Daniel Levin Becker

Daniel Levin Becker appears in the following:

First Listen: Matt Pond PA, 'The State Of Gold'

Sunday, June 21, 2015

"More No More," the shimmering opening track on The State Of Gold, Matt Pond PA's 10th full-length, bounds out of the gate as though it's been building momentum for ages. In a way, of course, it has: Behind this album is the accumulated energy and weight of nearly two ...

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First Listen: Built To Spill, 'Untethered Moon'

Sunday, April 12, 2015

It's suspiciously easy to overlook the existential side of Boise, Idaho's Built To Spill, a seasoned but frequently rotating ensemble centered on avuncular frontman Doug Martsch. There are brighter enticements to the band's amiably fractured rock: Martsch's arresting guitar solos, the songs' devil-may-care structural assembly, the whole package's never-duplicated ...

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First Listen: Cymbals Eat Guitars, 'Lose'

Sunday, August 10, 2014

As you might expect from a band named after a truism among recording engineers, Cymbals Eat Guitars is hardly slavish in its devotion to a single sound. Since its inception in 2007, the Staten Island group has traipsed and stomped its way through countless puddles, from twinkling laments to ecstatic ...

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First Listen: Mac DeMarco, 'Salad Days'

Sunday, March 23, 2014

For someone who once coined the phrase "jizz jazz" to describe his own style, Montreal 23-year-old Mac DeMarco sounds remarkably grounded on his second album, Salad Days. Gone are the Rocky Horror pantomimes, the sleazy radio promo skits, the gnomic pronouncements about "European Vegas." In their wake is a ...

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