It’s been about two years since Stars set themselves on fire and attracted international attention with their Arts & Crafts debut, and that runaway success permeates every note of In Our Bedroom After The War. What’s immediately noticeable about the new album is that it isn’t more ambitious, it’s actually more laid back. Singer Amy Millan sounds far more comfortable in the delicate intimacy of both “The Night Starts Here” and “My Favourite Book,” and even goes so far as...

Rewind to a Friday night late in 1995: Instead of making out with boys behind the bleachers during a high school football game, my awkward teenage self is home watching MTV at midnight, checking out all the "new" and "experimental" videos. While this is very telling about how the remainder of my teenage (and college, for that matter) years went, I can be thankful for one thing: this was my first exposure to the weirdness that was The Rentals' "Friends...

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A hopelessly long line dots the circumference of the EchoPlex far into the night. Tonight, M.I.A. has arrived and the possibility for her to continue arriving is always a little tenuous, and so the line is long. Inside, the room swallows you with the moist heat of a yelling maw. On the fringes of the crowd, it's confusing as to where we are: the mixed audience of pouty hipsters, overweight alternative girls, big booty hoes, and Gwen Stefani fanatics swill...

Whether you are a long-time Sia fan from her days with Zero 7 (Simple Things, When It Falls and The Garden), or a more recent convert after hearing her solo track “Breathe Me” featured in the final episode of Six Feet Under, you will no doubt be excited to know that Sia will release a new solo full-length CD titled Some People Have Real Problems. Some People Have Real Problems will be released in digital form in December 2007, and...

Can you believe that it’s already been ten years since you first heard that awesome electro-wail in “Busy Child”? Well it’s true, and in celebration, Los Angeles’ very own Crystal Method will be releasing a deluxe version of their groundbreaking debut Vegas on September 18th via Geffen/UMe. This two-disc deluxe reissue is not simply record company rehash; it includes a number of remixes personally chosen by the duo that includes among others: a Paul Oakenfold remix of “Busy Child” and...

The pairing of Daft Punk and The Rapture is one of those genius moves of billing that might be best understood by underpaid music writers who have nothing better to do than think about these things. On the one hand, you've got The Rapture—one-time skronky post-punks who have completely embraced dance music culture and have created some truly remarkable indie/dance hybrids in the process. It's a simple fact that "House of Jealous Lovers" was the track that dance music needed...

Vegas is obviously the capital of debauchery and awesome stories that trail off midway through with sheepish grins and awkward glances. But apart from The Killers and Frank Sinatra, you'd be hard pressed to name any music that's associated with Sin City that doesn't come complete with lounge singer banter and a preponderance of cymbal rides. Luckily for Vegas residents (and those who want to make the drive from the surrounding area) the organizers of Bonnaroo are throwing together the...

Hands down, the best cupcakes are fun-fetti cupcakes. You know, the ones with the little neon colored flavoring balls? And fun-fetti frosting is even better. It is my sincere belief that fun-fetti cupcakes are the food analogue to Animal Collective. Crazy? Yes. Weird? If you take a step back and look at it, yes. Undeniably fun? Yup. Make a good party that much better? You betcha. So that's why we're putting on our party hats as these Animal Collective tour...

Bill Callahan, formerly a.k.a. Smog, a.k.a. , is taking to the highways and byways of America this fall in support of Woke on a Whaleheart, his latest album on Drag City. The tour is his first sans moniker, and will be opened up by renowned acoustic guitarist Sir Richard Bishop. Callahan is a man of few words and deep meaning, so be sure to keep rolling tape as you bootleg the show, just in case he decides to drop a...