| Freddie Lives: Sinkane’s “How We Be” | July 28, 2014 |
Jordan Pedersen‘s hope was a rope, and he should have known. From the years of 2003 to 2007, The Very Best of Curtis Mayfield never left my car. In an era when I thought you couldn’t get better than the parodic self-seriousness of bands like Thursday, Curtis was a falsetto revelation from my one weird friend […]
| One World Under a Groove: Batida’s “Pobre E Rico” | July 22, 2014 |
Now Jordan Pedersen really wants to go to Angola too. “Write what you know,” they say. Great advice, except if what you know is boring as sin. Not that that’s a problem for Lisbon DJ Batida. According to an interview with iCrates, Pedro Coquenão was born in Angola but came up in Lisbon. He grew up […]
Jordan Pedersen doesn’t usually smoke, but pass the dro. “I smoke blunts to the face to stay motivated.” Really? Maybe I should switch to sativa, but just about every joint I’ve ever had makes me want to put my feet up and watch Adventure Time. Those of us who wake up a bit more traditionally have […]
| Premiere: Zola Blood – “Grace” | July 2, 2014 |
Jordan Pedersen killed Laura Palmer. Mystique sells. Just about the entire indie R&B outfit – the Weeknd, BenZel, Rhye, How to Dress Well – parachuted into the game under cover of darkness. Where are these guys from? Is it a band or a producer project? Is there someone *famous* involved?! But mystery only gets you […]
Jordan Pedersen never wanted to be your weekend lover. Purple Rain, the staggeringly great album by Prince Rogers Nelson, turns 30 today. It was the first Prince album I ever owned, and the title track is my single favorite song of all time. Alas, I have little to add to the heap of critical ink […]
Jordan Pedersen doesn’t want to be famous; he just wants to be well-off. What do you call it when you stop reaching for the stars and start reaching for a decent-sized check and a cute girlfriend? Settling? Growing up? Rap is so often the music of aspirations, of getting out and getting rich. But like […]
Jordan Pedersen used to be able to draw Dexter – the boy genius not the serial killer – in under a minute. The best music always has something to do with cartoons. That’s not really true, but LA record label Dome of Doom appears to have named themselves after an episode of Courage the Cowardly […]
| Fantastic Man: William Onyeabor Stays Alive | May 19, 2014 |
Luaka Bop’s “Who Is Jordan Pedersen?” compilation is not forthcoming. It’s tempting, understandable even, to compare “world” musicians to artists from the English-speaking world. It plays into a trait us music writers are notorious for – name-dropping – and it helps us grapple with unfamiliar sounds. “This thing I don’t understand sounds like this thing I do […]
| Winter Mix #8: Jordan Pedersen’s Epilogue | March 24, 2014 |
Jordan Pedersen realizes it’s technically spring, but hey, sometimes it snows in April. I gotta keep it 100: I wrote a pathetic, self pitying pile of crap for my first pass at this. “Wah wah it’s cold in Chicago wah wah winter is an insoluble injustice wah wah why won’t Kate Upton RT me.” I […]
| Everyone’s Gone to the Movies: Passion of the Weiss Oscar Round-Up Part 1 — The Honorable Mentions | February 28, 2014 |
Much like the Grammy’s, the Academy’s selection process is questionable. Though it may seem that more often than not The Oscars do a good job of picking the cream of the crop, there are any number of outstanding films in a given year that will undoubtedly be left behind. So a few of us have […]
