OK, that would have meant Caribou Barbie as vice president, but would that be any worse than the crimes against good music that an Obama victory has brought us? Despite burying a keyboardist every year or so of its existence, the Grateful Dead kept on truckin’ until Jerry Garcia went to that all-you-can-eat Ben & [...]
Spend 15 years in Philadelphia and you’ll figure out that things in MAGNET’s native city aren’t always sunny or bursting with brotherly love. But underneath the tough exterior are some pretty sweet sounds. In honor of our anniversary, we pay tribute to our hometown scene: Despite the title of the War On Drugs’ debut album, [...]
Elvis Perkins, son of actor Anthony “Psycho” Perkins and a damn fine songwriter himself, is readying his second album. Elvis Perkins In Dearland, due March 10 on the XL label, is the follow-up to 2007’s solo Ash Wednesday and the debut by Perkins’ band In Dearland. The 10-track album was produced by Grammy winner Chris Shaw [...]
The year was 1987. Former actor Ronald Reagan occupied the White House, while three obnoxious Rick Rubin protégés were crisscrossing the globe on their Licensed To Ill tour, made (in)famous by a giant, onstage inflatable phallus and an abundance of Budweiser-fueled antics. What a difference two decades makes. Tonight at the 9:30 Club in Washington, [...]
Carl Newman has long been credited as the architect behind the New Pornographers, a primarily Canadian union of musical talents that includes Neko Case, Destroyer’s Dan Bejar and a veritable wrecking crew of Vancouver players. What’s been surprising, however, is how easily Newman can assemble the same complex pop structures with just about any group [...]
We’ve been fans of New Jersey’s finest since even before their first album came out back in 1994, so let’s just say we’re used to sitting around waiting for them to take their sweet-ass time putting out new music. (Three albums in more than 14 years makes the Wrens about as prolific as Boston, which [...]
Spend 15 years in Philadelphia and you’ll figure out that things in MAGNET’s native city aren’t always sunny or bursting with brotherly love. But underneath the tough exterior are some pretty sweet sounds. In honor of our anniversary, we pay tribute to our hometown scene: If you’re a rock ’n’ roller with the misfortune of [...]
In an apparent ongoing effort to spay and neuter “indie rock” and remove all pretense of coolness from a now-useless genre name in order to market it to mall-crawling fucks and undiscerning music fans, the clueless herd of pantywaists at Paste have published An Indie Rock Alphabet Book. “Whether 4 or 44, kids and parents alike will [...]
As Anti-Flag surpasses the 20-year mark and its members enter their late 30s, you would think the band’s youthful idealism would be on the wane. Not by a long shot. In celebration of Obama’s inauguration, Anti-Flag will headline “Demand In DC: Applauding The Empowerment Of People Thru Art, Film, And Music” (try saying that 10 [...]
Pete Doherty, the junkie ex-Libertine jail-dabbler, former Kate Moss shagger and hero of 2008 (well, at least according to the readers of the NME, which actually kind of makes sense), is set to release his debut solo album on March 24 via Astralwerks. Titled Grace/Wasteland, the 12-track LP features Blur’s Graham Coxon (on guitar for [...]
