Jack Tatum surmises that people might refer to the music he makes under the moniker Wild Nothing as "reference-pop" or "revisionist-pop." Those phrases give short shrift to the scope of his music, though: Both 2010's Gemini and the new Nocturne take cues from the past — the Cure's gloomy fog, '80s UK indie rock, whispery twee, Sarah Records' melancholy jangle — but don't use nostalgia as an emotional crutch.
Nocturne is much dreamier than past Wild… more »
Clad in an oversized knit sweater, his bleach-blond hair pointing at a half-dozen different angles, DIIV frontman Z. Cole Smith prefaces our chat with a disclaimer: He never expected the band to go anywhere. And yet, on the cusp of releasing their debut Oshin, DIIV (changed from DIVE out of respect for the 1990s Belgian industrial band of the same name) has already surpassed Smith's modest expectations —which didn't extend far past hanging out with… more »
File Under: Ragged, guitar-based indie pop; jangle-'n'-reverb forever!
Flagship Acts: Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing, the Fresh & Onlys, the Girls At Dawn
Based In: Brooklyn, New York
When I first meet Mike Sniper, he's drinking Patron Silver at an Oyster Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. From any other record executive, the scene would be typical to the point of almost seeming mundane. But Sniper is the founder of the tiny, ragged Brooklyn indie Captured Tracks, a label that prizes… more »
