Mason McGough Archives - UNF Spinnaker

All content by Mason McGough

Daily Discovery: Moonstone Continuum – Salon Edition

Mason McGough • August 29, 2013

Salon Edition pushes the boundary from pastiche to satire in a way that's somewhere between guilty pleasure and downright hilarious. And it does it well.

Daily Discovery: Volcano Choir – Repave

Mason McGough • August 28, 2013

Volcano Choir make only the grandest of gestures. Their new album Repave is a tumultuous experience that remains adherent to a natural order.

Daily Discovery: Dent May – Warm Blanket

Mason McGough • August 27, 2013

Warm Blanket has enough pervasive earworms to make for a charming post-summer listen. The skeletal sound of Dent May's new record instantly recalls Brian Wilson's writing.

Daily Discovery: Julia Holter – Loud City Song

Mason McGough • August 26, 2013

Loud City Song crafts an entire environment around a meager supply of instruments and lyrics. Julia Holter accomplishes this with aplomb, but your enjoyment of this record will ultimately stem from your willingness to step into Holter's eerie world.

Leftover Cuties (with Real Job) – August 10th Underbelly

Mason McGough • August 9, 2013

Earnest sentiments in music are certainly something worth appreciating. For an artist that chooses to forgo guileful pessimism and cryptic symbology, self-reflective statements of positivity are perhaps a more audacious statement than the darkest notions about longevity or listlessness.

Daily Discovery To Continue in The Fall [Some More Listening]

Mason McGough • August 7, 2013

The series is slated to start up again on the first day of the fall semester. In the meantime, I have assembled a list of new releases with links to music that you can add to your playlists if you like what you hear.

Daily Discovery: Jagwar Ma – Howlin’

Mason McGough • August 5, 2013

Jagwar Ma's appeal lies squarely on their novel reassembly of familiar styles and sounds. Howlin' is a promising showcase of the visceral fun the band stands to offer.

Daily Discovery: Moderat – II

Mason McGough • August 1, 2013

The complaint you will always hear from haters of electronic music is that they would prefer something with more of a human element. It's not totally unfounded; most EDM we've come to know is emotionally dead, despite its appeal to the carnal urge for dance.

Daily Discovery: Pure Bathing Culture – Moon Tides

Mason McGough • July 31, 2013

Often likened to Beach House, Pure Bathing Culture struggle to reconnect the listener with the forces of nature that strike us with awe.

Daily Discovery: Arca – &&&&& (with Free Download)

Mason McGough • July 30, 2013

From having one of the most memorable albums (and most memorable album covers) of 2012 to producing three tracks on Kanye West's Yeezus, Alejandro Ghersi, a.k.a. Arca, is on track to be one of the...

Daily Discovery: Superhumanoids – Exhibitionists

Mason McGough • July 29, 2013

Characterized as "the soundtrack to the last moments of dusk in LA" by Advanced Alternative Media, it's hard to argue with the aesthetic appeal of Exhibitionist's sound. The debut record from LA Trio...

My Little Pony Club Brings Brony Music to UNF

Mason McGough • July 26, 2013

You may not have known this, but UNF has its own club for fans of the television show My Little Pony. It may be a well-kept secret, but tomorrow (July 27th) the small organization will be welcoming...

Daily Discovery: F&!k Buttons

Mason McGough • July 26, 2013

The electronic duo from Bristol with the name that is impossible to say over the radio (and who wrote the song that played at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympics) have just released a new album...

Daily Discovery: Mean Lady – Love Now

Mason McGough • July 25, 2013

It's like if Animal Collective and that girl from Camera Obscura came together to make a soundtrack for the new Wes Anderson film. For whatever reason, this is the first descriptor that came to...

Spinnaker Radio Presents: Our Top 10 Albums of 2013 (So Far)

Mason McGough • July 17, 2013

After much deliberation, Spinnaker Radio is proud to present the Top 10 Albums of 2013 (as of July) that have most impressed us this year. It wasn’t an easy decision...

Take One with Shining: The Mavericks of Extreme Jazz

Mason McGough • June 14, 2013

The Norwegian metal group Shining has been the flagship of experimental metal's recent foray into jazz territory. With a surgical appearance somewhere between cosmonauts and hitmen, the group performs...

Five(ish) Surprising Albums of 2013

Mason McGough • May 21, 2013

It's been almost six months into 2013 and we've already seen our fair share of fantastic records. Whether it was high-profile surprises or under-the-radar classics, this list includes some of the records...

Osprey Radio’s Top 20 Albums of the Year

Mason McGough • December 14, 2012

Written by Mason McGough, featuring Trevor Johnson where marked. 2012, along with 2000 and technically every other year ever, will henceforth be known as the year the world didn’t end. Probably....

SORNE Interview

Mason McGough • October 17, 2012

SORNE are a multimedia art collective from Austin, Texas. Considering his work a "tapestry of humanism," Morgan Sorne's elaborate tale of five siblings is concerned with the villainous extremities of...

Hear Hums and Personnes Q&A

Mason McGough • October 11, 2012

Hear Hums Hear Hums are a Gainesville group that charge their way through watery psychedelic folk with energetic drumming. Their adventurous sound, not unlike that of Prince Rama or Animal...

Here We Go Magic Q&A

Mason McGough • October 10, 2012

Here We Go Magic is a Brooklyn-based project that crafts a clever blend of ambient hypnotica and melodic indie rock." Starting as the lo-fi bedroom psychedelia of singer Luke Temple, it quickly grew...

Album Review: Centipede Hz by Animal Collective

Mason McGough • August 28, 2012

For a group with a track record as long as Animal Collective’s, it’s astounding how little Centipede Hz sounds like their past work. If anything, it most closely approximates the underworld sounds of Avey Tare’s solo album Down There. Animal Collective is not the band people think it is, simply because it’s never been.

Album Review: America by Dan Deacon

Mason McGough • August 28, 2012

America scarcely relents in its charge, building steadily upon psychedelic jams that culminate in explosive symphonies of sound. I can’t help but be reminded of a similar classic called Vision Creation Newsun by the Japanese avant-rock band Boredoms. The tone of the record is always an impenetrable elation, much like the Boredoms album.

Album Review: NO by Old Man Gloom

Mason McGough • August 28, 2012

“YES” seems a more appropriate name for this album, at least cosmetically. No cavern is left untrodden, no matter how dark or foreboding. And the earth-shattering metal that intersperses them is the best part.

Concert Review: Dirty Projectors and POP ETC August 6 at The Beacham

Mason McGough • August 9, 2012

Mason McGough, Osprey Radio music director, shares his thoughts on POP ETC and Dirty Projectors' August 6 show at Orlando's The Beacham venue. Read on for the full review and video of Dirty Projectors' live performance of "Offspring are Blank."

Concert Review: SORNE with Milo, Maugli and Wavefunctions July 19 at Jackrabbits

Mason McGough • July 23, 2012

“A tapestry of humanism,” as professed by Morgan Sorne himself, SORNE’s album House of Stone encapsulates the most primal facets of mankind: envy, hatred, frustration, disgrace, passion, despair. Read on for Osprey Radio Music Director Mason McGough's review of SORNE's performance at the San Marco venue Jackrabbits.

The top 10 albums of the year so far

Mason McGough • July 17, 2012

Even though the year isn't over, that isn't stopping us from making a top 10 list of the best albums in 2012... so far.

Album Review: Swing Lo Magellan by Dirty Projectors

Mason McGough • July 13, 2012

“There’s an answer/ I haven’t found it/ But I will keep dancing ‘til I do,” sings Dave Longstreth on Dirty Projectors' single “Dance for You.” It’s clear from Swing Lo Magellan and...

Album Review: The Nature of Things by The Daredevil Christopher Wright

Mason McGough • July 6, 2012

Similar in cosmetics to the also fancifully named Father John Misty, The Daredevil Christopher Wright returns with a sophomore LP that pairs baroque arrangements with dire sentiment.

Mason’s Pick: Lost in the Trees – A Church that fits our needs

Mason McGough • March 23, 2012

A review by Mason :)

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