, the vibes of those lackluster protests remain a too-familiar echo of an attitude to which female members of fandom have always been aware: In the pantheon of the great media landscape which distracts and delights us daily, girly shit is always seen as second-class. Not important. Not because it’s...
The Delicate, Dirty and Diverse World of UK Garage
An upbeat two-step rhythm, a touch of R&B soul, and a groovy house vibe. That’s what it takes to conjure the sound of the people — or as those people call it, UK garage. You may know it from Daniel Bedingfield’s 2001 UK No. 1 “Gotta Get Thru This” or T2’s 2007 single “Heartbroken” with Jodie Aysha. Maybe you heard the recent streaming hit “Pain” by breakout star PinkPantheress, and wondered to yourself where you could find more. From the London streets in the mid ’90s to the modern stages of now, the upbeat rhythms and flirtatious vocals of UK garage is a sound that stays fresh after 30 years due mostly in part to its inherent diversity: diversity of sounds, of influencers, and of creators and fans alike. Advertisement While garage is a definitely UK kinda vibe, the genre has its roots...
Weezer Go Vivaldi-Rock (?) on SZNZ: Spring EP
For a band still very much defined by the crunchy alt-pop of their very first album (and by the departures from that sound on their classic follow-up), Weezer has used its unlikely second and third decades as a band to practice a surprising amount of eclecticism. For Decade Two (roughly 2003 through 2013), this translated to never knowing whether a Weezer song would be pop-rock bliss or appalling disaster, leaving only the certainty that any given album would have at least several tracks’ worth of each. But since 2014 or so, the band has seemed less defiantly scattershot in their experiments. Their albums still come out at a steady clip, but they feel more sonically and thematically cohesive — without sacrificing their playfulness. Appropriate for its debut in a season of blooming, the ban...
George Russell Embraces Mercedes Formula 1 Team Free of Pressure
George Russell has become one of the most promising young Formula 1 drivers for Britain at just 24 years old. Since his Formula 1 debut back in 2019, the Norfolk native has proven himself to be an exceptional competitor for the Williams race team, consistently out-qualifying his teammate Nicolas Latifi and earning him the title “Mr. Saturday.” With a reputation for pushing Williams’ car beyond its limits, Russell finally had a chance to show off his true pace when he subbed in for Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton at the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020, leading the race multiple times and nearly winning despite some technical issues with the car. With his rookie days at Williams over, Russell will have to adjust to a different level of performance expected from him at Mercedes – a move that ma...
Bridgerton Tries to Add Some Substance to Its Decadent Style in Season 2: Review
The Pitch: When it premiered in December 2020, Netflix’s Bridgerton provided plenty of steamy romance and escapism, both of which were in short supply as the world prepared to enter the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Season 1 of the lush period drama, adapted from Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton book series, followed Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), the reluctant Duke of Hastings, as they went from co-conspirators to marrieds, setting Regency-era London ablaze. Their exploits, and those of the rest of the ton, were chronicled by the acerbic (and anonymous) Lady Whistledown, whose influence at times rivaled that of the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel). The second season follows the tradition of Quinn’s books and shifts the focus to a different Bridgerton: this ti...
Atlanta Season 3 Is the Best Sort of Television — Something Truly Unique: Review
One downside of the modern age of television is that it’s now not uncommon for some shows to take more than a year to return with new episodes. In the case of Atlanta, which debuted its second season in 2018, that wait was longer than most, but those four years were truly worth it. The Donald Glover-created series, returning for Season 3, remains as ethereal and shocking and fascinating as ever; having screened the first two installments, it’s a thrill to know that eight more are coming to engage and confound us. This will be a short review, because revealing too much about the first two episodes of the season feels like it would do a disservice to everyone involved, including the audience. But if the first two seasons of Atlanta did anything — hell, if the first few minutes of the Atlanta...
Song of the Week: Arcade Fire Return with the Genuine and Cathartic “The Lightning I, II”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Arcade Fire return to form with a blistering and emotional two-part track. After 2017’s Everything Now, Arcade Fire are back with a new pair of (linked) singles: “The Lightning I, II,” which is set to appear on their upcoming sixth studio album, WE, out May 6th. Arcade Fire are no stranger to sprawling (sorry) odysseys, and on “The Lightning,” they bring a sense of urgency that hasn’t been as present in the band’s catalog since Neon Bible. The first half of “The Lightning” has an air of theatrical dra...
How Big Mouth Spin-Off Human Resources Got Janelle Monáe to Do Double-Duty
You can learn a lot about a TV show based on what it chooses for its theme song, and Netflix’s Human Resources delivers on that score with an assist from Janelle Monáe — the pumping synth tones of “Make Me Feel” introduce every episode of the new Big Mouth spin-off, which ages up the central humans of the series but still remains tonally in line with its parent series. Created by Big Mouth creators Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett as well as Big Mouth writer/producer Kelly Galuska, Human Resources explores the world of the Lovebugs, Hormone Monsters, Logic Rocks, Anxiety Mosquitos, Shame Wizards, and more which represent the best and worst impulses of Big Mouth characters, actively courting The Office comparisons with its workplace setting (and more importantl...
