Scissorkick.com was born within the second wave of music blogs in the late 1990s and is guided by a soundtrack to one mode of contemporary living here in NYC. It is proudly genre-agnostic and on a continuous search for new independent rock and electronic music.
Experimentation in music, as in all things, inherently comes with miscalculated risk. A fact of life for adventurous musicians, there’s no shortage of legendary performers who may have misstepped before taking their great leap forward. With a trio of engaging EPs and a storied collective history in bands like Don Caballero, Lynx and Helmet, the four members of Battles know a thing or two about…
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Labels use a variety of tactics to get a writer to notice a record. One of the most effective techniques — especially to the freelancer with a day job and limited time — is the old RIYL package sticker. It’s a quick reference that allows me, within a glance, to determine if I’m about to listen to speed metal, drum n’ bass, or indie rock….
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Tempe, Arizona’s sibling duo The Lymbyc Systym represent another of the newer Mush Records signings (Bibio is another example) to incorporate both mood and ambiance with a combination of electronic and more conventional means. Like former touring mates The Album Leaf, brothers Jared and Michael Bell use a smart combination of vintage keyboards, analog effects and laptop programming to weave tracks both cinematic and narrative,…
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Ben Mullins, the architect behind the brilliant Midwest Product on Ghostly, returns from a hiatus with that project as one half of PostPrior, a new duo with vocalist/drummer Michael Kuzmanovski. Fans of Midwest Product will absolutely enjoy the pair’s new digital EP, Touched Pilot, available in the iTunes store. I may get in trouble for posting the title track, but I’ll take the risk of…
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Today’s post starts a busy week for scissorkick before a short holiday break. Wednesday will mark the introduction of our very first ScissorCast which is basically a pre-recorded hour-long radio show that can be downloaded to the portable media player of your choice. We don’t play favorites here. Then Friday, we will list our Top 25 Records of the Year, which we always look forward…
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Sometimes, I feel old. Not that I’m on a diet of Metamucil and suffering from arthritic joints (yet), but if you are passionate about music, you often gauge your age not by the increasing amount of gray hairs but by the scratches on the records you’ve been playing for years. German trio To Rococo Rot were part of the first wave of electronic post-rock I…
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You can thank our friend Jay Drake, the mastermind behind Cassettes Won’t Listen for this little holiday gift. He’s leaked Scissorkick his newest full-length record The Quiet Trial, and we will return his kindness by posting a track for you all. I posted a favorite CWL track a while back (“Lunch for Breakfast”) but his newest LP may appeal even more to SK readers since…
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SK Best of 2006 alert! Yesterday was a good day because of the arrival of this record, which immediately jumps to the head of the holiday listening line. If you are a fan of this site, then you like the mix of acoustic and electronic and no record released this year does it as well as Law by Madison, Wisconsin’s Cougar. These dudes are on…
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Most of you uber-hipsters already know about French remix master Joakim The guy has single-handedly carved out his own niche in the punkfunk/electronica/IDM/electro realm. This isn’t one of those “breaking” posts or anything. Basically, to keep a long story short, a friend dropped today’s post while DJing at a party and it just blew my head wide open. Keep in mind that European electronic music…
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October 17th marks the release date of new Ghostly artist Christopher Willets’ Surf Boundaries. A beautiful piece of post-shoegazer guitar and electronics, it represents a narcotic blend of melodic, ambient drone and pastoral, at times, uplifting playing and programming. Glitchy yet highly listenable, Willits mixes his/her vocals into an ambiguous, heavenly concoction and literally surfs the boundary between experimental and accessible. There are moments of…
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Not sure what’s up with the overuse of exclamation points (Thunderbirds Are Now! are also guilty) but that’s beside the point. Because Tampa’s Auto!Automatic!! are pretty! fucking! solid!! Long time readers are well aware that Scissorkick is a sucker for tight instrumental chops and this power trio deliver — channeling the old school (read Don Caballero, Breadwinner) through the new school (think Volta do Mar,…
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