INTERVIEWS
“Turn Hurt Into Art”: How Music Creation Has Helped Elohim Navigate Her Mental Health Journey
Over the course of her career, Elohim has made made it no secret that she’s struggled with her mental health. Using music as a means to vocalize these very real issues, the multi-faceted artist and acclaimed electropop producer stoically shares her experiences of anxiety and panic attacks with her fans. While she appears to be comfortable discussing these topics now, Elohim has not always been so open about her mental health journey. The release of “Xanax” in 2015 was the first time she spoke in such a candid manner about what she was going through—at a time when she felt truly alone. Following an incredible response from the vulnerable track, Elohim had an epiphany. “There are a lot of humans out there suffering from this too and that inspired me to keep talking about it,” she...
Greta Van Fleet Break Down New Album The Battle at Garden’s Gate Track by Track: Stream
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-16T04:00:09+00:00“>April 16, 2021 | 12:00am ET In our Track by Track feature, artists guide listeners through each track on their latest release. Here, Greta Van Fleet pull back the curtain on the band’s new album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate. Greta Van Fleet experienced a meteoric rise after breaking out in 2017 with their single “Highway Tune” and two EPs, followed by their 2018 debut full-length album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army. The young Michigan rockers have now released their highly anticipated sophomore LP, The Battle at Garden’s Gate, providing Consequence of Sound with an exclusive track-by-track breakdown. The album finds Greta Van Fleet expanding beyond the hard...
How MxPx Found Livestream Success Through Their DIY Mentality and Punk Rock Roots
Few punk bands from the ‘90s have adjusted to the new livestream culture as well as MxPx has. As soon as things started shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic just over a year ago, frontman Mike Herrera started taking to Facebook Live to perform some acoustic tunes (which eventually became the Life in Quarantine double LP) and chat with fans. Six months later, the now fully independent band launched Between This World and the Next, a ticketed livestream concert series where fans could hear the big hits, deep cuts, and rarities from the band’s near-30-year career. But the next edition of Between This World and the Next will be a brand new experience for both the band and the fans. In addition to being hosted on SPIN’s Twitch channel on Friday, April 16 at 6:30 pm PT, the show will be fr...
How The Living Became Seattle’s Greatest Lost Band
If you haven’t heard of the Living, you’re not alone. The Seattle-based band formed in the early ’80s, recorded some songs in 1982 and that was that. Open and shut case, right? Not when you dig deeper. The quartet featured vocalist John Conte, bassist Todd Fleischman, drummer Greg Gilmore and 17-year-old guitarist Duff McKagan, who’d already established himself in the local scene by appearing on 45s by Fastbacks and the Vains. “The band was really a tight unit of guys,” McKagan remembers. “We had Todd Fleischman on bass, and he could beat up six guys at once, so we had the enforcer. We were really just good friends. When we put out an ad for a drummer, Greg Gilmore answered and came out from Gig Harbour. He opened me up to more prog rock stuff like King Crimson. I went to a King Crims...
The Beautiful Bleakness of T. Hardy Morris
The collapse is nigh. Everything means nothing. Superstructures blot out the sky. People shout invectives through N95s across divisions of understanding. The pandemic has rendered even the most quotidian errands potentially perilous. On top of it all, we are flattened to an austere mode of living, a kind that provides a springboard for the musings of T. Hardy Morris, the psych-folk singer-songwriter intent on finding some traces of hope within modern meaninglessness, now exacerbated by conditions of lockdown. Despairingly singing of the contemporary state of the world and of its sorrows and contradictions, Morris has a heartfelt incisiveness unchecked by vanity, one that gushes without fetters. And so, casting himself as the world’s mirror, his latest LP, The Digital Age of Rome, can...
Analysts: Printing currency could hurt economy
Analysts have expressed concerns over a recent claim that the federal government resorted to printing money to augment the monthly allocation to the three tiers of government, warning that it could heighten inflationary pressure with dire consequences for the country’s exchange rate and economy. The analysts, in separate interviews with newsmen, warned that a sustained policy of printing the currency, if not well managed, would hurt the economy. The concern came on the heels of recent revelation by Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, that due to the dwindling revenue in the face of declining oil revenue arising from the growing sources of alternative sustainable energy, the federal government had to print money to augment the amount available for sharing by the federal, state and lo...
‘None of Us Thought We’d Be Doing Thursday 20 Years Later’: Geoff Rickly on Two Decades of Full Collapse
On April 10, 2001, Thursday released Full Collapse on Victory Records. At the time, a handful of punk and alternative publications thought the New Jersey-based rockers might be on to something, but mainstream outlets like Rolling Stone and Pitchfork found it to be underwhelming and confusing. It sold under 1,000 copies the week of its release and caused an insurmountable divide between the band and the label. Just under a year later, Full Collapse landed on the Billboard 200 (peaking at No. 178) and Thursday had become undeniably one of the biggest influences on the rising emo scene that would soon take over the rock world. Their commercial success was just beginning, with “Understanding in a Car Crash” continuing to grow in popularity both within and beyond the Warped Tour ...
Greta Van Fleet Go Prog — in Their Own Way — on ‘Cinematic’ New LP
“Nobody wants to hear that shit,” Greta Van Fleet’s Sam Kiszka says, playfully interrupting a question about progressive rock. He has a point: Most people don’t. Outside of the cape-wearing allegiant, prog remains one of music’s most derided movements — still a frequent target of critical mockery, decades after its zenith of influence. But Greta Van Fleet’s second LP, The Battle at Garden’s Gate, is a “progressive” album — both in the classic sense (longer songs, more complex arrangements, strings both live and mellotron-derived) and as part of the Michigan quartet’s own creative arc. Kiszka, the band’s 22-year-old bassist and keyboardist, was surprised when people starting making that observation. “I thought about it a lot, and I was like, ‘What?’” he tells SPIN. “But I think p...
![Listen to the Spine-Chilling Debut EP from LŪN, the Secret Electronic Alias of Lights [Exclusive]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/listen-to-the-spine-chilling-debut-ep-from-lun-the-secret-electronic-alias-of-lights-exclusive-1050x600.jpg)
![Listen to the Spine-Chilling Debut EP from LŪN, the Secret Electronic Alias of Lights [Exclusive]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/listen-to-the-spine-chilling-debut-ep-from-lun-the-secret-electronic-alias-of-lights-exclusive-80x80.jpg)
Listen to the Spine-Chilling Debut EP from LŪN, the Secret Electronic Alias of Lights [Exclusive]
Hiding in plain sight, electronic music producer LŪN is like a sniper. And, like a true markswoman patiently zeroing in on a target, she has finally pulled the trigger to capitalize on a pivotal moment. In an exclusive interview with EDM.com, the enigmatic LŪN has now revealed herself to be Lights, one of the most renowned electropop artists in the contemporary music scene. To tie a bow on the reveal, she’s released a brand new EP called haha i like it. The genesis of LŪN can be traced back to July 2017, when Lights launched her Skin&Earth comic book series before releasing her acclaimed fourth studio album of the same name. Despite the ensuing conclusion of the series, which followed the journey of a headstrong woman navigating the intricacies of ...
PDP: Imo attacks show Governor Uzodinma’s failure
File Photo The Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday said that the Monday attacks on Owerri Correctional Center and the state Police Command headquarters in Owerri were indications that the state governor, Hope Uzodinma, had failed. At a press conference in Owerri, the state capital, the PDP chairman in the state, Charles Ugwu, urged the governor to stop blame games and take responsibility. The chairman said that the party was disturbed that stranger elements could gain such easy access into the inner recesses of the central points of security administration in the state and struck without any challenge. He said, “We have therefore concluded that lives and property are not safe and secure in the state under the watch of the current regime.” “In his speeches and inte...
Gallant Is Leaping Into Musical Freedom
Gallant works right up to his deadlines. As a newly independent artist, it’s clear the R&B singer wants his reemergence to be perfect. “I’m still going through mixes the day before it’s supposed to go live on Spotify,” Gallant tells SPIN of his new Neptune EP. During our chat over Zoom (he’s stationed at his parents’ Maryland home), the artist reveals he’d been tinkering with the EP as I was listening prior to its March 26 release. Being an introverted person, Gallant completely throws himself into his music. It’s a passion that couldn’t remain stifled under a mainstream umbrella. Born Christopher Gallant, the artist signed with Warner Records in 2016 — the same year as the release of his Grammy-nominated Ology debut. In 2019, he followed up with Sweet Insomnia but soon realized that s...
An Animal Ethologist Reviews Godzilla vs. Kong
Godzilla vs. Kong (HBO Max) In the super-sized slugfest Godzilla vs. Kong, now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, two of cinema’s mightiest monster-movie titans go toe-to-toe on a cross-continental rampage, leaving comically outsized destruction in their wake and finally answering the question of which beast can truly claim the title of “king of the monsters.” In one corner, there’s Godzilla, the noble warrior Kaiju, he of the atomic breath, armored scales, and ear-splitting roar. In the other, there’s King Kong, the greatest of the great apes, who can extend one finger in a gentle caress or ball his hands into fists to hurl a fearsome haymaker. That this massive, long-fated melee between giant lizard and giant ape is not a bastion of scientific accuracy somewhat comes with the blockbus...
