I’m very excited to share with you the debut track from electronic-pop duo Psychic Twin, led by Headlights singer Erin Fein. I’ve been anticipating the Champaign, IL-based band’s debut ever since I saw their very promising performance at last year’s Pygmalion Festival and the breezy, addictive “Deepest Part” does not disappoint. The track opens with [...]

Posted by Taylor in MP3 Comments Off

(credit to venuszine for the picture) Living in central Illinois, there’s not much going on in the cultural landscape that’s worth mentioning, but Polyvinyl Records in Champaign / Urbana, IL has been a beacon of excellence since their inception in 1995. This weekend, Polyvinyl is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary with a huge concert on the [...]

Posted by Taylor in Mix Comments Off

What better way is there to usher in the autumn season then with a heaping dose of Pygmalion Festival, central IL’s premiere music event. This year the Chamapign-Urbana festival kicked off with the locally-based Polyvinyl Records showcase which featured a great variety of bands some new (Japandroids), some old (Owen), some local (Headlights, Common Loon) [...]

Posted by Taylor in Festival, Live Comments Off

MP3 Headlights – Get Going Headlights continue to mix dream pop with summery folk with their leadoff single for their third LP, Wildlife. The band achieve a very light, organic sound on “Get Going”, building the track over a blanket of acoustic guitars and wistful humming. Tristan sings lead on this track and continues to [...]

Posted by Taylor in Track Review Comments Off

Photo Illustration by Nick Duncan. Click for hi-res version. 2008 is taking it’s final bow and a what a year it has been. While ’07 was dominated by a slew of  indie rock heavy hitters releasing awesome albums (Spoon, Of Montreal, Arcade Fire, Wilco,  Radiohead) this is a year where new talent seems to be garnering the [...]

Posted by Taylor in Album Review, Lists 26 Comments »

Here is the much-anticipated conclusion to my favorite songs of the year list (if you haven’t already take a look at the first 25 and read the foreword/ground rules).  These are my favorite 25 songs of the year. As before, there’s a link by each song choice where you can download/hear the song or you can get all [...]

Posted by Taylor in Lists, Track Review 29 Comments »