Snoozebutton - Your Discerning Guide to Modern Culture

Coachella: Beautiful music, not enough bandwidth …

Marc Ruxin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:07:39 +0000

I’ve been going to Coachella for many years now and I have also been to almost every other festival of its kind, but somehow Coachella is different. In many ways, depending how you play it and like all great festivals, Coachella can be a genuinely spiritual experience. It is not just about the groove of [...]

Music Matters

Marc Ruxin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:45:08 +0000

If I were to look back at my life and choose the one thing that has mattered the most and defined me as a person, without question it would be music. I’m not sure when it started but somehow, imagined or real, I have this vague but powerful image of myself as a child riffling [...]

Cardinal – Hymns (Fire)

Marc Ruxin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:43:06 +0000

I remember distinctly that day when first I heard Cardinal’s one and only record back in 1994. I was young, new to NYC, and this album indoctrinated me into the lush world of orchestral indie rock. It was restrained and spare but also as rich and musical as it’s earlier influences (Scott Walker or perhaps selected Beach [...]

The Bestest 2011– Tunage

Marc Ruxin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:50:30 +0000

If you look hard enough, any year can turn out to be a great one for music. Long gone are the days when commercial radio called the shots, when proximity to a killer record store or access to a suitable tastemaker could serve as an excuse for embracing mediocrity. Spotify is finally stateside. Record stores hardly [...]

The Bestest 2011– Filmmage

Marc Ruxin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:23:50 +0000

Some have argued that 2011 was a terrible year for films. Perhaps they should clarify that it was the Hollywood system with its upside down economics that massively under-delivered, leaving room for little films, documentaries and comedies to shine through. I was able to see most of these films at festivals or stream them on [...]

Dawes – Nothing is Wrong (ATO)

Marc Ruxin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:28:07 +0000

About ten seconds into ‘Nothing is Wrong’ you figure out that Dawes is either the next big thing, or perhaps it already is. The band is more polished than Wilco was at the beginning, and with a real knack and ambition to write legitimate pop songs – a lot like mid-career Ryan Adams. Not only [...]

Marc Ruxin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:33:58 +0000

Until seeing this film, I might have felt comfortable admitting that I have no particular interest in dance as an art form. Perhaps this is because I have never experienced a form of dance that genuinely resonated with my emotional orientation. But Pina Baucsch, the German modern dance innovator, created a theatrical, emotive sensual style [...]

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)

Marc Ruxin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:48:01 +0000

Almost four years ago, even before their first EP “Sun Giant” was released, I stood before five bearded hippies at the Bowery Ballroom, transfixed by their lush nostalgic confidence as they buzzlessly opened for Blitzen Trapper. Nothing they have done since that night has been anything less than perfect. Their CSN harmonies, Van Morrison ‘Astral’ meditations and [...]

Low – C’mon (Sub Pop)

Marc Ruxin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:25:15 +0000

You know you’re getting old when you start saying to yourself “I haven’t seen this band live for 20 years.” Low is one of those great, quiet, enduring indie bands that rode the backside of the Nirvana revolution 20 years ago. Making music from Duluth, MN for esteemed labels like Vernon Yard, Kranky and Sub [...]

TV On The Radio – Nine Types of Light (Interscope)

Marc Ruxin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:55:20 +0000

Certain bands seem destined for greatness. With TVOTR it wasn’t immediately clear given the angular, heavy feeling of their first album, but with each of their subsequent efforts you began to hear a band dead set on slow and steady evolution. By the time “Cookie Mountain” arrived the band had proven that punk, funk, and electro-dance could co-exist happily [...]