So I’ve been thinking for a while now — ever since the Sony drop, really — about adding a new ‘feature type’ to our roster of features (’About the Album,’ ‘Who Is…,’ ‘Six Degrees,’ etc) that would be called ‘In Defense Of…’ Pretty much all of us in editorial genuinely like at least [...]

Tomorrow sees the release of The Monitor, the eagerly-anticipated concept record from Titus Andronicus. Using the overarching metaphor of the Civil War to discuss feelings of emotional isolation, conflict of identity and personal heartbreak, Patrick Stickles has created a fascinating, flummoxing record that invites deconstruction by refusing easy answers. We had Matthew Fritch talk to [...]

(photo by im92)
We’ve all had them: that moment, unexpected, unannounced, when your heart leaps out of your chest, your legs go numb and you find yourself struggling to speak. For some of us, it happens when we’re young — for others, when we’re much older. But one thing is certain: you never forget the first [...]

Wanted to take a few moments to point out an addition to the site we hope you’ll find helpful, something many of you have been asking about for a while now: RSS Feeds.
On Friday, we incorporated RSS feeds at several locations around the site – here’s what they do. You can add these simply by [...]

So in the quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s, I wanted to give you guys a heads-up on a new piece of functionality that we’re really excited about. I mentioned it on the message boards this morning, but you can now Browse all eMusic editorial. Just click on the Browse tab, and you’ll find [...]

Man, myth, badass — Fela Kuti was all of them and more. Even people who love him can’t deny some of his views were a bit, er, unconventional, but the power of the man’s music and the force and passion with which he stood up to a corrupt government — in the face of repeated [...]

The Colbert Report
Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

This guy first came to my attention a while ago, but the further he’s gotten in this project, the more fascinating it’s become. His name is Logan Walters, and he’s an artist/designer. In addition to his regular, paying work, Walters has taken up a little hobby project on the side: redesigning all of the Wu-Tang [...]

(photo by Here’s Kate)
I wanted to start this morning by giving you guys a little sneak preview of something we’ve been working on for the last few days. Please bear in mind that this is very much a “work in progress” — some sections are incomplete and some areas are missing text. But we thought [...]

Wearing Bono shades in the Secret Garden
So as many of you probably already know, Radiohead released some new music to the world recently. It’s a song for charity; specifically, it is a song in honor of Harry Patch, the last man to ever see combat in WWI. He died recently, and to commemorate him, York [...]

Via beneffervescent
As I mentioned last week, sorting through Freshly Ripped is starting to become more and more of a “help, I’m being drowned in gold!” sort of situation. So much music, so little time. Combing back through the last week’s worth of stuff, I found enough, big and small, to do another New Arrivals [...]

Wow, there are a ton of records today. Just sorting through Freshly Ripped, which is usually a 30-45 minute task, took TWO HOURS today. Which is awesome. Let’s take a look at the tip of the iceberg, shall we?
First up, of course, is the new Magnolia Electric Co. record, which comes after a three-year silence [...]

Sadly, Pharaohe Monch did not come onstage looking like this
…or all the stuff that Joe didn’t mention, or that he already covered and I am chiming in with my two cents’ worth regardless.
Like I said, this was my first Pfork festival, and I (rather predictably) had a blast. I agree with Joe, however, that there [...]

Doug basking in the glorious rays of his indie guitar jammery
I have seen Built To Spill live somewhere between five and seven thousand times. When I was 17, I listened to Perfect From Now On the way I used to listen to, like, Led Zeppelin IV or Paul’s Boutique. That is, endlessly, with Talmudic [...]

So tomorrow AM, Joe and I are leaving for Chicago for the three-day incredible-live-music binge that is the Pitchfork Festival. It’s my first time there, and I am pretty amped. We put together a nice little primer hub on this year’s festival, which you should check out here, to get a flavor of these year’s [...]

I’m pretty sure this entire post stems from a single wisecrack Maris made last week. We’ve all been nerding out to White Denim for weeks now over here in editorial, and when a Pissed Jeans demo landed on Joe’s desk, the (highly unfortunate) mental connection between the two was just too hard for us to [...]

Orca, please
So the biggest news in today’s new arrivals is undoubtedly the Dirty Projectors’ latest. Message board nerds have been hailing it as a major achievement ever since it leaked (two months ago). Of course, said message board nerds are now retreating on their claims, just in time for the other 98 percent of the [...]

A deeply weird and haunting clusterfuck of an avant-garde record came into eMusic on Friday. It is filed under Jazz, but the only distant relation it bears to Jazz is the fact that it is completely improvised. Otherwise, it lays about thirty miles safely outside of any genre borders. It is called The Songs, [...]

Yesterday, Yancey shouted out the new Jarvis record, Further Complications, which I hadn’t really spent much time with. I’m spinning through it now and am loving it — it’s a radical shift for Jarvis. Not just because it’s a “rock” record, but because it’s so arid and pointy and gruff — you can certainly hear [...]

(photo by marymactavish)
Today we’re happy to announce the return of a feature we started last year — “Indie Moms Sound Off!” This year, the mothers of members of the National, Okkervil River, Cut Copy, Bosque Brown, the Danielson Famile and many, many more tell us which of their kids’ songs they like the best and [...]