Julian Casablancas, lead singer of the Strokes and leather jacket enthusiast, lost his cool. It may have happened when his popular group splintered into a collection of guitar-focused side projects or when he married a few years ago. But Phrazes for the Young, Casablancas’ debut solo album, lacks the detached breeziness of the singer’s previous work. This is only natural. Hip, young angst has nothing to do but cool down, from Catullus to Bob Dylan to Kanye West (impending). Hindsight strips ... Read Full Story

So after listening to Brady’s Autumn Shuffle last week, I was inspired to create a seasonal playlist of my own.  I didn’t put quite as much thought into my list as Brady, rather I simply chose to create a list of songs and albums that I feel both musically and lyrically fit the mood of the season. Let me know if you have any songs or albums that you really fall for this time of year. I hope that this playlist makes your ears bleed til winter comes. matt pond PA I really love this... Read Full Story

“Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.” – Robert Browning There’s nothing like the majestic melancholy of autumn. The cooling winds, wood smoke and mosaic of sunburned colors make for a truly magical few weeks, tainted only by a quiet apprehension of winter. Maybe it’s the slow fade of fall that makes me nostalgic, but every October, I’m reminded of the autumns from years past, and specifically, what I was listening to in those times. Here’s a hint: the timb... Read Full Story

The deluxe edition of this New York based trio’s electronica/dream pop debut, Alpinisms, was released about 2 weeks ago and has been in surprisingly heavy rotation since then.  The single “Iamundernodisguise” somehow manages to lodge itself in my head everyday, which probably creeps people out as I constantly chant the chorus under my breath.  The rest of the album is equally as hypnotic, with lots of emphasis on rhythm and layered vocals.  This duluxe edition  includ... Read Full Story

Spike Jonze has taken a 10-line children’s picture book and turned it into a full-feature film.  Which is quite a feat in and of itself, but I think that he does so successfully, even if it doesn’t really translate into a movie that kids will want to sit through. They did a great job developing this little 10-line plot into a pretty fascinating full-fledged story.  They did a great job of inviting the reader into the world of the “Wild Things” and I quickly found myse... Read Full Story

The title of The BQE, Sufjan Stevens’ ambitious new multimedia project, stands for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, a poorly planned knot of a roadway built in the 1950s. Stevens’ visual and musical rendering imagines the structure as the triumphant feat of human ingenuity it was intended as. The BQE is, for one, an orchestral suite, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and adapted from a 2007 performance at the Howard Gilman Opera House. Now it’s also the soundtrack to Stevens’ home... Read Full Story

There’s a popular mashup sloshing it’s way around the good ol’ web right now combining the talents of indie-electronic rocker Miike Snow and rapper Drake. The Hood Internet – Cult Logic Forever (Drake vs Miike Snow) Lemme map out what was changed here. (Miike Snows’s “Cult Logic” – Vocals) + (Drake’s “Forever” – Music ) – Eminem =  The Hood Internet’s “Cult Logic Forever“ Incase mathematic symbols... Read Full Story

Yes that’s right. Ben Folds, the musician, and Nick Hornby, the writer, have teamed up to write an album together.  While the album is still untitled , we do have a few tracks for you to preview.  Apparently they feel that the legend of Levi Johnston needn’t die, along with Palin’s political career.  Head over to the Huffington Post to have a listen to the ridiculous, yet hilarious “Levi Johnston’s Blues.”  (Warning: explicit) Ben Folds & Nick Hornby &... Read Full Story

The organ stabs on “Splitting the Atom,” the title track from Massive Attack’s new EP, are almost so self-conscioiusly spooky that one wonders if the group is performing with a wink instead of a grimace.  The song, with its twirling synths with whispered harmonies, is Dracula’s hoedown sing-along. It’s still Massive Attack’s world-weary sense of foreboding, but something has changed. The group has upgraded from eerily organic to starkly dystopian. It’... Read Full Story

A couple of years ago, Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Son Volt’s Jay Farrar met while working together on a Jim Sampas documentary about Jack Kerouac.  During this experience, the two decided to work together to create an album based on the words of Kerouac’s 1962 novel Big Sur.  The book recounts Kerouac’s personal retreats out to a cabin in Bixby Canyon called “Big Sur”.   The finished product, One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big S... Read Full Story