It’s official: Kevin Parker is a mastermind. Now that he’s three blissful studio albums in, the greater indie population that closely follows his kind of psychedelic wanderings can now cement his musical genius status. There is a feeling that everyone already did that, though. Parker’s project, Tame Impala, has brought purely psychedelic rock to the […]
Category Archives: Music
Violinist creates philanthropic pop ensemble of UCLA musicians
Yasmeen Al-Mazeedi strode across the stage of L.A. Live’s Nokia Theatre, violin in hand, illuminated by the lights, sounds and colors of the stage. As the opener for the 2013 American Music Awards, Al-Mazeedi was among the first performers to be heard that night. Al-Mazeedi was only a third-year student at UCLA at the time. […]
Album Review: ‘Summertime ’06’
Three weeks ago, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples announced his debut full-length album, “Summertime ‘06,” via an Instagram post. The caption began with the phrase “Love will tear us apart” and ended with “Love tore us all apart,” framing a narrative of petty crimes the rapper and his comrades were involved in as middle schoolers […]
Emerging trend of surprise albums puts focus on artists
The music industry died once and may be dying again, with the power shifting from music industry executives to the hands of artists. The emerging trend of artists dropping surprise albums without promotion is switching the attention from the music industry to the artists themselves. Robert Fink, a professor of musicology at UCLA who also […]
Alumna celebrates new beginning, personal growth with debut EP
First, Alex Ritchie’s mother lost her job. Then Ritchie and her family lost their house and health insurance. At the same time, she experienced her first heartbreak. To top it off, one of her work partners conned Ritchie into $13,000 worth of credit card debt. Despite all of this, Ritchie said these events helped her […]
Summer 2015 Music Preview
The start of summer is usually a signal for new albums to be released just in time for music festivals. Highly anticipated releases such as Frank Ocean’s long-awaited “Boys Don’t Cry” are set to drop in the sunny interlude between spring quarter finals and zero week of fall quarter, a time when many students take […]
Design | Media Arts student integrates beatboxing into visual artwork
Julia Ramos’ beatboxing career began when she was 13 years old. During a routine YouTube visit, Ramos stumbled upon a video of beatboxer Joel Turner from the 2003 season of “Australian Idol” and, having never heard beatboxing before, was intrigued by his unfamiliar sounds. “I found (Turner’s video) and was like, ‘That’s so cool – […]