In 2008, a big day for record sales is a relative thing, for the majors and the indies alike. Physical sales are lower than ever, even for superstars; bands routinely crack Billboard’s top 10 with sales barely in the five digits. But today is a big day in the record industry.
Coldplay’s newest, Viva la Read More
When Martha Wainwright talks about her hopes for her musical career, she tries not to wish for too much.
"I have expectations, but those are dangerous,” she told The Observer. “I try to play things down so I won’t be disappointed. I just want to sing my songs, have some fun and be stylistic onstage. Read More
Al Green’s voice is strange and expansive and organic. For most of the 1970s his work yielded a series of gorgeous soul albums that are part of the iconography of the genre. Willie Mitchell’s arrangements pitted intermittent horns or organ over flat snare drums, with shards of smooth guitar and the occasional, lackadaisical string section. Read More
Over the past two years, the parodists from New Zealand, Flight of the Conchords, have scored with a hit HBO show (in which they play a hapless struggling band whose mundane adventures are punctuated by song) and won a Grammy award with their debut U.S. E.P. (seriously, a Grammy, and seriously, for an E.P., which Read More
In 1992, Moby was among the bristling avant garde of dance music, at a time when that genre seemed poised to break through to the mainstream in a big way. It was with him that it did break, just a few years later. 1999’s Play, mainly a roster of scratchy blues and gospel samples layered Read More
So there’s no way Adam Green could have known that, when asked by director Jason Reitman what music her character ought to listen to, Juno star Ellen Page would reply “The Moldy Peaches” faster than you can say “homeskillet.”
And there’s no way Mr. Green could have known the film would become such a runaway Read More
As a steady rain soaked the village this past weekend, Dean Wareham ambled down Avenue A, umbrella aloft, a slight bounce in his step, and watched the cabs race down the street. He wondered aloud whether his roof would spring a leak under the rain, and lamented his landlord’s decision to raise the rent by Read More
As this decade wanes, some of the chaos in the world of music seems to be settling, as those looking for new sounds grow tired of bottomless discovery. It’s exhausting, really, this omnivorous accumulation of songs. How many albums have been downloaded only to languish somewhere in the catacombs of sprawling hard drives? Yet everything Read More
This past Saturday, as a sellout crowd waited for Hot Chip to begin playing, a DJ at the Highline Ballroom played an a cappella version of Marvin Gaye singing “Sexual Healing.” Unadorned by dripping, quiet-storm keyboards and honeyed percussion, Gaye’s voice held the venue in thrall for a stirring few minutes, and those massed and Read More
Everybody needs to stop complaining about Chan Marshall. If I hear another person talk about how she has smoothed over the rough edges that made her so great and eradicated all the warts-and-all charm from her repertoire, I’m going to spit.
Just a year ago, after releasing the strongest album by far of her career, Read More
