We begin our discussion of the Faces, as we must, with “The Rod Conundrum” — one of the thorniest in all of rock and roll lore. Cue the ESPN 30 For 30 voice over: “What if we told you that Rod Stewart was once every bit as cool, dangerous, and desirable as Keith, Kurt, or [...]
Last night, Portland’s Keller Auditorium played host to Vampire Weekend. The band ran through hits from their first two albums and played a significant chunk of their excellent new record Modern Vampires Of The City. We sent Colin McLaughlin to check it out.
Queens of the Stone Age shook the sold out Wiltern Theatre with a performance that was worthy of arenas. Unveiling a slew of tracks from their new album …Like Clockwork, Queens deftly interjected older songs in with the newer material as you may have witnessed during the live broadcast for NPR. The whole concert is [...]
Prince recorded his new single “Fixurlifeup” with 3rd Eye Girl, the new badass all-female backing band that played with him at last weekend’s Billboard Music Awards. The song is practically a grunge swirl with a Prince vocal over the top, at least until it turns into early-’90s funk-metal near the end, and it’s really fucking [...]
I’m not entirely sure this week’s pick for best video even qualifies as a music video; it certainly stretches the definition. But in its impeccable planning and its flawless execution, it captured imaginations over the weekend and dominated the conversation come Monday. It felt like an actual honest-to-god event, and how many of those do [...]
When Gucci Mane cranks out way more (excellent) free music than anyone could reasonably be expected to process, it might seem a bit weird when he makes a new mixtape and actually asks people to pay for it. But Gucci’s new Trap House III is probably the best of the many full-lengths he’s released this [...]
True Romance, the excellent debut album from the British pop singer Charli XCX, is pretty much nothing but potential hits, and now another one of them has a video. In the clip for the twinkling and sighing “Take My Hand,” from director Ryan Andrews, Charli swans around a frenetic dance party, throwing come-hither looks in [...]
The Boy Least Likely To reached a certain level of fame in the ’00s on the strength of their debut album The Best Party Ever and the singles “Paper Cuts” and “Be Gentle With Me” (the video for which featured a young Rashida Jones). They soon became the best known example of a genre of [...]
After all the feints and subterfuge and precisely-engineered hype, Tomorrow’s Harvest, the first album that Scottish downtempo heroes Boards Of Canada have made in eight years, is imminent. And now, we finally get to hear a studio track from it. “Reach For The Dead” is an ominous, humming instrumental drone-piece with just a few hints [...]
Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire has been teasing his upcoming mixtape Kismet for a bit now. And while we’ve heard songs like “Noble Drew Ali” and seen his video “Nightfall At The Thames,” there was still no concrete information about if or when the full collection would actually come out. Finally, the project has an official release [...]