Joyfear follows Anakrid’s expansive Rapture of the Deep in kind with a tangential strain of slow, droning malevolence. Its fetishistic artwork is cold and impersonal, drab and unforgiving. A spray-painted textured cover with no discernible thematic pretense houses equally inscrutable music. The fact that it’s a one-sided vinyl-only release limited to 100 copies practically dares […]

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The Presets‘ Beams was one of my faves of 2005 and I’m eagerly awaiting the new album.

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The remaining members of Led Zeppelin sat down with Yahoo Music to discuss the upcoming tribute concert at London’s O2 Arena in honor of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. Guitarist Jimmy Page sounds rather confident in the band’s ability to bring it live after all these years, although looking at him hardly instills much confidence. […]

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Sometimes Throwing Muse and longtime solo artist Kristin Hersh has created CASH Music (the acronym stands for Coalition of Artists & Stake Holders), which is a “new music business model” wherein artists post free mp3’s in multiple formats for listeners to critique, remix, or even produce. Hersh is no stranger to this process, as I was a […]

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Echo & The Bunnymen have made plans to recreate their monumental 1984 album Ocean Rain live in concert with a full orchestra in tow. The show is scheduled for September 16, 2008 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Despite the fact that drummer Pete DeFreitas died over 18 years ago and bassist Les Pattison abandoned the reunited […]

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Wow. It’s so weird to see them play in such a massive venue to such a massive audience having only ever seen them in small clubs and amphitheatres. (via The Music Slut)

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Frieze Magazine (future issue for Jan 08) features a back and forth between Ann Powers, chief pop critic for the Los Angeles Times, and Simon Reynolds discussing the past year in music, from feminism to the handcrafted underground. That’s certainly a more positive angle on the state of (women in) pop. Perhaps what really pains […]

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