“Since M. Ward completed his analog-baked, Americana breakthrough Hold Time in early 2009, he hasn’t had much time to himself. The following years have been punctuated by the re- lease and subsequent tours of critically acclaimed LPs with She & Him (featuring band mate Zooey Deschanel) and his indie-rock supergroup Monsters of Folk (alongside Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes).” Memory Maker – Paper Magazine
Memory Maker – Paper Magazine – 4/1/12
Hive Five : Great Songs Sponsored by Huge Corporations – MTV Hive – 3/28/12
“If there’s any takeaway from the slow, brutal decline of big business record labels and the rise of contemporary music’s internet-centric hype machine, it’s the fact that the lines between the underground and the mainstream are now extremely blurred. “Mainstream.” “Sell-out.” “The Man.” These once demonizing labels are becoming increasingly irrelevant. As a result, many popular “indie” artists are now regularly courted for licensing opportunities and sponsorship deals by some of the world’s most recognized brands. Other big name companies, like Scion and Mountain Dew, are taking this a step further, establishing record labels that boast healthy rosters of hungry, up and coming artists while providing them with more financial support and infrastructure than a standard boutique indie label in addition to complete creative control over their work.” Hive Five: Great Songs Sponsored by Huge Corporations
Hive Five: Reviewing Ridiculous Mixtape Covers – MTV Hive – 3/22/12
“Rapper Action Bronson and producer Party Supplies’ latest joint mixtape Blue Chips dropped this past week and was accompanied by a piece of cover art that pays homage to the 1994 Nick Nolte-Shaquille O’Neil-Penny Hardaway film of the same name. The cover features an animated image of producer Party Supplies, decked out in a basketball uniform and resembling a young John Stockton, dunking an MPC machine on a non-existent hoop, while an animated, shirtless, and bearded Action Bronson is captured mid-scream in the background.
The mixtape track list features songs that are, for all intents and purposes, unrelated to Blue Chips the film, and according to almost any rubric of design, the concept behind this cover is patently ridiculous. In fact, even the people who watched and actually liked a film where Nick Nolte chews on scenery doing a mediocre Bob Knight impression for 108 minutes can probably admit this is a insane image to slap on the face rap project in 2012. But, in the pantheon of hip-hop mixtape cover art; Blue Chips could be considered a model of subtlety.” Hive Five: Reviewing Ridiculous Mixtape Covers – MTV Hive.
