Nick Cave is a strange, beguiling dude. Here’s a guy who made some of the blackest, darkest music of the post-punk era, now verging on Hollywood acceptability (thanks to The Proposition) and is probably a more frequent guest on David Letterman than Steve Martin....
Deerhoof’s last album, The Runners Four, was probably the most pop-obsessed album that the group had recorded in their lifetime. There were moments of their unexpected heavy crunch and stop/start fragments, but it was practically their version of The Monkees in...
Sondre Lerche, it might seem, is reinventing his music with every album, but what’s really going on is a combination of exploration and evolution. He’s not only building something entirely new with every record, but also building on what he’s already...
“Anybody that listens to just hip-hop is dumb,” says Plastic Little’s Jayson Musson over So-Co and lime at a local Northern Libs bar. He and fellow Plastic Little MC Jon Folmar are waxing philosophical over the nature of hip-hop, girls, art school and...
Few people in the musical world are as busy as the boys from Pinback. Rob Crow has been involved in four releases within the last 12 months—Pinback's Nautical Antiques, The Ladies' They Mean Us (with Zach Hill from Hella), His forthcoming solo album...
If he had to be an instrument, Aloe Blacc would be a piano because, with its chords, bass, treble and melody, his presentation is whole just like his debut solo Shine Through. A musical mosaic composed of a plethora of his influences, Shine Through is a fresh and...
Sean O’Hagan, indie music’s arranger extraordinaire, applies his unique combination of bouncy plucked bass, vibraphone and lush string arrangements with bold, broad strokes on Can Cladders, the new record from his band The High Llamas. Can Cladders absorbs...
When most people think of James Brown, they think of the musical legacy he left behind. Of being the “Godfather of Soul” and making that music into a militant sound BASSed on rhythm called Funk. Of his dancing and excellence in performance. But when I think...
It’s hard to endure the dead of winter—regardless of your location—and not feel the need for some music that let’s you just chill out and relax. The outdoors is overrated anyway. During one of those moments when the inside is where it's at,...
For Snoop Dogg, nothing comes easy—even starting a youth football league. New York-based Natural Resources Media & Technology Group has filed suit against the rapper's Snoop Youth Football League Foundation, alleging the foundation made a deal for a...