So… any good new releases today?
Obviously, today is Sony day, which sees a slew of popular — and not-so-popular — titles hit the site. There is a kind of giddy rush that comes from seeing, say, Bitches Brew or the first Stone Roses record turn up, and I’m already figuring my personal Save for [...]

My friend Ben’s obsession with the perfect-spring-music pop album that Phoenix is about to release (I am late on the Phoenix train by at least three years, but hoo boy I’m on board now) led him to Google the term “Lisztomania,” the title of the first track off of the upcoming Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. [...]

“I like new Sonic Youth the best.”
It was an innocuous-enough sort of thing to say, I figured. In the canon of “stupid stuff I say in the office,” I figured it wouldn’t even be top five (today’s winner was “I never really ‘got’ The Stone Roses”). The link to a Thurston-edited snippet/preview track from SY’s [...]

Meet Kurt Vile. His Constant Hitmaker is one of my sleeper faves of 2008, but for some reason I haven’t ‘Dot’d him yet. The procrastination paid off, though — Hitmaker seems tailor-made perfect to soundtrack the onset of the (so far beautiful) New York City fall.
The short of it: Philly-based lo-fi guitar pop guy who’s [...]

When the Perfect Unpop comp hit the site a few months ago, it went relatively unmentioned around these parts. I’ve been loving it — and re-loving it each time I return. For reasons unknown/unexplainable, I haven’t big up’d it here, but that all changes today!
Coming from the essential Cherry Red, Perfect Unpop is billed as [...]

The “Goth will never die” piece in the NY Times the other day, besides offering the profoundly jarring mental picture of a NY Times fashion reporter joining “I’m a Goth!” Facebook groups to conduct research/interviews, did manage to get me thinking about the two or three poor souls in the extremely blue-collar town where I [...]

The video above (of Crystal Stilts highlight “Through the Floor”) showcases the Stilts’ latest lineup, with new(ish) drummer Frankie and keyboardist Kyle — it’s a full, fierce sound and miles from when I first saw the band about a year ago.
I first heard about Crystal Stilts when I was trying to book their bro-band, NYC [...]

Not all of the best bands tour or even put out records. Some of them don’t even exist. As it’s Friday, take some time out from reality and have a look at a selection of fiction’s finest musicians.
The Good
Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem – The Muppet Show

The best-non human rock band in the [...]

Tuesday came with a torrent of notable new records; it was all I could do to come up for air after listening to it all. That said, I thought I’d sprinkle on an (extremely random) group of recent arrivals that may otherwise slip through the cracks.

It’s the small touches I like best about Latitude, like finding a full living room set, mantelpiece included, when wondering through the woods at night. I like the art works hanging from the trees, the pastel-coloured sheep and the ballet dancers and gondoliers on the lake. The festival took place last weekend in the grounds [...]

I love the Mercury Prize. I admit that the bands I want to win never do win (I’m so sorry British Sea Power, it’s all over for you now.) But the Mercury seems to be one of the very few awards that actually gets people talking about music, as opposed to sales figures or party [...]

Hearing “What You Won’t Do For Love” on the overhead speakers in the deli across the street today absolutely made my morning. Then finding out that we have a significant chunk, if not all, of Bobby Caldwell’s entire discography made my week. And THEN finding these youtube clips pretty much made my whole [...]

The speed at which The Hold Steady can turn around an album is certainly impressive – ‘Stay Positive’ is their third release since 2005 and covers familiar Hold Steady territory – from raucous party chants to introspective meaning-of-it-all cuts. And the really good news? If you’re in the UK you can pick it up at [...]

Hang around in the more underground sections of London’s music/art/ whatever scene for long enough and two things are almost guaranteed. Firstly, you’ll know at least one person who played a zombie in ‘Shaun Of The Dead.’ Secondly you’ll know at least one person who is in/ was in/ slept with/ fell out with They [...]

There’s a cover version I’ve been loving recently, but from none of the usual sources. BBC4 have been running a series of documentaries, cookery programmes, dramas etc all of which attempt to “get inside the Medieval mind.” Most of them have been excellent, but it’s the idents created to advertise it that I’ve been loving. [...]

In these days of digital downloads and industry turmoil it is so easy to feel disconnected emotionally from the hype and release of any body of recorded music. So imagine my surprise and delight when I was sent into a fanatic FURY upon noticing what had been tagged in two normally unexciting fields of [...]

Sad songs don’t need to be about romantic love. Glasvegas’ ‘Daddy’s Gone’ squeezes the throat, pricks your eyes and gives a small downwards tug to your heart, but it hymns an absent father rather than a lost girlfriend.
This single from the Scottish four-piece arrived on eMusic yesterday and, if you can, you should really [...]

I’ve been a little harsh towards Tangerine Dream in the past: “stupid hippy nonesense” would be one the politer phrases I’ve used to describe them. However, in conversation today with my Secret Krautrock Source I was informed that not only had two hard-to-find krautrock classics arrived on eMusic, but they were by Tangerine Dream and [...]

It isn’t often a major band and their record company decide not to tell anybody about a forthcoming album until a week before it’s due to be released, so I was surprised to say the least when one of eMusic’s bigger labels informed me that was exactly what they’d done. Have I heard it? No, [...]

I first attended the Plug Independent Music Awards in 2005, shortly after I had moved to New York and joined the ranks at eMusic. I couldn’t think of a better event to mark the beginning of my employment at a company that is so focused on the passionate spirit of music.