Never one to shy away from political haughtiness of his own, folk-punk troubadour Billy Bragg has chimed in on the Morrissey “not a racist” PR scandal via The Guardian’s editorial pages. Bragg lightly slaps Morrissey for stirring up drama when the former Smiths singer knows good and well everything he said was caught on tape. Morrissey [...]

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Frieze Magazine (future issue for Jan 08) features a back and forth between Ann Powers, chief pop critic for the Los Angeles Times, and Simon Reynolds discussing the past year in music, from feminism to the handcrafted underground.

That’s certainly a more positive angle on the state of (women in) pop. Perhaps what really pains me [...]

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To complete the circle, somewhat. A while back I asked if anyone had ever heard Eno’s Music For Airports playing in, well, an airport. Pat, lacking access to a specific Music For Airports playing airport, decides to bring Music For Airports with him to an airport of his choosing.

I figured that I could [...]

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Prince is an asshole. I’ve never heard of a celebrity who made it so difficult to be a fan. He won’t even let his fans call themselves fans. They’re “fams.” Now he’s threatening to sue said “fams” for posting pictures their tattoos if they bear his royal likeness. What a cock. I realize Prince has always restricted access [...]

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Win Butler of Arcade Fire wrote a lucid and unpretentious letter in response to Sasha Frere-Jones’ controversial piece that ran in The New Yorker recently regarding race and indie rock. Butler accompanied his letter with an audio response mp3, which included samples of Arcade Fire’s music to support his points:
“Being as I am in [...]

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I honestly can’t complain too much about this arbitrary list of the 11 best Joy Division songs, even with some unsurprising balkers making some noise. I’d probably jumble the order around a bit, while, perhaps, swapping out one or two selections, but, overall, it’s nothing to get a Joy Division fan’s dander up. Control opens [...]

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Something like 75% of Condé Nast’s most venerable publication’s readership - the always studious, perpetually thorough The New Yorker - doesn’t even live on the island they’re reading about. (Shit, I live worlds apart in Columbia, South Carolina and still can’t bring myself to cancel my subscription.) When it comes to art, music, theatre and [...]

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Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty’s Babyshambles have collaborated on a new song. Just being in the same room with these two people at the same time would in all likelihood cause any innocent bystander to imbibe heaps of illegal substances, while indirectly catching a contact high of considerable measure. By some miracle, Winehouse, Doherty, and his bandmates [...]

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A formula has been developed by a senior lecturer in mathematics at England’s University of Southhampton to determine and process “the ethical and aesthetic implications of any one instance of the pervasive blurring of the lines between rock and advertising. The formula kicks out a number that could be used to determine just how much [...]

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Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews for In Raindbows, Radiohead’s seventh studio album, MTV has evidently scoured the Internet to try to find some negative reactions to the much-hyped download. The negativity stems from the bitrate at which Radiohead allowed In Rainbows to be encoded. 160 kbps is considered sub-par by any remotely educated audiophile’s standards, but with a download [...]

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Simon Reynolds clearly understands Joy Division’s music, mystery, and cultural significance, as evidenced by his impressive review of Anton Corbijn’s biopic, Control, in yesterday’s New York Times. In fact, there are few other writers I’d want to read on the subject:
“Yet there’s one crucial factor mentioned in Touching From a Distance that ‘Control’ strangely ignores: [...]

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I understand the desire to move forward as a band, so if you’re going to try to be around for multiple decades it only makes sense to experiment wildly. I just don’t know that the transparent use of a flavor-of-the-month producer is the way to go. Madonna hops on the whatever’s hot train every time [...]

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I realize it’s some times shitty to be in a touring band. You don’t really make that much money, unless your selling out stadiums the world over. Everybody’s downloading your album, so your CD’s just collect dust at the merch table. But, artists are supposed to have it rough. My sympathy only extends so far. But [...]

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Prince plans to sue YouTube for its lackluster filtering practices in an effort to “reclaim his art.” And while he’s at it, eBay and The Pirate Bay are on his list, too. If he’s on a quest to become the new Metallica, then this might be a good idea. But Metallica’s notorious bitching and [...]

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With the stateside release of Control nearly here and word of a Jon Savage Joy Division “documentary” on its way, it’s worth checking out this short documentary from 1988, which includes interviews with New Order, Rob Gretton, Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus and Paul Morley. (part I,part II )
“I think what has happened now [...]

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I am usually keen on Slate’s perspective on news, sports, politics, culture and such, so I was bemused when contributor Taylor Clark spent 1300 words inexplicably raving about how cool Portland, Ore., is.
Clark name drops residents Isaac Brock, James Mercer, Stephen Malkmus, Elliott Smith, Janet Weiss, Britt Daniel, Colin Meloy, Chris Walla, Johnny Marr, Corin [...]

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Kanye West needs to be cockslapped for being such a whiny little bitch. His new record is ass. Who wants to listen to him warble awkwardly over a “sample” of someone else’s entire song? And yet he has the gall to complain about not winning awards at an MTV function? “That’s two years in [...]

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In pathetic reunion news, a very loose quotes version of the “Misfits” is kicking off a special anniversary tour. And by special, I mean shitty. This incarnation of the band features only one original member, bassist Jerry Only backed by former Black Flag members Dez Cadena and Robo. Erstwhile vocalist, Glenn Danzig, must have lost [...]

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As bad as rock stars seem to be at living, some simply refuse to die. And in the same report that, uhh, brilliantly concluded that rock stars are more likely to choke on their own vomit than, say, normal folks, it is also duly noted that since 1980:
“…the number of pop stars who die within [...]

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In the mid-90’s, britpop turned grunge on its ear. Well, in England, anyway. The Oasis vs. Blur war was unfairly represented by the press as a battle between the lager-swilling good ole boys of the working class vs. the arsty and effete privileged lads. Well, it is true on some level that Oasis appeals to the lowest common denominator, while Blur [...]

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