A Heritage of Hate
Why it’s the duty of every white American to burn a Confederate flag.
Erik Bryan
Train Operator
The city of New York employs nearly half a million citizens, more than any other municipality in the country. We decided to speak with some of those employees about their work and what it takes to keep the biggest city in America running. A train operator—name withheld—with the
Teacher
The city of New York employs nearly half a million citizens, more than any other municipality in the country. We decided to speak with some of those employees about their work and what it takes to keep the biggest city in America running. A first-grade teacher at a public elementary
J. Y. Strain
J. Y. Strain lives and works in Bloomington, Ill. This poem is dedicated “for my brother, regarding his ride.” I’d Like to See You at Thanksgiving If you wanna go Grand Prix there’s some things you gotta know. Digest this holiday plea: Get rid of that Mitsubitchi. You
Michael Loughran
“Year of the Grim Light” I was using fewer and fewer words, and then I was using none. Not even a running gag with the dog, or reading old history out loud to a houseplant. Not even half a song sung to the TV news anchor on TV. Not even
Prison Ship Martyrs Monument
I’d first heard about the site on my outing to St. Paul’s Church in the Bronx. Frank, the lecturer at St. Paul’s that day, told me about the memorial, and gave me contact information for one Martin Maher, Brooklyn’s Chief of Staff for New York’s
Fraunces Tavern Museum
Today the site is still very much a functioning tavern, as I discovered upon arriving last Thursday and being hustled through one dining hall and a whiskey bar by a staff member to reach a central elevator that would take me up to the museum. That night it was hosting
Floyd Bennett Field
During his freshman year at Kansas State in 1972, he joined the Air Force ROTC and took the Air Force Officers Qualifying Test, which he nearly aced. Then during a physical exam his left eye failed him, and he was told he will never fly a jet—at least not
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
My friends Bex and Todd had shown interest in going to the park, so we decided to meet up there in the afternoon. It was a lovely day fit for a walk in a park. A little too lovely, really. It was unseasonably warm, in fact, something that played into
Edgar Allan Poe Cottage
Two Sundays ago I trekked out to the Bronx to visit the Edgar Allen Poe Cottage. (Although Poe was better known for bouncing between Richmond and Baltimore, he spent several years living in New York City.) As our subway car emerged into the Bronx daylight, I forced my travel companions,
Wyckoff Farmhouse and Queens County Farm Museums
When I was in the fifth grade my class took a trip to a historical farm museum in Tifton, Ga., called Agrirama, a fully functioning re-creation of a Reconstruction-era sugar cane farm. There were historical re-enactors who split the class on gender lines, boys going to work in the barn
Van Cortlandt House Museum
I got in touch with a couple of friends, Meghan (who accompanied me to Historic Richmond Town) and Christine, a Roadside Attractions newbie. I told them about my plans to visit the house and experience the “Enchanted Evening” with me. I may have even made a joke or two about
Society of Friends Meeting House
My trips to view historic sites, then, have taken me deep into Staten Island, just north of the Bronx, and this past weekend to Flushing in northeasternmost Queens, where the Quakers’ original Meeting House stands today. I called to confirm the house would be open and tours would be available.
Historic Richmond Town
There’s a little Dutch colonial village at the center of Staten Island called Historic Richmond Town. It was established in the 1690s following a wave of Dutch settlements in neighboring villages, of which Staten Island was home to many. Though the British had taken control of the former New
Merchant House Museum
While researching my historic destinations, one place that came up in every conversation was the Merchant House Museum in Manhattan’s East Village. The home was built in 1832 and bought shortly thereafter by one Seabury Tredwell. Tredwell had a large merchant-class family (hence the house’s current name), two
St. Paul's Church
I decided to visit the site last weekend because of an event commemorating the Battle of Pell’s Point, fought about a mile from the church on Oct. 18, 1776. It was a gorgeous day, and one of the first that truly felt like autumn here in New York. I
Hamilton Grange
The weekend of Sept. 17 the Hamilton Grange was being rededicated to coincide with Constitution Day. I won’t condescend to tell you who Alexander Hamilton was or why he’s such a big deal for the United States; we all know him principally as the founder of the New
Tallahassle
Florida is America’s most-abused state, and Tallahassee its biggest target for bi-coastal writers who pick low-hanging fruit—rednecks, old people—and wouldn’t know an alligator from their elbow. The slander has gone far enough. On behalf of every Tallahussey and T-Town man, let the corrections begin
Nom de Plume
Ciuraru has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. She has also edited anthologies of poetry for Alfred A. Knopf/Everyman’s Library and Scribner. TMN: What drew you to the topic of
Matthea Harvey & Amy Jean Porter
Matthea Harvey is the author of three books of poetry and a contributing editor to jubilat, Meatpaper, and BOMB. Amy Jean Porter is an artist who has had solo exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, and has been featured in publications such as Cabinet, Flaunt, jubilat, and
Adam Goodheart
Adam Goodheart is a historian, journalist, and one of a handful of contributors to the New York Times’s Disunion blog. Disunion marks the 150th anniversary of the events leading up to and including the Civil War in daily installments. Goodheart is also the author of the forthcoming book 1861:
Iain McGilchrist
Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist and writer who works in London. He was awarded a Prize Fellowship of All Souls College, Oxford, in 1975 for teaching English, and later trained in medicine. His new book, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World,
Daniel Tucker
In 2005, Daniel Tucker founded AREA Chicago, an organization whose “publications and events serve the double mission of researching art, education, and activist practices within the city of Chicago.” Tucker recently announced his departure from the organization, but he’s been keeping busy. He collaborated on a book called Farm
Can We Date?
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. A reader wants to know if it's OK to date a distant relative. We answer by way of flowchart.
Lauren Mechling & Laura Moser
Young adult novelists Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser are currently publishing their new novel—a meta-vampire story called My Darklyng about the writer and fans of a series of vampire novels—in serial installments on Slate. In addition to the serial novel, Mechling and Moser have upped the “meta” ante
Mary HK Choi
Mary HK Choi, former editor-in-chief of the sadly defunct Missbehave, is now a contributing writer at The Awl and Complex. Also, it’s been recently announced that she will be writing a series for Marvel comics. Lady Deadpool no. 1 will be in stores July 21 and will focus on
Casey Pugh
Casey Pugh helped make Vimeo and is now the head of web development for Boxee. He also founded the crowdsourcing film project Star Wars: Uncut, which recently premiered at CPH: PIX, a Copenhagen film festival. The project broke the film down, and users were asked to recreate and submit the
Standard & Poor
Accountability in education is here to stay--but you try creating tests that equally suit Texans and Hawaiians.
Star Black
Star Black is a poet, photographer, and collage artist living and working in New York City. She’s released five books of poems, has taught at The New School and Stony Brook University, and lectured at the Bennington Writing Seminars. An exhibit featuring her collages in hand-made books will be
Anil Dash
Anil Dash describes himself as a “blogger, entrepreneur, and geek living in NYC.” His blog, started in 1999, was one of the first on the web. He was the first employee of Six Apart, the blogging company behind TypePad and Moveable Type, and was recently appointed Director of Expert Labs,
Cory Arcangel
Digital media artist and musician Cory Arcangel recently presented Depreciated, his first career retrospective, at the Netherlands Media Art Institute (aka Montevideo). One new piece featured clips of cats walking on piano keys assembled into Schoenberg’s “Drei Klavierstücke, op. 11.” Arcangel also co-founded programming ensemble BEIGE while at Oberlin
RoseLee Goldberg
RoseLee Goldberg is an art historian, curator, and author of Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. In 2004, she founded PERFORMA, a non-profit arts organization that hosts a biennial series of performance art pieces in New York City. PERFORMA 09 (running through Nov. 22) marks the 100th anniversary of
Abhay Khosla
Abhay Khosla is a regular contributor to The Savage Critics, a review of comic books. He’s made a foray into writing comics, and his absurdist, scatalogical adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has garnered internet notoriety. Khosla also self-publishes Twist Street, an anthology of comics and other writing. TMN:
Emily Bobrow
Brooklyn resident Emily Bobrow is editor of More Intelligent Life, the online version of The Economist’s quarterly culture and style magazine. She is also a contributor to The Economist's books and arts section and has written for The Believer, the New York Observer, and TimeOut New York.
Jonathan Ames
Jonathan Ames is a Brooklyn-based writer, an occasional boxer, and the creator of the new HBO series Bored to Death about a Brooklyn-based writer named Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman, who becomes a private detective. TMN: Why set the show so distinctively in Carroll Gardens and other actual New
Tracey Thorn
Tracey Thorn is an English singer-songwriter with a career spanning nearly three decades. She is probably best known as being one half of the highly acclaimed duo Everything but the Girl. She lives in London with her husband and three children, and has recently finished recording her third solo album.
Carl Deal & Tia Lessin
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin are the producers and directors of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Trouble the Water, which follows the lives of Ninth Ward residents Kimberly and Scott Roberts during the aftermath of Katrina’s devastation of their homes in New Orleans. The film won the Gotham Independent Film
Will Pearson
Given the title of “El Presidente” at mental_floss, Will Pearson developed and published the magazine’s first issue with Mangesh Hattikudur while they were both still students at Duke University. Since then, the magazine has become a staple for “knowledge junkies” and has spawned a web site, books, a
CAConrad
In his new book, poet and self-described “vegetarian sin eater” CAConrad develops a theosophy based on the music and celebrity of Elvis Presley. Using prose poems, found art, and snippets of conversational dialog, Advanced Elvis Course details CAConrad’s excursions to Memphis where he interacts with acolytes of the King.
Andrew W.K.
After launching a music career built on positivity and partying, Andrew W.K. keeps busy by going in several directions at once. He is co-owner of lower Manhattan’s Santos Party House, has appeared in and supplied music for episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and recorded an album of
Nina Paley
Cartoonist Nina Paley is the creator of Sita Sings the Blues, an interpretation of the Ramayana, the Hindu epic. The film was released online earlier this year and set to the music of blues singer Annette Hanshaw. In the difficult process of acquiring rights to use Hanshaw’s music, Paley
Ryan Catbird
Back in the formative days of the mp3-blog world, Ryan Catbird was king with The Catbirdseat. Since then he’s started his own label (Catbird Records, with a slew of newreleases) and founded MBV Music, an amalgam of music blogging’s finest that recently won an Eddy. TMN: What was
WNYC's John Schaefer
A native of New York City, John Schaefer has been a WNYC radio host and music curator for more than 25 years. His long-running show “New Sounds” explores a diverse galaxy of genres old and new, and his program “Soundcheck” interviews artists and covers industry news. “Soundcheck” also recently began
Cadillac Man
Cadillac Man, as he was known on the streets, spent the better part of the past 15 years homeless in New York City. After losing a managerial position at a Pepsi plant, and then at a Hell’s Kitchen meat market, his second marriage dissolved. With nowhere else to go,
No Take Backs
Four Tet is actually Kieran Hebden, a post-rock/electronic musician from London. Dubstep producer Burial, after a great deal of speculation, finally owned up to being William Bevan. Hebden and Bevan are mates, as they say across the pond, which is why they collaborated for the two tracks on a
Waiting for the Right Move
Less than a month has passed since up-and-coming Austin act VEGA, who were pretty well-received at SXSW earlier this year, allegedly stole Crystal Castles's guitar pedal, and yet we're all just barely getting over the conflict. Two full weeks later, the questions that remain are still
For a Bigger City
The Dirty Projectors sound weird. Not weird like never letting your children celebrate their birthday, or like an extensive collection of Beanie Babies. The Dirty Projectors are weird like people who refold their napkins when getting up from the table, if only for a bathroom break, or like a bunch
Free Music Archive
For those of you with a guilty conscience looking to sit out the battle between the record labels and the maniacally shortsighted (though preciously so) "everything should be free" people, look no further than the new Free Music Archive. Brought to you in large part by the guys
Thinking This Is Fun
Winning is hard, really for two main reasons: first, you have to win. The best winners make this look easy, but it never is. The second reason concerns what happens after you win. All the striving and dedication to your craft has paid off, but it puts you in a
One of the Beautiful
"Regarding our absence, sometimes one needs to disappear in order to regroup; situations change and human beings are swept here and there by the marvelous ebb and flow of culture." Such is the explanation--noticeably void of definitives, of real cause and effect--posted on the Voxtrot website. This is
Dance Til You're Dead
Under most circumstances, a tonal shift in a band's entire sound is a signal of desperation. Perhaps they are past their prime, perhaps they aren't selling out the same venues they used to. But sometimes it's the sign of a truly restless creativity, one
Xylopholks
Last week, amid a crush of evening commuters, I stood slackjawed on the L train platform and witnessed what I could only assume were two grown men, one in a blue Cookie Monster-ish costume, the other a pink gorilla [turns out it was Jon Singer and Bridget Kearney--ed.], playing rollicking
Ram On
As anyone who's been to the movies recently, or listened to a radio, or watched another stale episode of supposedly edgy satire (SNL? Family Guy? Fill in the blank?) has surely noticed, our cultural arts could now persist for eons untold in a state of half-wakefulness, cannibalizing the
Empire for Ashes
A thousand American Idol winners singing through a thousand autotune modulators will never make a Voice, a singer to be reckoned with, instinctually appreciated, and surrendered to. Very few of our musicians could just as easily go by the title of singer alone, which is what makes Neko Case and
The Bloomed Hill Impasse
Remember how it was all supposed to be? And how the distance between that supposed and that of your here and now is the breadth of the America you inhabit? Imagine all that distance and the places in between which are passed through--once, twice at most--but never lived. Have you
What's Your Face
Apparently this band, Fight Like Apes from Dublin, has been around, recording, and touring Ireland and the UK for a couple years now. As much as we rely on the internet to fill us in on these things, we've only recently heard them and that was largely due
Out With the Old
For so long we've seen decline, dissolution, and departure. From our vantage here in the middle of winter we've seen Nature itself stripped of life and leaf, but memory serves to remind that these are merely cycles within a greater cycle. The days' arcing sunlight
SXSW 2K9
The Academy of Indie Rocks and Cultural Science People has released its official list of candidates for consideration during the Academy's annual Spring bacchanal in Austin, TX. Among these nominees, one winner will be chosen to win the grueling South by Southwest Showcase competition, thus earning the title
Wish in One Hand
This Friday past, peeps over at the Hype Machine finished up their year-end Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008, which uses data compiled by the search results and bookmarked favorites of registered users to determine what were the most popular artists, albums, and songs (in those three catergories) of the past year.
We Will Fall
It would be remiss not to mention the recent passing of Ron Asheton, guitarist for Ann Arbor's most acerbic contribution to the late 60s garage rock scene, The Stooges. As reported first in the Ann Arbor News on Tuesday, Asheton's body was found by police in
Diamonds From the Trough, Part 2
In every effort to outdo Mike's first entry in this ad hoc series, I've gone about collecting those lapidary listens from the past year's releases which, though somehow managing to miss my attention, became firmly lodged in the collective consciousness of list makers the
Music Blogovision
Every once in a great while, a thing comes along which is more or less some things you've already been using diligently for that same while, and suddenly you're experiencing those things in a new form and wondering how this new composite thing couldn't
What the Kids Don't Stand
It's become difficult to remember the hazy epoch that was last year, when the musical contents of a simple CD-R became an epidemic. The songs of Vampire Weekend were everywhere, which made the official "release" of their "debut album" in January of this year
Message to Mitch
Early Wednesday morning, Mitch Mitchell was found dead in a Portland, Ore., hotel room. Most notably, he was the last surviving member of the ridiculously beloved Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix's most famous and prolific trio, responsible for such incredibly favored songs as "Hey Joe," "Purple
Make of That What You Will
Just as a cat meows or a man who graduates with a Psych or Liberal Arts degree will most likely keep working at whatever service industry position he was holding prior to graduation, not only because he doesn't really have any great prospects at the moment but because
When a Stunt Pair Is Not
Stunt pairings come in all forms, be it award presenters, buddy/actionflicks, or commercial endorsements. And who can forget those irascible "maverick" twins of way back before the election? I know, it seems like ages ago now. When it comes to music collaboration, however, the question must be
We're All In
Last week saw the U.S. debut album release, titled Na Na Ni, of yet another group of almost disgustingly talented and natural-sounding Swedish indie poppers. According to their MySpace page, the members of Fredrik carry on the traditional first-name-use-only rule as set forth by their brilliant predecessors and countrymen
Calling It a Day
Bands break up. It's a fact of life. Sometimes it's a blessing (ahem, Creed); sometimes it's an unfortunate loss that everyone chooses to blame on Yoko. In the case of the Long Blondes, it was a tragic necessity. In June of this year, lead
Pushing Your Buttons
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. In this week's installment, we help an Obama supporter navigate the murky waters of political expression at the workplace.
No Censorship Age
Election years tend to put a strain on the relationship between the media establishment (at least its old-school incarnations) and entertainers/artists (to say nothing of the strain between the media and the candidates, or between entertainers/artists and the candidates). The executives for the major television networks, especially, may
Attracting Strange Midnight Snowflakes
Buffalo's own Mercury Rev is the latest band to jump on the increasingly popular trend of making recording industry executives cry by giving away great material absolutely free. On September 29, while simultaneously releasing Snowflake Midnight--a proggy, shimmery, mostly electronic album--the band also released Strange Attractor, an instrumental,
Quoi de Neuf
Beautiful pianist, singer, and New England Conservatory drop-out Casey Dienel is only 23 and she's making better music than you or I probably ever will. She's also not trying to make a big deal about it. She recorded her first album on a lark in a
The Sons of No One
Last week Rhino Records, proud purveyors of our pop cultural history, released CD reissues of the Replacements' four Sire/Reprise releases spanning 1985 to 1990. Those years sadly saw the decline of the group, and while the music becomes increasingly uneven toward the end of their time together, the
The Holocaust Section
On June 13, My Bloody Valentine played their first public performance in 13 years at the ICA in London. The reformation arrived stateside this past weekend, with their first performance in the U.S. in 16 years at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, which the band helped curate.
A Stern Mouth- and Earful
Shortly after the release of her first album early last year, Marnie Stern was featured alongside Kaki King in a New York Times article for, essentially, being a woman who plays guitar really well. It's hard to estimate how accurate the Times's assumption is that virtuosic
Another Word for Fiddlesticks
Nearly every day another part of my adolescent self is beaten into further submission. Where vitriol and bombast once reigned, now softness and grace are slipping in. This has been hastened by the recent resurgence in the popularity of folk music, now called "indie folk," so we don&
Re-Appropriating Appropriation
In the past week, two major music blogs (Stereogum and Gorilla vs. Bear) have featured Malawi's Esau Mwamwaya along with leaked tracks from his highly anticipated debut release produced by Radioclit, the British DJ/production duo with a naughty name. Mwamwaya was also featured on the cover of
King's Lead Hat
Fresh off of a tear of high-concept and highly touted publicart projects, David Byrne has also been busy finishing up Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, his first collaboration with Brian Eno since 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Where music on its predecessor was dissociative and
Krautrocker Glory
Brighton's own Fujiya & Miyagi will release their third album, Lightbulbs, in early September. The band has been cited as owing a debt not only to electronic music of the early ’90s, but to the so-called “Krautrock” acts that made that music possible, specifically Neu! and Can. These
Engaging the Fans
One of the chief concerns of the digital age is the problem of getting people to pay for music. Of Montreal, the super-popular psychedelic funk freaks of our time, have devised a new marketing strategy to entice fans into buying digital downloads of their upcoming album, Skeletal Lamping: offering specially
Is a Revolution
Dan Deacon has garnered notoriety in some circles for his particular brand of electrostatic beepcore (coinage mine), and for, if nothing else, proving that Baltimore can produce relevant artists in our time (an honor he shares with Wham City and David Simon). So proud is Deacon of his Baltimore colleagues
Monkey: Journey to the West
For those of us practically dying of anticipation for whatever Damon Albarn releases next, our desperate longing since The Good, the Bad & the Queen (less than two years, really) is nearing its end as Monkey: Journey to the West will be made available for digital download on Aug. 18.
Danny Callahan
It used to be easy to write off Bright Eyes and, by extension, all things Conor Oberst several years ago. Not only were his music and lyrics very cloying in that way that terribly cloying, sophomoric, “serious,” music tries to be, but he was being championed by the most annoying
A Crutch or a Cradle
Pony Up is an all-girl group from Montreal that released its first album, Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes, in late 2006. Though the band hasn’t released anything since, it did put a new song-in-progress on its MySpace page, which suggests there may be a new album
In the New Year
A new album from the Walkmen, called You & Me, will officially be released on Aug. 19. However, the entire album is currently available from the band’s online music store for just five bucks. All sales of the album will go to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where a
Alphabets
As one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA (sometimes Genius) has meaningfully contributed to what many will always consider the biggest and best hip-hop group of all time. Though he doesn’t get the credit as a producer that RZA does, the movie roles that Method Man
Playing With Fire
The biggest music news from the past week has to be that ABKCO Music & Records, Inc., holder of the Rolling Stones’ publishing rights, is suing Lil Wayne and his label for copyright infringement for borrowing a chorus melody and title from the Stones’ hit “Play With Fire” for Wayne’
Ran
Hailing from Calgary, Azeda Booth has just released In Flesh Tones, its first full-length album. On its web site, the band describes itself as “too skittish for space rock, too hot for IDM, too concise and charming for glitch-core.” I know, right? The furor this band has currently unleashed in
Glorious Ballad of the Ignored
My familiarity with Pas/Cal has largely been based on a precious few songs heard over the years as well as a few concert posters in a friend’s apartment. The songs are usually above average, and the posters are great. As you can see from their web site, they
The Geeks Were Right
“I like the Faint.” That was my introduction to the Nebraskan New Wave five-piece, a four-word description on a friend’s Amazon wish list years ago. I don’t know if she still does, but after hearing 2001’s phenomenal Danse Macabre, I was hooked. Not only is their music
Bruno's Torso
After signing to Sub Pop back in ’06, Brooklyn-based Death Vessel was expected to release something shortly after. Now, two years down the road, the label debut is slated for mid-August. The music, which calls to mind the Shins’ more stripped-down work, is folksy, droney, and twee, and the vocals,
666
There will probably always be a foolish, rebellious, adolescent part of my consciousness that will try to act out by imploring me to slam dance, play with fire, and tempt the forces of evil. Though my staid, responsible, adult brain is unlikely to give in to these impulses anymore, thankfully
Sunshine Kid
While perusing Radiohead’s Dear Air Space blog the other day, I came across an entry by someone calling himself “Colin,” who implored readers to seek out a new album by someone or something calling themselves “One Little Plane.” After a brief and painless amount of research, I discovered this
One of Us
Known as one of the most influential bands to emerge from the British punk scene in the late ’70s, both for their music as well as their Situationist politics, Wire has done what few of their contemporaries could manage to do: They stayed together. A little over a month ago,
Oh! You Pretty Things
If you’re anything like me, you can’t get enough David Bowie. Except of course for the whole Tin Machine thing. What was he thinking? Whatever. A new covers album called Life on Mars—each song hand-picked and approved by Bowie himself—will be released on July 8. Already
White Winter Hymnal
Hailing from Seattle and signed to the cred-dispensing Sub Pop label, Fleet Foxes not only has a really cute name that’s fun to say, they have current and former members of such noteworthy indie groups as Crystal Skulls and Pedro the Lion. What’s better, they hate hippies. Which
Dr. Carter
At the tender age of 15, Lil Wayne was already becoming something of a trump card in Cash Money’s hand, and Wayne’s Hot Boys group produced some of the more popular singles from the label (cf. “We on Fire” and “Project Chick”). Ten years later, Lil Wayne has
Ghost Town (Pt. 1)
Only recently was I clued in to Parts & Labor, a Brooklyn-based noise-pop outfit playing at this summer’s Siren Festival at Coney Island. Luckily I heard about the group just in time to find out about member Dan Friel’s solo work, which is mostly instrumental noise pop. Linked
Good Enough
I’m a sucker for a good cover, and this week’s honorable mention goes to the Acorn, a Canadian group that recently contributed a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Good Enough” for a Coke Machine Glow podcast. Their version softens Lauper’s already nonchalantly pop masterpiece, but the highly
Go for the Exit
After calling Guided by Voices quits just four short years ago, Bob Pollard, the quits-caller, has released about eight solo albums, plus various EPs and albums with side projects (e.g., the Takeovers, Keene Brothers, Circus Devils, etc.). To call him prolific is nearly an understatement, as it’s hard
Toe Jam
Unstoppable artist, scenester, and icon of music David Byrne has just revealed his new art project, a building that is an instrument you can play. Of course to him it’s the most obvious commentary on the music industry, as its days are clearly numbered. I just dare him to
Gobbledigook
Non-English singing, orchestrally driven, howling, post-rock giants are rarely considered for the whole “hits of the summer” racket so inevitable in news media this time of year, but I think I’ve found one that should be. Sigur Rós’s new single “Gobbledigook,” from their forthcoming Með Suð í Eyrum
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward (or She & Him) have a good thing going, and they’ve just announced a summer tour to share it with the likes of us here on the East Coast. He is a well-accomplished singer/songwriter; she’s an indie film darling. Together they make
Little Bit
What is with all the incredible Swedish music coming out lately? I mean, is it the longer winters? The sunlit nights of summer? The blondes everywhere? Whatever the cause, the Swedish Invasion is in full swing, and a recent addition to their roster is Lykke Li. Her first album, Youth
Bo Diddley
Everyone who cares must have heard about the passing of Bo Diddley by now, and, quite understandably, he’s currently the most popular artist at the Hype Machine. As has been said, he was one of a handful of artists who helped create rock ‘n’ roll as we know it,
Shiller
According to the internet, last week New York-based electronic duo Ratatat quietly released a vinyl-only seven-inch (whatever the hell those words mean). One of the songs included is “Shiller,” which sounds like a film soundtrack scored jointly by Ennio Morricone and Angelo Badalamenti—so, clearly Italian in provenance. Which seems
The Greatest Man That Ever Lived
I’ve never really gotten over Matt Sharp’s departure from Weezer in 1998, and haven’t really paid much attention to their output since, except for deciding what singles I’ve heard were sub-par. Their third self-titled album (known as The Red Album, adhering to the tradition set forth
Lovecraft in Brooklyn
After collaborating on “Coffee” more than a year ago, the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle and underground hip-hop champion Aesop Rock have reversed roles and the latter has played guest to the former’s host. Which is to say, Darnielle gave Aesop the tracks to “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” (cf. the album
Razor Tongue
First gaining attention as the female vocalist on Tricky’s first four albums, Martina Topley-Bird has one of the most distinctive voices in trip-hop, an admittedly small group of artists. In a rare move in the music world, she cited creative differences with her collaborator and moved on to a
No Hiding Place
I’d hoped to mention Elvis Costello & the Impostors’ new album, Momofuku, for this month’s Leak Report, but at the time it seemed everyone in his cabal was keeping the album close; I couldn’t find a single leak. It was eventually released, a CD version made available
The May 2008 Leak Report
I was considering using a malaprop of sorts to introduce this month’s collection of leaked music by conflating the popular adage of “April showers” with these “May leaks,” but then I thankfully remembered that I don’t hate any of you anymore than I’d want you to hate
The TMN Summer Fest
With South by Southwest already a fading memory and the glory of spring officially upon us, fans of live music across the country are turning their attention to the gigantic summer festivals looming in the distance. Artists are being added to lists every day for juggernauts like Bonnaroo, the Pitchfork
The April 2008 Leak Report
It’s genuinely hard for me to say which of this month’s album releases I’m most excited about. Well, I’m not really excited about any the following, since they’ve all been leaked, but picking a favorite would prove difficult. Several major artists have highly anticipated releases
Mp3 Bio: Steve Winwood
Born in Birmingham, U.K., in 1948, Steve Winwood started playing guitar in his father’s band at just eight years old. Growing up in Birmingham’s rhythm and blues scene, he had plenty of opportunity to network, and by his early teens Winwood was playing in pick-up bands for
Keep It or Delete It
Ah, spring. The season for cleaning is here again, and much like Kenneth Grahame’s Mole, I find myself taking inventory of everything down in my dusty hole in the ground. My clothes could use a good once-over, as there are several shirts I haven’t worn recently, even a
The March 2008 Leak Report
Cursing the gods of New York City weather—those that taunt us with a day or two of warm sun and clear blue sky between sloughs of ice and wind—I desperately look forward to the month ahead. I can’t remember whatever that groundhog Phil’s official decree was
Deconstructing Valentines
Less than a week since Valentine’s Day, the investigation of a unique and more or less distinct shared set of cultural ideologies recognized as post-Valentinism is appropriate and well overdue. Much like the precessional relationship of Modernism to post-Modernism, especially pertaining to the fields of songcraft, semiotics, and critical
The February 2008 Leak Report
Although it’s formally considered his side project, Bradford Cox has been involved in Atlas Sound far longer than he’s been recording with his better known outfit, Deerhunter. Started as an ongoing project with best friend Lockett Pundt in the sixth grade, Atlas Sound (named for the karaoke machine
New Histories for New Bands
Anyone can sit you down and tell you what they know about popular, highly influential musicians. It’s easy, just sitting there, telling. Which is what makes our occasional forays into strident disinformation about little-known, up-and-coming musicians so special. Obfuscation like this takes serious effort. Once again, let’s have
Mainstreamers Become Soundtrackers
As much as the dead silent stretches generate an unnerving sense of foreboding tension in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film There Will Be Blood (which, if you haven’t seen it yet, seriously, whose milkshake are you drinking?), so too do the exquisitely dissonant string arrangements of the accompanying
The January 2008 Leak Report
Happy New Year, everyone! Wasn’t 2007 nuts? Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to the business at hand: 2008 is going to be a banner year for music, despite all the doomsayers of the supposedly dying industry. To wit, here’s a look at some
An Unholy Christmas Soundtrack
The rigidity of Christmas tradition is most evident in the ubiquity of its music. As unsavory as I find so many other aspects of the season—the false sentiment, the terrible TV programming, the hyper-commoditization—it’s the music that has become truly inescapable. It begins a week or two
The December 2007 Leak Report
This week, a new monthly feature in the Mp3 Digest, provided the RIAA’s black ops don’t take me under cover of night to an undisclosed location for all sorts of beastly torture. We’ve scoured the corners of the internet to bring you songs leaked from the coming
Everything's Gonna Be All Right
The holidays have arrived. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, Black Friday looms imminently on the other side, and then it’s a mad dash to whatever your religion or creed suggests you celebrate at one of the highest spiritual points of the year. Since I’m sure everyone is going to hear
Lovelesses
My Bloody Valentine’s shoegazer-defining Loveless still finds incredible favor among critics and listeners alike and is generally assumed to be one of the best albums ever. The dudes at Pitchfork even give it a second-place spot to Radiohead’s OK Computer on their best of the ’90s list. No
Questionable Band Bios
While I usually try to share true and pertinent information about the bands featured here, this week I’ve scoured the web for songs I like from bands I’ve never heard of. (And please, there’s no need for any of that childish “Man, I can’t believe you
Video Digest: October 19, 2007
Just over 30 years ago, followinginauspiciousbeginnings, a relative unknown starred in a film he’d written about a scrappy boxer with big dreams who miraculously both beats the champ in a title match and turns “yo” into a catchphrase. Equally miraculously, the film went on to win three Academy Awards
Mp3 Bio: the Traveling Wilburys
To some, I’m sure I sound like a raving madman when I say there was ever such a thing as New Coke or Cassingles. Thanks to the internet I can usually prove that such marvelous things did once exist, but there seems to be only so much the uninitiated
Wherever You've Been, We Missed You
When you really think about it, a vampire weekend sounds either incredibly lame (as in hanging out in the cemetery with a bunch of goths, drinking cheap red wine, and reading aloud from Anne Rice novels) or absolutely horrifying (as in spending a few days trying to escape thirsty hordes
Mp3 Digest: August 1, 2007
Pop music is at it’s best when it’s not actually pop music, but a teeming, cacophonous, and experimental diversion from pop book-ended by an otherwise unassuming, jaunty indie-pop song. Or so out-of-and-back-into-nowhere Danish band Kirsten Ketsjer makes me believe. The song is moving along innocently enough, sounding something
Reviewing the Week in Pitchfork Reviews
Pitchfork continues to be one of the most popular and polarizing music review sites around, even 11 years after it first began. In fact, calling them a “music review site” is something of a misnomer: They’ve branched out considerably over the past decade, and this weekend’s second annual
Shaking Down the Used Bin
Two weeks ago I went to see the new Lars Von Trier movie (by the way, it’s hilarious) with my friend Matthew. After the movie, while walking back toward Union Square, we took a detour into a certain record/island chain’s “megastore” just to see if there were
Jock Party
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we fashion a taxonomy of American athletes to help a reader get in touch with his jock-dom.
I'll Be Home for Christmas
The joy of having interns is dreaming up ludicrous projects for them to complete. We dispatched our own New-York newcomer to visit every possible holiday event he could find in the city and report back.