–Jake Sanders
Seeing Memory Tapes play at Johnny Brenda’s this past Wednesday reminded me that hearing a band or musician play live can be such a unique experience from hearing them on record. As a concert goer, you expect a musician’s songs to be changed at least a bit in the live performance, or at the very least you expect to see how they’re played.  This seems especially true with electronic music. At a show you …

Album Review by Jake Sanders
Player Piano, the second release from home-based electronic recording artist Memory Tapes, is a very welcome continuation of the gentle pop-electronica that the sole musician Dayve Hawk crafted in 2009’s Seek Magic.  Like the last album, this one is rich with clear pop-melodies that jump playfully around, constructing a sound that’s both melancholy and charming, and both old and new.  Hawk himself describes the music on the album as ‘keyboard-based psychedelic …

by Jake Sanders
Ah yes. Like a national holiday for those who aren’t quite patriotic, The Pitchfork Music Festival comes around but once a year…however, I don’t have the money to attend. No, I’m not bitter or jealous. After all, there’s a ton of music blogs to choose from that give an group-by-group account of the festival, plus all the really juicy stuff that happens off stage. That should be almost as good as being there, …

 
Hey WPRB listeners (and readers!), this is Jake again letting you know about the Feelies’ show last Sunday at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. As I got the tickets, I thought it would be a good opportunity to hear cuts from their new album Here Before, which addresses the themes of returning home, starting again, and staying in the game. Maxwell’s has been something like home-turf for them since they started playing in ‘77.They reunited after a …