Blarf: Banana

Starting off with a sample from Jorge Ben’s “Vendedor De Bananas,” “Banana”  by Blarf (aka comedian Eric Andre) soon embraces utter chaos. The track appears on Andre’s debut album under the Blarf moniker, Cease and Desist—and it’s aptly titled considering its reliance on samples. The album, somewhat a sonic replication of Andre’s comedic style, masks brilliance with madness. And the track itself bangs along until it …

Poolside feat. Panama: Can’t Stop Your Lovin’

LA-based duo Poolside (aka Jeffrey Paradise and Filip Nikolic) provide a lush, daytime disco instrumental for Australian vocalist Panama’s breathy vocals to float atop. The three meld together and create a cohesive sound that breezily bops along for four minutes. To build out your Poolside playlist, refer to the Summertime Playlist the duo made for us last year.

Spotlighting the Women Credited with Inventing Popular Music

NPR’s “Turning the Tables” series works to flip the script of various industries’ histories. One edition celebrates the women that invented the genre of American popular music: Bessie, Maybelle, Billie, Marian, Ella, Mary Lou, Celia and Rosetta. “The goal is to free the music of women and others who don’t fit the dominant straight-white-male paradigm from special categories, and put it at the center, where …