Lav's Music Corner

I have a lot of albums that I'd like to catch up on. So during the next few weeks, which at least look initially like down weeks relative to the heavy schedules of May and June, I'll be covering as much as I can through these rapid fire reviews. Starting off we are diving into some accessible and more importantly danceable cuts from the indie pop and indietronica worlds that I have been meaning to talk about for a while now. Islomania  - Islands Islands is the indie pop project of Nicholas Thornburn, once a member of a personal favorite band of mine from the indie world of the 2000's, The Unicorns. The band has had a diverse selection of members around Nicholas, including fellow Unicorn Jamie Thompson across their 8 albums on 4 different labels. This is the bands first new album in 5 years since they dropped two records back in 2016, and the era got off to a good start with (We Like To) Do It With The Lights On , the records lead single which has been one of my essential su...

Mac DeMarco is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has become one of the most popular figures in indie music this decade. He has received critical success and increasing commercial presence with each of a line of his last three project. 2012's 2  was his breakout success and he followed it with the indie darling Salad Days  in 2014 and found even more increased commercial success in 2017 with the long and personal This Old Dog . After leaving his label with rumors of creative conflicts he has released a series of singles that seem to point towards an album that is more stripped back and slower paced than ever before, but his fans appear to have followed.  Review By Lavender: I've had a pretty consistent and solid relationship with Mac over these past few years. While I think his first two projects may be a touch overrated Salad Days  showed me his full potential and became one of my favorite albums of 2014. Since then I enjoyed 2015's Another One  mini p...

Avey Tare is the pseudonym for David Portner, the Maryland based experimental and psychedelic pop artist who founded legendary indie group Animal Collective.  Along with Panda Bear, Deakin and Geologist they created some of the most mind bending and genre melting experimental folk music in the early 2000's before transitioning into the indie pop world seamlessly with 2009's Merriweather Post Pavillion . While other members of the group have released excellent solo material such as Panda Bear's Person Pitch and Deakin's Sleep Cycle  Avey Tare doesn't really have a marquee moment of solo work. Since Animal Collective has been in somewhat of a rut of material and Avey's previous solo effort was met with mixed reviews, it's hard to quantify what to expect out of Cows . Review By Lavender: I love Animal Collective, and not just in the way most modern indie kids do. Merriweather Post Pavillion  is great  but the Animal Collective well goes so much deeper. A...

Panda Bear is the alias for Noah Lennox, one of the principal members of Baltimore psych-pop revolutionaries Animal Collective. The group has had a steady output of fantastic experimental music for the entirety of the 2000's and into the 2010's featuring numerous mixtures of the groups four main members, a lot of the projects heavily featuring the creative input of Panda Bear. But as Animal Collective has recently run into a series of just so-so releases Panda Bear's consistency as a solo artist has shined. Through Person Pitch  the underrated Tomboy and most recently Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper  he executes with consistency under his own name.   Review By Lavender: Panda Bear's 2007 album Person Pitch  is an absolute masterpiece, the songwriting alone is nothing short of genius and its vicinity to the similarly fantastic Animal Collective album Strawberry Jam  makes it even more impressive. So after I enjoyed Tomboy  the underrated and o...