Filed under: Issue 19, Issue 19 Lofi | Tags: Aux Records, Bears in America, beck, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly, Devon James Stewart, Devon Stewart, Dinosaur Jr., GarageBand, Jimi Hendrix, John Frusciante, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, lo-fi, Logic Pro Studio, Maroon 5, Metallica, Modest Mouse, Mouth's Cradle, Nebraska, Pink Floyd, Rascal Flatts, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Syracuse University, Tascam Portastudio, The Band, The Basement Tapes, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, the Black Keys, Ween
Devon Stewart rocks the Shaefer studios while working on his self-titled solo project
Lil Wayne. Kanye West. Maroon 5. Rascal Flatts. Music purists loathe them for at least one reason — Auto-Tune, a downloadable audio processor that corrects vocal and instrumental blunders in order to attain perfect pitch. By using this program, a producer can fill in a recorded performance’s holes, smooth its edges and polish its smudges. Everyone must use this to attain musical nirvana, right? Negatory. In fact, musicians that admire large holes, adore peculiar edges, and worship pesky smudges are alive, well and plentiful. They are lo-fi artists.
Lo-fi is a shortened form of “low-fidelity,” fidelity meaning the extent to which an electronic device such as a radio or television can accurately reproduce a sound or an image. Taken literally, lo-fi can be defined as low-quality sound. (more…)
Filed under: Issue 19, Issue 19 Lofi | Tags: Alight of Night, Born Again Revisited, Christopher Owens, Crystal Stilts, Girls, lo-fi, Nathan Williams, No Age, Times New Viking, Wavves
Nathan Williams fronts the acclaimed lo-fi act Wavves
Lo-fi isn’t just a trend on campus — it’s also scoring airtime across the country. Here are some of our favorite lo-fi bands you owe it to yourself to check out:
Wavves
With ironic song titles like “Summer Goth” and fuzz bleeding from their amps, it’s hard not to love Wavves. Who cares if frontman Nathan Williams is practically a junkie? Despite public humiliation and broken wrists, Williams still played shows this summer.
No Age
With three EPs and a debut in 2007, another full-length last year and an EP just last month, No Age are one of the busiest bands currently making high-quality lo-fi. They’ve mastered the art of drowning infectious riffs and power chords in layers of distortion.
Crystal Stilts
Crystal Stilts factor fuzzy guitars and brooding post-punk into a formula all their own. Despite being together since 2003, the band only released their full-length debut Alight of Night last year.
Times New Viking
Formed in 2005, the raucous Times New Viking have dropped four acclaimed albums, including one this year. Born Again Revisited emphasizes accessible pop structures amidst fits of noise.
Girls
Girls’ frontman Christopher Owens grew up in a cult, lost his brother and watched his mom literally sell herself for the cause. His solution? Get high, start a band and sing about heartbreak with such remarkable optimism that even the critics were moved.
– 20 Watts Staff
Filed under: Features, Issue 19, Issue 19 Lofi | Tags: Cassette, demos, lo-fi, tapes, vinyl, Wavves, Woods
Going lo-fi
After all the hype, rants, raves and “Pitchforkery,” I finally took the plunge and caught a Wavves one night at Bowery Ballroom. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I wouldn’t say I was a Wavves fan, but I’d heard his latest album and was impressed. So his appearance with Woods and Real Estate was definitely enough to persuade me into a ticket purchase. It was, suffice it to say, a perfect sampling of the lo-fi craze that’s got the blogs in a frenzy and musicians everywhere turning to GarageBand instead of a recording studio, so I dove in.
However, what struck me at the show wasn’t the tape hiss, or hollowed-out vocals or even the rough-shod guitar lines. It was the songcraft. Real Estate and Woods both opened the show with phenomenally impressive sets. The songs were beautiful, removed from the hazy basements that their records call to mind, and thrust into a setting that let them breathe, opening up the full tonality of the guitars and allowing the sheer power of volume to fatten the sound. Woods were especially awesome, with flamethrower solos and equally tender bits (“The Number” may be my favorite song of the year) that made them sound like the pop band they should be seen as. (more…)
