Despite being ordered by a doctor to rest after missing two European concerts, Amy Winehouse still managed to pass the million selling mark here in America with her sophomore record, Back to Black, which has remained in the Top Ten of Billboard’s Top 200 album charts since its release four months ago. What’s amazing is [...]

[Read more →]

Iron and Wine is back with its latest single, “Boy With a Coin”, on Sub Pop. The EP features two b-sides, “Carried Home” and “Kingdom of the Animals”, the latter of which is a laid-back, slightly jaunty, piano-laced bar room sway, replete with Sammy Beam’s patented hushed vocals. The production is worlds away from Beam’s [...]

[Read more →]

Yeah, this is a really good idea. Get back into business with a label that made promotional whoopee cushions with your logo on them to hand out on the Warped Tour and then sued the shit out of you when you signed to a major. Good plan. Is being dumped from Island for not being [...]

[Read more →]

The man needs surgery on his knee so badly he’s taken to walking with a cane, but is he canceling any shows? No way. Says Homme, “everyone cancels all the time for hurting their finger and stuff like that, that’s not me.” Perhaps, Lily Allen should take a page from his book.
Meanwhile, Queens of the [...]

[Read more →]

And Moz’s version (live):

[Read more →]

According to Billboard, Robert Smith has announced that The Cure’s 13th studio album will be a double record. In light of the commercial concerns of marketing a double album these digital days, Smith is willing to take a loss to sell the record at a single disc price. The band even trolled through decades old [...]

[Read more →]

The music of Joy Division, while not as overtly plagiarized as too many lazy writers carelessly assert, certainly serves as a template for Interpol’s immobile sense of dramatic enterprise. From the moment Interpol arrived on the scene in 2002, the band came fully equipped with its image and sound intact. Its presentation was so thoroughly [...]

[Read more →]

The Pogues are no strangers to the reunion circuit, having roped legendary drunk frontman Shane MacGowan back into the fold for shows that teeter on the brink of his imminent death. How that toothless, drunken fool is still walking much less singing is astounding, but if you want a Pogues show under your belt, I’d [...]

[Read more →]

Live Earth set itself up for heaps of mockery with its massive energy consumption to raise awareness for, whoops, the conservation of energy (what little I could stomach bored me into oblivion). Whenever a parade of bandwagoning celebrities shove politics down your throat, it always comes off more than a tad disingenuous. And who better [...]

[Read more →]

ack! I can’t believe I missed this. On May 27th, Young Marble Giants played together first the first time in like 26 years. I guess I should have friended them. Damn.

[Read more →]

Randy over at the We *heart* music voxblog recently posted about the Leeds ensemble The Manhattan Love Suicides, whose sound hearkens back to the days of Talulah Gosh, Velocity Girl and their ilk from both sides of the pond. Catch some tracks at MySpace, particularly “Keep it Coming”.

[Read more →]

The Guardian takes a jab at the purple one’s latest single: “It sounds like a musical inferior doing an impression of Prince.” Ouch. But also, sadly, true. You can listen to the song and a watch a promotional video here. The new record, Planet Earth, is out July 24 in the US on Sony/BMG. In [...]

[Read more →]

With a note posted on the Joan of Arc website, Tim Kinsella announced his departure from Make Believe, citing his distaste for touring and the inherent “rock band lifestyle, which I have felt less and less connection to for a long while now.” Entering a self-described “hermit-mode”, Kinsella, has a “pile of new songs to [...]

[Read more →]

Q says to, calling the film “extraordinary.” The fellow that plays Ian Curtis was in a garage rock band called 10,000 Things, whose debut album received a rather uncharitable one star review from the magazine in 2005, but, now that he’s turned to acting, Q claims that he is “an actor of singular talent, responsible [...]

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

The New York Times published a piece yesterday covering the underground rumblings of French duo Justice, whose sound is a bit rougher and tougher than, say, the slick, atmospheric soundtracks of bands like Air, adding noise to its propulsive beats. The new, evolving strain of electronic music that Justice is at the forefront of trades [...]

[Read more →]

After a rough week, Lily Allen was due for some semblance of good will, and playing at the charitable Concert for Diana on Sunday probably mended her slight PR snafu. And, hell, she even showed up sober.

[Read more →]

St. Vincent’s Marry Me is out next week on Beggars Banquet. The former Polyphonic Spree choir member is embarking on a tour starting this Friday.

[Read more →]

I’m not sure how many red lights Van Halen can ignore before deciding to pull the plug on this reunion idea. It’s invariably going to suck, but the money is probably just too tempting, especially for Roth. Everyone is beyond way too old. I know people will flock to this no matter what because it’s [...]

[Read more →]

Maps a/k/a James Chapman is the artist of the day over at Spin. His debut We Can Create is available now via Mute. Maps’ methodically layered electronic sounds are put to tape manually in Chapman’s bedroom without the aid of computers. Download “It Will Find You” here.

[Read more →]