Crawdaddy!

The debut album from hard rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures is a fairly mediocre exercise until you take into consideration bassist John Paul Jones. It was probably no easy feat for the other two Vultures, ...

Jens Lekman believes in more than the power of love. He believes in the power of love songs. On his plaintive ballad, “If You Ever Need a Stranger (To Sing at Your Wedding)”, he eagerly professes to knowing ...

Critics can be cruel. And for the past seven years or so, the success of Norah Jones has been whipping some of my nastier colleagues into a frenzy. I’ve seen more than one review that referred to her as ...

In early 1979, Alex Chilton formed the Panther Burns with Tav Falco. Chilton was nearly a decade removed from his stint as lead singer in the Top 40 band the Box Tops and almost five years from his last recordings with Big Star, the pop band whose work had sparked a legion of dedicated followers.

At the end of 2006, things seemed to be going pretty well for John Michael Rouchell. The New Orleans native’s band, Ellipsis, was one of the most popular bands in the city, opening up for Incubus, playing ...

On October 29, 1970, the Byrds flew to Miami for a series of concerts, happy to escape to the road after all the drama surrounding recording in LA. Roger McGuinn had decided we could use a little first class relaxation, so Jimmi Seiter upgraded our plane tickets. ...

Psychedelic indie act Amazing Baby has been in existence for less than two years. In that time, they’ve signed a record deal, filmed a video with naked hipster babes, rode a giant wave of blog hype, and ...

It’s been four years since Emoh? Really? Well, I guess it makes sense that I haven’t necessarily missed Lou Barlow in the last four years. Any of his varying bands, from Dinosaur Jr. to Sebadoh to the Folk Implosion, never really leave my listening repertoire. ...

The xx seemed to appear from out of nowhere, but all of a sudden everyone is talking about them. I received an email and a download link in my inbox a little over a month ago, and took a listen, having absolutely no idea what to expect because I had actually never heard them, or even heard of them. ...

The Vandals Peace Thru Vandalism (Epitaph, 1982) The story of how I came into possession of my original vinyl copy of Peace Thru Vandalism is perhaps the

All three delight in recalling their time with Spoon frontman Britt Daniel, whom they brought on board as producer to help reign in their sound. His nuanced touch is evident throughout their excellent sophomore album, It’s Frightening, which came out in May and cracked the Billboard 200.

Who would have ever thought that one day we’d look back at the first two Weezer albums and say, “Hey, remember when those guys had some semblance of maturity?” Indeed, there was a time (over a decade ago!) ...