We can argue about the musical and cultural value of the Doors, but it would be straight-up inaccurate to classify them as anything less than one of America’s truly legendary rock groups. And I think it’s fair to say, too, that Ray Manzarek was as essential to the Doors’ success as Jim Morrison, maybe more so. Manzarek more or less discovered Morrison, and encouraged him to sing, and Manzarek’s keyboard was absolutely as central to the Doors’ sound as Morrison’s vocals (the Doors never employed a bass player, because Manzarek played those parts on his Fender Rhodes piano). When you’re thinking of a Doors song — any Doors song — I’d be willing to bet you’re just as likely to call to mind the keyboard part as you are the vocal. Of course Morrison died in 1971, at age 27. Manzarek continued to make music in the decades following his bandmate’s passing, most recently releasing a solo album, Translucent Blues, in 2011. Today, Manzarek passed away in a hospital in Germany, of complications related to bile duct cancer. He was 74. RIP.
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R.I.P. Ray Manzarek
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Following up his 2011 EP Gabriel, Joe Goddard of Hot Chip is slated to put out a follow-up called Taking Over some time this year. Its first offering is “She Burns” featuring English singer Mara Carlyle. Their union is an interesting one, as Carlyle is famous for her use of ukelele and a musical saw, but on top of Goddard’s disparate, laser-laden lounge licks, she sounds like the main performer at a cabaret on Mars. Get into the groove below.
Joe Goddard – “She Burns” (Feat. Mara Carlyle)
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Last June, we published a feature called the
Premature Evaluation: Queens Of The Stone Age …Like Clockwork
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The London production duo Mount Kimbie came up making evocative post-dubstep dance music around the same time as James Blake, and there seems to be a pretty good chance that their long-awaited new album Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, their first for a bigger label, could push them into Blake’s cultural circles. Whether or not that happens, it’s a pretty great showcase for their foggy, atmospheric blips and bloops. We’ve posted “
Stream Mount Kimbie Cold Spring Fault Less Youth
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The former Double Dagger drummer Denny Bowen now leads Roomrunner, a Baltimore band whose fuzz-drenched attack brings back the moment before Gap commercial directors figured out what grunge was. Ideal Cities, their debut album, is a big, messy, joyous guitar-assault. If your faith in effects pedals needs reaffirming, this should do the trick. We posted the anthemic opener “
Stream Roomrunner Ideal Cities
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Well, this is pretty dope. Rookie has commissioned a theme song for the month of May, and it’s badass both in theory and in execution. Waxahatchee leader Katie Crutchfield and her twin sister, Swearin’ leader Allison have recorded a punked-up cover of a song that never exactly screamed for a punked-up cover: Grimes’ ethereal burble “
Katie & Allison Crutchfield – “Oblivion” (Grimes Cover)
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