By 1986 – sixteen years after he had dissolved his artistic partnership with Art Garfunkel – it looked like the bloom had completely come off the concept of Paul Simon as a solo artist for the record-buying public. The singer's record sales had begun to decline around 1975's Still Crazy After All These Years in spite of it topping the charts and the singer started looking for something new to help rejuvenate his career. He had tried the “reunion tour”...

Imagine an eighteen-year-old and a thirty-three-year-old got in a ring to fight. Well, we’re about to do it in a digital style for two people who have put out albums in June 2012. Ladyhawke’s (Phillipa Margaret "Pip" Brown) second album Anxiety which came out June 4th is going up against Justin Bieber’s Believe (due out on June 19th). Welcome to the Dirty Digital Pit. Before we get to the albums, lets stand the fighters next to each other. Pip: Female,...

After a decade in the music arena, Metric has taken a sort of existential moment to breathe and reflect upon themselves, society and what’s to become of it all. Our undeniable technological advances are scarily amazing, but still strip us of genuine connection and emotion. It’s a transition that any person born before 1990 can relate to; and really that every generation can recognize in some way. When frontwoman Emily Haines wrote an open letter to fans via Metric’s website...

In the spirit of full disclosure, I used to hate Paul McCartney with a seething contempt reserved only for the likes of Steely Dan – a band who, in the ensuing years between such flannel-clad stubbornness and today, have muscled their way to the very front of the class at the music university of which my brain serves as dean.I'll never be able to forget how I once felt about McCartney and his music but, in 2012, Ram sounds an...

Magic Hour, the latest from Scissor Sisters, is no Night Work but that's just fine. The NYC-based dance-pop group reached the culmination of condensing forty years of club-going culture into one band’s discography on their last full-length. The undertaking was of such deadly seriousness to mastermind Jake Shears that they had scrapped the initial attempt at a third LP and allowed four years to go by since they had reached well beyond the gaze of private eyes with “I Don’t...

"There is nothing quite like a Dinosaur Jr. album. The best ones are always recognizable from the first notes. And even though J tries to trip us up by smearing “Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know” with keyboards, it’s clear from the moment he starts his vocals that this is the one and only Dinosaur Jr., long reigning kings of Amherst, Massachusetts (and anywhere else they choose to hang their toques). I Bet on Sky is the third Dinosaur Jr. album...

A little background is required for reviewing Sebadoh’s debut album. It was 1988 and Lou Barlow, having been bounced out from under the oppressive regime that was quickly becoming J Mascis’ Dinosaur Jr. by the guitarist himself, went back to the absolute basics of his songwriting; once again making lo-fi basement tapes and refining his craft. He reconnected with Western Mass. scenester Eric Gaffney and the duo began passing a 4-track tape recorder back and forth – eventually cobbling together...

It's really hard to believe that the Bay Area's alternative radio station Live 105 has been putting on their annual "BFD" for eighteen years now, but indeed they have – and this year's edition proved to be one of their biggest yet. From headliners Jane's Addiction to the rapidly rising Neon Trees to local favorites The Limousines, the all day music celebration had something for everyone. Highlights of the Soundcheck stage, which features some of the top notch local bands...

As he sits and plans out how his next six weeks are going to go, Ryan Dahle can't help but smile. Much of that time period will be spent re-examining his mid-Nineties project Limblifter and, while he takes great care to make clear that “return” is probably too strong a word, the prospects and possibilities of the venture are beginning to grow on him. The singer/award-winning record producer is now in a position where he doesn't have to hang any...

Do me a favor. Hit the play button you see above as you read this. It’s a necessity. Nigga. Yea I said it. I was called it by a truck full of white dudes after 9/11 so I have as strong a claim to the word as those who are a darker shade of brown than me. So if you don’t like the word. Here’s your exit point. (Notice how the song matches my review?) The only difference between my...