Lockwood Barr and a Cloud Control Review
Hey everybody, One of the benefits of hosting The VU Backstage for a year is that you develop friendships and solid connections with the artists you invite on the show. This is especially nice when...
View ArticleA Closer Look at Why We Hate Nickelback
This past weekend, I was having a GroupMe conversation with a few of my fraternity brothers and, somehow or other, Nicolas Cage popped up. He always seems to do that in the strangest of places. We...
View ArticleBetween the Buried and Me at Cannery Ballroom: Out of this World
I have a fairly eclectic taste in music, and it shows when I think about my five favorite artists. Four of those are Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beatles and (the most recent addition) Kanye West....
View ArticleCampy Music (and some other stuff)
Hey everybody, It’s been one of those weekends that wasn’t any sort of break from the action of the week, but definitely in a good way. Things got started with a bang when I scored free tickets to see...
View ArticleCrafting the Contemporary Music Taste
Music is an inescapable fact of life. It streams from our computers like a waterfall; it fills the empty space in our bars and restaurants; it augments the visual impact of television shows, movies,...
View ArticleSuper Duped: The Decline of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
If you grew up a rock music fan in the first decade of the 2000s, as I did, the Red Hot Chili Peppers likely provide much of the soundtrack of your formative years. Songs like “Can’t Stop” and “Dani...
View ArticleThe Case Against the Star-Spangled Banner
It’s Olympics time, and that means patriotism is at a relative high here in America. So is the potential to wile away the hours in front of non-stop sports coverage. It’s taking all my willpower to...
View ArticleIntroducing…Your All-2000s Bad Music Squad!
I spent the majority of my spring break plastering the walls of a cinderblock building in the Puerto Rican rain forest. The only way to possibly get through a task as mind-numbing as plastering walls...
View ArticleRap for a Reason: A Conversation with Shadower
It’s safe to say that regardless of whether or not you think Kendrick Lamar got robbed at the Grammys, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis accounted for a significant shift in the scope of issues dealt with in...
View ArticleA First Look at the Rites of Spring Battle of the Bands
It’s that time of year again at Vanderbilt. The Student Alumni Board is passing out free shirts at Rand; there are dozens of garbage bins lounging pell-mell on Alumni Lawn; the fraternities are...
View ArticleKid Freud: A Rising Vandy Band
It’s rare that you find a prodigious band coming out of Vanderbilt. Vampire Weekend met at Columbia and Tom Schulz met his Boston bandmates at MIT, but here the music scene centers around...
View ArticleThe Evolution of Matisyahu
Today, Vanderbilt will host its most esteemed musical visitor, excluding Rites and Quake, since Billy Joel (and Michael Pollack) captivated a sold-out Langford Auditorium almost two years ago....
View ArticlePeriphery @Exit/In Tonight #MetalIsMusicToo
For those of you there on that fateful afternoon in Rand almost two years ago, you remember it as one of the oddest sensory juxtapositions in your Vanderbilt career. It was, at first, an ordinary lunch...
View ArticleLocal Acts Shine at Exit/In–Monday, October 6, 2014
Exit/In is one of Nashville’s most famous and beloved venues. One look above the bar at the wall of artists who have performed on its stage is enough to send the tingles of history down your spine....
View ArticleRemembering Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon
On this day nineteen years ago, four of Blind Melon’s five members woke up expecting to play a show that night at Tipitina’s in New Orleans. The fifth, lead vocalist and chief songwriter Shannon Hoon,...
View ArticleShake It Off or Take It Off (of Spotify): Interpreting Taylor Swift’s Bold Move
I’m sure by now you’ve all heard the news: Taylor Swift has removed all of her music from Spotify. As in, everything. Not just 1989. The only track you can find that even features Swift is “Safe and...
View ArticleNine Years Later, System of a Down Still “Mezmerizes” Me
It may be surprising to see a retrospective of a nine-year-old nu metal album on this blog, particularly from a writer who has vented at length about the overall lack of quality of mid-2000s popular...
View ArticleRapchat: Now YOU Can Join the Underground Rap Scene
Here at WRVU, we’re all about the underground music scene, whether we’re introducing you to fresh new songs or interviewing artists who may not even be college graduates yet (in fact, my show is...
View ArticleGentrification is taking the Music out of Music City
Nashville calls itself Music City; it’s the moniker that supposedly separates our home from Charlotte, Minneapolis, and every other up-and-coming metropolis, and it’s a huge part of the reason I chose...
View ArticleNate Banks’ Debut Single a Valentine’s Day Treat
Today belongs to the love songs. And with his debut single “Some People,” Nate Banks has made his play to make his way onto your playlist. The junior from Fairfax, VA has been involved in the...
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