Sufjan Stevens Stories

Album Reviews- March 2015 Releases

By: Alex WoodOf Montreal- Aureate Gloom [3/3]Of Montreals 13th studio album is perhaps amongst Kevin Barnes most sincere songwriting. His extensive vocabulary expresses the emotional strains of divorcing his wife, Nina, an overarching subject of the album. Musically, the album finds Barnes and his band straying from the electronic, Prince-esque style of past releases and...

Fort Frances Condenses Sufjan Steven's Chicago To Single Instrument

Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago" earned a place of honor our our Great Chicago Mixtape. It's lush arrangement and chamber-rock sensibility makes it a distinctive choice in that playlist.But what if that was broken down, disassembled and rearranged with only a single instrument?That's what Chicago trio Fort Frances attempts to do on their cover of...

The Barn's Great Chicago Song Mixtape: Stream on Grooveshark, Spotify & MOG

It was with certain amount of amusement, and shameful delight, that I watched the "reviews" roll in for the Umphrey's McGee "Chicago tourist anthem" last spring. Admittedly I was excited to hear a band that I liked pay tribute to the city I love, but the final product was a bit of a head-scratcher.It...

Neil Tweets, An Unlikely Tame Impala Cover, Claymation Zombies, More...

Where was this guy in 1995 when everybody was trying to figure out who'd be the next Dead? Apparently his answer was hiding in plane sight. Rush.I couldn't imagine this Neil Young twitter session using the #askneil hashtag going any better than this. If you can distill what makes Neil's music so ingenious into a...