Just saw the official video for St. Vincent 's "Laughing With A Mouth Full Of Blood" while reading You Ain't No Picasso" and absolutely loved it. The song has grown on me an incredible amount since I last listened to it, and the video is funny! The humor is due in part to the comedian group Thunderant , who you know better as Fred Armison from SNL, and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney. St. Vincent is pretty adorable in the video, I really want to go see her live already! I feel like she is the type [...]

It's not at all uncommon for a band - particularly a well-connected band like The New Pornographers - to call up some musician friends to come lay down some tracks for a song here and there. But sometimes you can tell a band is going overboard with the guest appearances just to create a buzz. Thing is, most bands won't admit it like Carl Newman did recently. Along with bragging about having folks from St. Vincent , Beirut and Okkervil River on the record, Newman cracked a [...]
Annie Clark aka St. Vincent covers one of my favorite songs ("Mistaken For Strangers" from The National . News: Captain's Dead offers up Neutral Milk Hotel live at the Rathskeller in Madison (5.2.97). Peter Gabriel Covers Bon Iver's "Flume" Drive By-Truckers offer a download of the Cooley penned "Birthday Boy" in exchange for your e-mail address. ( The Big To-Do arrives March 16th) Daytrotter offers up a session with Beach House [...]

Indiescribable? Haha! Let me get my rimshot out of the way*. So apparently The New Pornographers will be releasing an album May 4 called Together , which I suppose is rather fitting because the personnel involved include A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Dan Bejar, Zach Condon ( Beirut [not to be confused with Beirut ]), Annie Clark ( St. Vincent ), Will Sheff ( Okkervil River ), and more! It's like a lot of talented people coming together (get it?!?!?). To make an album. That will most likely be really good. Welcome [...]

Star songcraftsman David Byrne, who released a beautiful and underrated album with Brian Eno ( Everything That Happens Will Happen Today ) in 2008, is readying a release with none other than Fatboy Slim. In the introduction of Here Lies Love , Byrne says: “The story I am interested in is about asking what drives a powerful person—what makes them tick? How do they make and then remake themselves? I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if—as this piece would be principally composed of clubby dance music—one could experience it in a club setting? Could [...]

Hey, look at that - we're still alive! Complete truth: I meant to post this a good week earlier, but was having server troubles. 2009 was a rough year, personally, for your poor webmistress, but it would take quite something to stop the compiling of year end lists. Though, 2009 wasn't such a competitive year for music, either, since this list wasn't the battle it was last year. No agonizing "I can't believe I have to leave this out!" cut offs, no close calls. Just 10 (... 11) albums that seemed to be the only things worth gracing [...]

NOTE: I didn't include singles for 2010 albums like "Cousins" and "Norway" because in my mind they are 2010 songs. So that's why they are not in the list. Also, I considered Local Natives a 2009 release since I was following them since last year and heard their album via the UK release. Similarly, that is why an album like the Rural Alberta Advantage has no songs on here. Because I included them in my list last year! Without further a do, here are my favorite (or the best!) songs of 2009 in my mind! : [...]

NOTE: I didn't include singles for 2010 albums like "Cousins" and "Norway" because in my mind they are 2010 songs. So that's why they are not in the list. Also, I considered Local Natives a 2009 release since I was following them since last year and heard their album via the UK release. Similarly, that is why an album like the Rural Alberta Advantage has no songs on here. Because I included them in my list last year! 100 . John Frusciante – Song To The Siren - The (newly) ex-Red Hot [...]
Happy New Year. First great music news of said new year? Soundgarden reunion is a go! How f'ing crazy is that? I guess Chris Cornell finally came to his senses. Maybe his shitty Timbaland produced R&B album, which bombed horribly, was the last straw or this is just a reunion tour cash grab. We shall see. I'm pretty pumped tough. I finally [...]

While googling to find our readers the mp3 links for the Sirius XMU Top 41 of 2099 playlist, it struck me that all these songs have one thing in common. Almost all of these tracks are available via free + legal mp3 sites such as rcrdlbl , Pitchfork , The Fader , Prefix Mag , I Guess I'm Floating , etc. Record labels and upstart bands take note! If you want your new music to make a mark, make an mp3 easy to find and download. [...]
As you might be able to tell by our lack of posting, we were hard at work over the holidays putting together our end of the year lists. Today is the first of three lists - our Best Albums of 2009 list. So in no particular order, we present them to you: The Antlers - Hospice This intensely beautiful, heart-wrenching album is full of more tragedy than we would hope any one person would

In recent years the crowd that is claiming "the album is dead" has grown louder and louder. We couldn't disagree more. As more and more people turn to iTunes and the Hype Machine to download the latest and greatest singles, we have stuck to the traditional album listening and found that there are still some truly great records being made these days. For most of this year we have been inundated by bands breaking into the world, mainstream artists trying to recapture their former glory, and indie rock "superstars" growing into their own, it has been exciting and fun and [...]

Artwork by the talented and generous Adam Sarpalius . The final list is here. We have been working on this Absolute (sarcasm) Best Songs of 2009 list all year, updating it at the end of every quarter. I was only going to have PMA's Top 50 of the year listen, but I couldn't narrow it down beyond the top 75. This list will represent and acknowledge some of the artists I felt had to be left out of our Best Albums of 2009 list. As always, I upheld only one rule [...]

La 4AD quest'anno ha celebrato i trenta anni di attività. Nata nel 1979 in Inghilterra, si è imposta da subito come una delle etichette più importanti per la pubblicazione di artisti dell'area indipendente in ambito post-punk e new wave . Letteralmente impossibile elencare tutti i musicisti e le band che hanno dato lustro alla 4AD negli anni. Dai Pixies ai Bauhaus , dai Birthday Party di Nick Cave ai Cocteau Twins e i Piano Magic . Nel tempo, la label britannica poi [...]

A look at who's coming to town: Word's out: St Jerome's Laneway Festival will not be coming to Singapore next year. However, thanks to Chugg Entertainment, headliners Florence and The Machine and Echo & the Bunnymen will be making a stopover on our sunny shores. Along with The xx , Flo performs February 7 at the Esplanade. The Bunnymen's show is on February 9. Additional details will be released soon. Download: [...]
4AD on laittanut kuunneltavaksi ja ladattavaksi (spostiosoitetta vastaan) parhaat palat kuluvalta vuodelta. Kokoelmalla ovat mukana mm. Atlas Sound, Camera Obscura, Deerhunter, M. Ward ja St Vincent. Tämäkin kokoelma vahvistaa entisestään käsitystä siitä, että 2009 oli laadukas musiikkivuosi.

At the beginning of the year I unleashed an article unlike anything I had ever written for this site before. Titled, " The 9's Have It: Historical Reasoning Why 2009 Will Be A Great Year for Music ", I detailed the history of the last year of the decade and its overall affect on the pop culture we would experience well into the next decade. Well 2009 hasn't really disappointed at all, at least when it comes to the music. Sure, we don't know exactly where we'll be 10-years from now but if you look at [...]

Illustration by Lanni You ready for this? Hell, I don't even know if I am... This is the biggest post we have ever done. This is huge. Here we go. OH! Before we begin... Don't forget! TOMORROW IS YOUR LAST DAY TO ENTER OUR BUTTON ILLUSTRATION CONTEST!!! Details and prizes (and a vinyl rip) after the link!!! HURRY! [...]