Category: Features

  • Today I went to order Melanie Martinez’s killer art pop album Crybaby on Amazon and it was 18 and change. Noticed that it’s also available on cassette for 24 and change. This is ridiculous. I know some people feel nostalgic about cassettes and I actually ordered a new cassette deck today, so I kind of…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy When I lived in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles, a decade ago, I went through a long period of being anorexic. During this time, I read every eating disorder related book I could find. I suppose I read some of them because they were triggering and encouraged me to restrict…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy It’s funny how everything is connected. Earlier this year, I was listening to a random artist on Soundcloud – I can’t remember who – and the next thing that came on was a song by Brandyn Burnette, who I wound up interviewing. During that interview, he mentioned that he was doing…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy In a perfect world, Molly Moore would need no introduction. Her elegant pop songs are a perfect mix of both catchy, mainstream and pensive, artsy pop. At her core, Molly is a singer/songwriter. It just so happens that her songs are exquisitely produced pop. Well, most of them. Her latest offering,…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy I’ve been a fan of the hugely popular Scottish band Biffy Clyro since the release of the trio’s sophomore album, The Vertigo of Bliss, back in 2003. I was flipping through an issue of the British magazine NME at a Borders bookstore – R.I.P. – and read a positive review then…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy I have a confession to make. I’ve been getting pretty bored with most of the music that’s coming my way via publicists. Everything starts to sound the same after a while. You get so many bands all going for the same sound. Lately it’s a lot of indie bands whose records…

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  • Back in June, Brooklyn-based piano composer Andrew Shapiro released his third piano album, appropriately entitled Piano 3. (Perhaps you are one of the six million people who streamed his song “Mint Green” – from his 2008 debut, Numbers, Colors and People – on Pandora?) That he was releasing another piano album was hardly a surprise…

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  • review by Michael McCarthy all photos by Joshua Bernard This week I caught Garbage with opener Kristin Kontrol at the House of Blues in Boston on Thursday night (July 28th, 2016). It was something of a dream come true because the last couple of times Garbage passed through Boston they played venues I’m not crazy…

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  • The debut album by S T F U, the collaborative project by Dean Garcia (SPC ECO, Curve) and Preston Maddox (Bloody Knives) is out today and is an electronic music gem that meshes trip-hop and classic ‘90’s electronica, resulting in a truly hypnotic delight. Read our recent interview with Dean here: https://loveispop.com/interviews/an-exclusive-interview-with-dean-garcia-of-spc-eco-s-t-f-u-and-m-a-d/ Buy the album on…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy Although they’ve never been a household name like Blink-182 or Good Charlotte here in the States, Zebrahead, who’ve released a massive 12 albums during their 20 year career, are still a band that most fans of rap rock or punk rock would cite among their favorites. In Japan, however, they are…

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  • by Michael McCarthy If you like Florence + The Machine, you have to check out Lyra’s W.I.L.D (Wake – Induced Lucid Dream). It’s one of the best EPs I’ve heard all year. Truly breath-taking tunes that erupt like the kind of volcanoes that burn cities to the ground. Her verses can be subtle, almost gentle…

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  • I was recently introduced to the music of Mallrat, a really cool young woman hailing from Australia. She immediately reminded me of Lily Allen, who’s one of my top ten artists of all time, so naturally I fell in love with her music and had to inquire about interviewing her. As you can see, the…

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  • As those who follow me on Twitter already know, I have spent much of my time lately working on my first novel in years. It’s called Book of Shadows and I’m hoping it’ll prove to be a successful young adult series. This is for a couple of reasons. 1. I love my characters so much…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy If the sound of Kristin Kontrol’s voice seems familiar to you, there’s probably a very good reason for that.  You see, prior to going solo, Kristin was Dee Dee, lead singer/songwriter of the popular rock band Dum Dum Girls.  More recently, she decided to go back to using her real first…

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  • Tuesday night – 6/21/16 – I was fortunate to catch Ladyhawke on the opening night of her North American tour, her “first time playing here in ages,” at Brighton Music Hall in Allston (Boston), Massachusetts. First, I must say that I was very impressed with her opening act, Polyvinyl labelmate Psychic Twin, otherwise known as Brooklyn,…

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