By Christopher R. Weingarten As the frontman of Hüsker Dü and alterna-heroes Sugar, Bob Mould often buried his plainspoken, emotionally rich lyrics behind a euphoric blur of distortion. His autobiography, See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, peels away that layer of noise, exploring the psychic minutiae of a 30-year career via [...]

Courtesy of the multi-talented Alina Simone comes this video of a wonderful array of poets reading the “Musicians Wanted” section of Craigslist. Hilarity ensues. Alina showed the video at her book release party at Joe’s Pub a few weeks ago. That night Alina treated us to covers of both Russian punk/folk rocker Yanka Dyagileva and [...]

I’ve been ambivalent at best about Stieg Larsson’s dark, bloody mega-bestselling trilogy, featuring a crusading journalist and a body art-loving young computer whiz (She may be skinny, but she’s strong! And she’s had a boob job!) who team up to solve crimes. The title character is supposed to be hard-as-nails and independent and wise beyond [...]

By now, most of us have seen the incredible array of videos that author Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller have put together for their “It Gets Better” campaign to support LGBT youth. The audiobook version of It Gets Better–a collection of essays edited by Savage and Miller–landed on eMusic today, and in celebration [...]

2011 is the first, and, most likely, the only year that Tax Day has been a day to eagerly anticipate rather than dread. Today is the official publication date of David Foster Wallace‘s final novel about the daily drudgery of a bunch of IRS employees, The Pale King. After Foster Wallace’s suicide in 2008, his [...]

By Claire Zulkey Michael Showalter has been making the smart-and-silly set laugh for a long time, in various formats. Audiences were first introduced to the lantern-jawed actor with a thick shock of dark hair as a part of The State, the raucous, mid-’90s MTV comedy sketch show (Showalter’s most famous role on the show was [...]

By Patrick Rapa Book tours can be kind of a strange trip. Just ask Florida-born New Yorker Karen Russell. She recently returned from a week of readings and signings, a few in the east, a few out west, in support of her critically lauded debut novel Swamplandia! “And people kept asking me if I had [...]

McSweeney’s is an indie publisher known for championing emerging literary voices, so how thrilling it is to actually hear what these voices sound like. Over the course of the past three years, the folks at McSweeney’s have been sending us collections of readings created specifically for eMusic, culled from pieces from McSweeney’s quarterly literary journal [...]

Unfamiliar Fishes promises to be Sarah Vowell’s most star-studded audiobook yet. Narrators include Edward Norton, Keanu Reeves, Paul Rudd, John Slattery, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, John Hodgman, Catherine Keener and Maya Rudolph. I would be thrilled to listen to any one of these people read the phone book. But even without this fantastic guest list, [...]

In the age of social media, it’s easy to share our thoughts, our opinions, our pet peeves and our dinner menus, our take on the Charlie Sheen situation. But social media hasn’t allowed us to share our voices until now. Yesterday, a new startup called Broadcastr launched in beta. Broadcastr allows its users to listen [...]

“I wanted to structure her story like a striptease: reveal a little bit over here, and pull away, then go over here and reveal a little bit and pull away, and then reveal all at the end.” That’s author Karen Abbott on how her writing style in American Rose is greatly influenced by the art [...]

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 [...]

Back when she was Salon’s TV critic, Heather Havrilesky made me laugh out loud and nod with recognition on a regular basis. So I’m thrilled that she’s turned her eagle eye on herself, penning a debut memoir that’s sad and smart and funny all rolled into one. Recently, memoirs as a genre have come under [...]

One of the hard parts about working with audiobooks is that so many wonderful books don’t make it into audio format. The hidden gems, the beautifully written books that are destined for critical acclaim but not for the bestseller list. So I’m so thrilled that Iambik Audio exists. Iambik specializes in publishing experimental, innovative, and [...]

A Visit From the Goon Squad was my favorite book of 2010 not only because it’s superbly written (it is), but also because it contains so many great insights about music, most notably in a chapter of the book based around a precocious kid’s PowerPoint presentation. The subject of the presentation? The greatest pauses in [...]

Look at that face. Seriously, look at that freaking face! Take a talented, hilarious writer and put an adorable Boston Terrier on her book jacket and I turn to putty. Julie Klam’s You Had Me at Woof details the authors love affairs with the dogs she’s rescued, and in the utterly heartwarming interview below, eMusic’s [...]

It won’t be easy to beat 2010, but we’re counting on the likes of Lykke Li, PJ Harvey, James Blake, and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart to give last year a run for its money. Check out our anticipated albums and books for 2011, and let us know what you’re watching out for, [...]

My New Year’s resolution is to avoid books that are geared to helping you keep your New Year’s resolutions. Why bother with diet manuals when there are so many great new reads to devour? Here’s what’s new!

I am totally stealing from publisher St. Martin’s Press here. Today on their Twitter page (@StMartinsPress) they posed a fascinating question: What songs make perfect short stories? TANGLED UP IN BLUE? SPIRITS IN THE NIGHT? Others? I immediately thought about The Mountain Goats. I always felt that John Darnielle’s best records are ones that feel [...]

Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad is my favorite book of 2010, and given that I’m eMusic’s audiobooks editor I get to make it eMusic’s # 1 pick as well. I feel incredibly lucky, then, to be able to share this wonderful interview that eMusic’s Jami Attenberg conducted with Jennifer Egan. You’ll find [...]