For a band that once released a new 7″ vinyl single every month for an entire year, going completely digital must feel like a shock to the system, but The Wedding Present has succumbed to technology with the release of “The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend”, a true to form [...]

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Elvis Costello’s been very public about his annoyance with making records in today’s iPod culture of instant consumption, so to acknowledge the impending death of the compact disc, Costello has issued his new record, Momofuku (explanation here), in only digital and vinyl formats. That’s right, no CD’s. So, he’s taking care of the hardcore [...]

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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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My favorite Swede, Jens Lekman, recently stopped by the WNYC studios to chat and play a track from his new album, Night Falls over Kortedala, as well as a cover of Paul Simon, sans Chevy Chase?!.

(From the new record: Friday Night at the Drive-in Bingo)

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Gina Gershon, who we all remember from that lesbian bondage flick, Bound, with Jennifer Tilly, wrote an entire album about the search and recovery of her beloved cat, Cleo. No lie. She’s doing a residency at The Box in NYC two days a week the month of October. Check out this insane cover art:

Stream the crazy-ass video for “Pretty [...]

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So “Needy Girl” wasn’t just an underground one-hit wonder after all. This Montreal synth-funk duo has more to offer than slick catchy joke throwbacks. Its latest record for Vice, Fancy Footwork, has inspired all kinds of people to fight for a piece of the action. The Beastie Boys have offered up a few opening slots on their current [...]

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There are two types of Pink Floyd fans. The ones who only lay claim to the original line-up with Syd Barrett at the healm, and the ones who stone up and listen to Dark Side of the Moon at the laser-light show at the local science museum. Ok, I’ll grant a few bleeders and [...]

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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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Personally, I think all this syncing up Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz stuff is utter nonsense, but asses of Dungeons and Dragons clowns with way too much spare time are into that sort of thing, so here’s another one for you: Supposedly, if you play two copies of Radiohead’s Kid A [...]

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To show its even-handed political mindset, Atlanta, Georgia’s The Black Lips recently visited both Israel and Palestine to distract the suicide bombers and the itchy trigger fingers with a handful of rock shows because what the Middle East needs more than anything right now is a good on-stage golden shower. The band’s new record for [...]

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Covering someone else’s entire record is a bad idea ten times out of ten. But reworking a classic like Black Flag’s Damaged from “memory and intuition” is downright insane. Yet Brooklyn experimental pop deconstructionists The Dirty Projectors have done just that. The result is called Rise Above, and it’s more like a film loosely based [...]

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The AV Club has compiled a list of the top 15 masters of on-stage banter. The winner is in a league of his own: Venom lead singer Cronos, whose ten-minute rant is the stuff of legend. It’s kind of obscure but well worth the time to stream. The runner-up is Diamond Dave, of course. [...]

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Found these over at I Am Fuel, Your Are Friends. Dave Grohl’s raw demo drum tracks for Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf. Even if you’re not a fan of QOTSA’s psychedelic glam metal, it’s hard not to appreciate Grohl’s masterful balance of swing and unbridled aggression. He is a bad [...]

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Stream “Skin Divers” here. This is the highest quality leak from Duran Duran’s forthcoming Red Carpet Massacre. There’s been much debate about the band’s new direction, but to me “Skin Divers” is the most polarizing new song yet to surface. It’s a dark and sleazy club track and another Timbaland collaboration with the inevitable arsenal of repetitive, [...]

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Rilo Kiley is a band from which I never thought I’d be anticipating new music. Its first two records sounded trapped in middling indie rock with a country tinge. Ironically, it wasn’t until its major label debut, More Adventurous, that made me pay closer attention, particularly the single “Portions for Foxes.” Jenny Lewis became [...]

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Despite the buzz about Duran Duran’s “Nite Runner” stream at Entertainment Weekly, its label (Epic) has strangely chosen a different track for the first single, which you can stream here: here
“Falling Down” is less adventurous and more laid-back than the Timbaland-produced, beat-heavy “Nite Runner.” Perhaps, the label is hoping for another “Ordinary World”-style comeback. Justin Timberlake [...]

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Eric Richter (ex-Christie Front Drive, Antarctica, and The 101) has made his new band’s debut EP available free for download at Myspace. Golden City is a Brooklyn quartet that lines its anthematic choruses with slightly darker strains of early emo (yeah, I know). Recorded in 48 hours by Ian Love (Rival Schools), 1 is [...]

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When I first heard that Duran Duran had scrapped a completed album that had been billed as a return to their new wave roots in favor of trendy Timbaland and Justin Timberlake collaborations, I was ready to stick a fork in the band, as I’ve been tempted to do on more than one occasion over the [...]

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During a recent US tour with Bloc Party and the Noisettes, The Maccabees performed a four-song acoustic set for Daytrotter, which you can listen to here. Three songs are from the band’s dizzying debut Colour It In and translate amazingly well to the extremely sparse setting. Vocalist Orlando Weeks’ warble is much more subtle here [...]

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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 [...]

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