Well, this looks incredible. Frank Gossner, who runs both the amazing blog Voodoo Funk as well as my favorite DJ night in New York City, bar none, is a record fanatic, focusing on rare, vital, exuberant music from Africa. His blog is an absolute treasure trove, and the care and energy he dedicates to its [...]

So at this point, any time this band does anything — make pancakes, star in a reality show, get in a fight with the Winklevoss Twins, cover the Ramones — we’re going to write about it. We’re here! We’re twee! Get used to it! Still not over my crush on this band, which is a [...]

OK, let’s all do this together. Stereogum has the new single from New York Bad Boys (yeah, I typed that) The Strokes, which saves you the hassle of having to go to their site and enter your mobile number (?!?) in order to receive an MP3 of it to your email. Seriously? My phone number? [...]

Enough of you love the new Cut Copy record, Zonoscope, to send it straight to the top of the eMusic Daily Charts. Impressive! What’s more impressive is that Cut Copy has figured out even more ways to refine and enhance their classic sound, deepening their ’80s electropop jones with a stunning level of detail. If [...]

If you don’t already know, the Chicago label HoZac is ground zero for all things scuzzy and great. They mine a very particular aesthetic, favoring bands with grime and a grin, grizzled garage music that comes on strong but has a heart made of Now & Laters. If your idea of a fun Saturday night [...]

On April 12th everyone’s favorite lo-fi bella donnas Vivian Girls return with their third album, Share the Joy. For this, the Girls jump over to the excellent Polyvinyl, and bring Coasting drummer Fiona Campbell into the fold. First single, “I Heard You Say,” doesn’t find them straying too far from their template of loose guitars [...]

Continue to get psyched: PJ Harvey‘s excellent, cockeyed, genre-gobbling sonic collage Let England Shake will be here next week.

Trivia: 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is amazing — fun, reckless and proudly trashy, the label tends toward garage bands with a sense of humor (to wit: they released the incredible debut from Personal & the Pizzas, which a friend described as “Johnny Thunders if he was into Italian Sausage instead of Chinese Rock”). In just a [...]

We’ll be unveiling our full hub of 50+ Valentine’s Day Music Memories in just a bit, so I thought I’d preview a few more here on 17 Dots beforehand. After the jump, crushed out stories from Yuki from Asobi Seksu, Dan Deacon, Alynda from Hurray for the Riff Raff and Sarah Kirkland Snider.

So even on slow days this thing is turning into a mini-epic. Just way too many titles to not at least acknowledge. If you want my opinion (and you probably don’t, but I’m going to keep talking anyway), you want to be looking for the artists you haven’t heard this week rather than the ones [...]

It’s not Neko Case’s style to get all gussied up for a gig; her music is lush, layered, and sometimes dramatic, and her voice is anything but modest, but half the beauty is in how effortless she makes it all seem. Last night at the Bell House in Brooklyn, she performed to a crowd of [...]

Tomorrow, Shon Sullivan, aka Goldenboy, will release his third record, Sleepwalker on long-running indie pop label Eenie Meenie. The music is delicate and beautiful, recalling slowcore pioneers like Bedhead and Spain (with whom Shon once toured). The moody first single is as lovely and tender as the nostalgic video that accompanies it. The perfect soundtrack [...]

We’ve been saying it for months now, but with the upcoming Let England Shake, PJ Harvey has made one of the best records of the year. Don’t believe us? Our friends at NPR Music have your chance to hear the whole thing now. Take a listen, reassemble whatever fragments of your mind remain when it’s [...]

A few days ago, we gave you the first taste of the forthcoming sophomore effort from Toro y Moi. The album brings the hazy R&B of acts like Autre Ne Veut and How to Dress Well into slightly sharper focus, feeling more assured and well-rounded throughout. But you don’t have to take our word for [...]

Well, it’s the week before Valentine’s Day, and we at eMusic couldn’t be more ambivalent thrilled. In the past, we’ve used holidays like this as an opportunity to coerce stories — the more embarrassing and revealing, the better — from some of our favorite artists. This year is no different. We asked artists to share [...]

(Accidents will happen, amirite?) Late Friday afternoon Elvis Costello, the man of a zillion songs, announced he’d be returning to a concept he last used on tour back in 1986: populating a giant wheel with 40 song titles — his own hits, rarities, and a few covers for good measure — and allowing audience members [...]

(Photo by Sean Cannon) We’ve been fully on board with Dan Smith — better known as the Older Brother and Chief Conceptualizer of the Danielson Famile in all its iterations — since the excellent, art-project-derived A Prayer for Every Hour. Dan has grown exponentially since then, putting his skewed vision in the service of genuine [...]

Tina Fey is who I want to be when I grow up: a sharp, witty, super successful woman who doesn’t seem to be much of a grownup at all. Watch her on SNL or 30 Rock, then see her all polished up at some award show and it will become apparent: she is the Most [...]

So the minute-long little cello and piano interlude before “All of The Lights” on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of my favorite moments on the album. I’m a sucker for a cello. (Whoever plays on it goes a little flat about three-quarters of the way in, but whatever.) The song itself [...]

The guys in Minneapolis’ august hip-hop crew Atmosphere just announced a new one, The Family Sign, due April 12. It’ll be their first full-length album since 2008′s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold… and, as far as I can recall, the first that is being properly credited to not just MC [...]