Confession time. While yes, we are clearly the most knowledgable people about everything, sometimes we get some help. Both the Aquarius (especially for doom metal and Krautrock) and Other Music newsletters are particular in-house favorites — we discover a ton of great music thanks to the super smart and sincere folks at both stores. This [...]

Big day at eMusic, as classic albums from the Reverend Al Green hit the site. Do I even need to say how timeless and essential these are? Most people will go for the Greatest Hits, and I get that, but the full albums here are just as rich and rewarding. We’ve assembled all of Al’s [...]

Just a head’s up that tomorrow, Al Green week will commence on the site with the addition of his key ’70s records — just an unbelievably incredible collection of music that everyone (and we mean everyone) should have at their disposal. Songs like “For the Good Times,” seen below on Soul Train: BTW, how cool [...]

To close out our little site-wide celebration of the great new DOOM record Born Like This, video of Doom’s appearance with De La Soul on Last Call With Carson Daly from several years back. They perform the fantastic “Rock Co Kane Flow” from De La’s way-underrated The Grind Date. I have watched this 7 times [...]

After some interminable “cool it’s warm!/oh wait, no it’s not!” tug-of-warring, the 10-day here in New York is looking solidly above 50. Today is even in the 60s, which has (consciously? unconsciously?) had me playing some flittering, sunshine-y kind of tunes all morning. Here’s what I’ve already run through: Rodriguez, Cold Fact: Not sunshine-pop by [...]

Collectively, we love the Golden Silvers, a young UK band, about as much as someone possibly could. Their debut will be arriving April 27th, and though we have yet to hear it in full, we are certain it will be stupendous. We nearly had these guys for eMusic Selects back in October (just to show [...]

Our favorite Icelanders Sprengjuhollin continued their US tour with a three-song stop at the eMusic offices, which I filmed and will be posting later tonight. Hi-ya! NOW WITH VIDEO:

Thanks to James in our London office for reminding us how awesome Tame Impala are. Get the music here.

So much for a quiet first-day-back from Austin! The site is loaded with amazing new releases today — a full run-down after the jump!

So let me get this out of the way first: I love SXSW. Love. I look forward to this week every year, and spend the bulk of my time trying to cram in as many shows as humanly possible. It’s my Super Bowl, if the Super Bowl was a week long and ran for a [...]

01 The supposed primitives who believe that a camera snatches their soul? Onto something. Photographers suck at SXSW. Suck suck suck, whether it’s some dude snapping with his iPhone, someone using a camcorder to bootleg a show or a credentialed shutterbug with a massive DSLR, they are not your show-going friend. I watched too many [...]

The pic that inspired this Twitter post A reminder: Our favorite Icelanders Sprengjuhöllin, who killed us with a pair of performances at SXSW, will be playing NYC twice this week: tonight at Santos’ Party House, and tomorrow at Fontana’s. We will be at one or both shows. And so should you. The band is an [...]

I don’t even know where to begin. Just yesterday I promised we wouldn’t do the minute-by-minute diary, but some stretches from yesterday are just too incredible not to. Straight off the top, here’s who I saw (hyperlinks to be added later when there’s time): French Miami (SF math rock that I have played on the [...]

Hey everybody! This is my third day here in Austin, and I wanted to give you some idea of what’s been going on. First off, I have been careful about how to write about being here: I’m wary of writing things that consist of little more than bragging (“I’m here and yr not!”), while also [...]

When I’m writin’ I’m trapped in between the lines I was having a typically music-nerdy exchange elsewhere today on the Internets, and it gave me an idea for a fun game to play while the others are away. I don’t know how common this is, but my personal favorite moments from my most treasured records [...]

As Jayson mentioned, we’re feeling a little sorry for ourselves today—stuck all alone in the office and being blasted by bagpipes. (Momentary pause for sympathy.) OK. So as the rest of the team flies down to Austin, this seems like a good opportunity to discuss a very particular genre of book—the airplane read. Bring the [...]

Yancey, Joe and Alex have departed for SXSW as of this morning, and hopefully we’ll be hearing about their experiences soon here. So it’s just Maris and me this week, and I’d say that “it’s all quiet here” except there is a brain-jarringly loud St. Patty’s Day parade happening on the street right below our [...]

By Chuck Klosterman Motley Crue occupies a peculiar space in the media landscape: Despite selling over fifty million albums, at least three members of the band are more famous on their own than all of the songs they’ve recorded as a group. It’s hard to imagine another band who could publish three bestselling books about [...]

Nothing helps kill off the waning hours of the Monday before SXSW like a little juvenile humor. This afternoon, I was recommended an album by a group I’d never heard of before, the Great Redneck Hope. When I clicked through to the album, I was faced with some of the most absurd and hilarious song [...]

Alex, Joe and I are all heading down to Texas tomorrow for SXSW (Joe and I covering, Alex playing a kabillion shows), and we’ll be bringing you daily updates on what we’re seeing that’s good, hopefully uncovering a few gems for you. This also means that 17 Dots might be a bit quieter than usual. [...]