Read The Lastest Music News/Reviews

The founding member of the band and keyboardist passed away in Germany from cancer

Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and founding member of The Doors, has died at the age of 74.

According to a note posted on The Doors’ Facebook page, Manzarek

The co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors dies at 74.

According to The Doors’ Facebook page, Manzarek died earlier today after a lengthy battle with bile cancer.

Manzarek is best known for his time with The Doors, a band he founded with Jim Morrison after a chance encounter in 1965. The Doors were one of the most controversial bands of the psychedelic era until Morrison’s death in 1971, with Manzarek’s signature sound provided by a Fender Rhodes piano and the Vox Continental combo organ.

After The Doors, Manzarek continued performing as a solo artist, with Nite City, and, beginning in 2002, with Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger. In lieu of flowers, his family is asking that donations be made to Standup 2 Cancer.

The man behind those iconic keys on The Doors classic records, Ray Manzarek, has passed away. From The Doors twitter:

...After a lengthy battle with bile duct cancer. He was 74. At the time of his passing, he was surrounded by his wife Dorothy Manzarek, and his brothers Rick and James Manczarek.

The man laid his keyboard and bass sounds (usually at the same time) to all of the band's LPs, as well as being a producer and writer for projects as wide-ranging as jazz LPs to Wierd Al Yankovic.

RIP Ray Manzarek, though your unique sound with The Doors will always signify some of the most important records of the era. Check out some classic songs by The Doors below.

Continue reading "Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, RIP" at brooklynvegan

With the release of

When DJs Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso formed Swedish House Mafia in 2008, the first track they ever wrote together was “Leave The World Behind”. Having called it quits earlier this year with a monumental set at the Ultra Music Festival, the trio is bidding their super final adieu with a brand-new version of the track.

Featuring vocals from French singer Lune, the remake also comes paired with a music video as part of a collaboration with Volvo. In the clip, the threesome take the song’s title quite literally, leaving the world behind for picturesque mountains and ocean villas, each in their own Volvo XC 60. Watch it below.

The Volvo XC 60 is built in the style of Scandinavian simplicity, with a floating stack, accented leather interior, and folding rear seats for additional storage. It epitomizes Volvo’s new approach to design, combining the high waistline of the XC range and the sporty contour of the coupes for those with the most active of lifestyles. And for the music fan, the new Sensus Connected Touch allows users to connect to Spotify and play their favorite track just by just saying its name. For more on the XC 60, head to Volvo’s official website.

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Liars @ The Met's Temple of Dendur, 5/17/2013

As mentioned, Liars were in town over the weekend for two shows. We already posted pictures from their Le Poisson Rouge show, but the main event this weekend was their performance on Saturday at the Temple of Dendur exhibit in The Met. Having the band play amongst Egyptian ruins as the windows darkened into dusk with projections behind them was, in the words of our photographer Amanda Hatfield, "nearly an hour of weird creepy awesomeness." Some might claim that sound was not ideal, but getting to see them in such a genuinely epic setting is certainly a fine tradeoff. Pictures from their performance are in this post.

The next show happening at Temple of Dendur is on July 19 when Om will play their track "At Giza," which is now sold out. More pictures from the Met below...

Continue reading "Liars @ the Temple of Dendur at The Met (pics)" at brooklynvegan

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.

Read More...

Last June, we published a feature called the Top 20 Albums We’ve Been Waiting For Forever, counting down a bunch of our favorite artists from whom a new full-length was: (A) long overdue; and (B) not totally unrealistic. Coming in at No. 19 on that list was Queens Of The Stone Age. As we wrote in that space:

Read More...

Our 2012 Band of the Year, Death Grips, remained pretty quiet for the first five months of 2013. But now there’s word of a new album, no doubt to the

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 “Made To Stray,” “Blood And Form,” and the King Krule collab “You Took Your Time,” and now you can stream the whole album at NPR.

Cold Spring Fault Less Youth is out 5/28 on Warp.