Barry Hogan, the British music promoter, was at Bleecker Street Records last Thursday afternoon partaking in what seems like an archaic ritual: CD shopping.
“There’s too many good records here,” he said in his thick English accent (although the actual records, those measuring 12-inches across, were downstairs). He was perusing the “C” section, and picked Read More
In case you haven’t heard, a lineup has been announced for this year’s New York installment of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, and it’s the kind of lineup that makes the Pitchfork set scream. The legendary My Bloody Valentine is headlining, marking the band’s first U.S. performance in 16 years. And in Read More
The Beta Band, a scruffy Scottish foursome who seem to shuttle between their London digs and a hut in the far north of Scotland, have gotten a lot of mileage out of being inscrutable. The irony is that they maintain precious little ironic distance at all. On their second full-length release, Hot Shots II (Astralwerks), Read More
A trustworthy rule of thumb: Critics should never write critically about other critics. Not only does this make a certain career sense, but one falls into the Pauline Kael-esque trap of assigning straw-man motivations to one’s nemeses in order to score points with larger issues that may or may not apply to the work being Read More
