Never one to shy away from political haughtiness of his own, folk-punk troubadour Billy Bragg has chimed in on the Morrissey “not a racist” PR scandal via The Guardian’s editorial pages. Bragg lightly slaps Morrissey for stirring up drama when the former Smiths singer knows good and well everything he said was caught on tape. Morrissey contends […]

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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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To complete the circle, somewhat. A while back I asked if anyone had ever heard Eno’s Music For Airports playing in, well, an airport. Pat, lacking access to a specific Music For Airports playing airport, decides to bring Music For Airports with him to an airport of his choosing. I figured that I could do […]

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Prince is an asshole. I’ve never heard of a celebrity who made it so difficult to be a fan. He won’t even let his fans call themselves fans. They’re “fams.” Now he’s threatening to sue said “fams” for posting pictures their tattoos if they bear his royal likeness. What a cock. I realize Prince has always restricted access to […]

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Win Butler of Arcade Fire wrote a lucid and unpretentious letter in response to Sasha Frere-Jones’ controversial piece that ran in The New Yorker recently regarding race and indie rock. Butler accompanied his letter with an audio response mp3, which included samples of Arcade Fire’s music to support his points: “Being as I am in […]

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I honestly can’t complain too much about this arbitrary list of the 11 best Joy Division songs, even with some unsurprising balkers making some noise. I’d probably jumble the order around a bit, while, perhaps, swapping out one or two selections, but, overall, it’s nothing to get a Joy Division fan’s dander up. Control opens […]

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Something like 75% of Condé Nast’s most venerable publication’s readership – the always studious, perpetually thorough The New Yorker – doesn’t even live on the island they’re reading about. (Shit, I live worlds apart in Columbia, South Carolina and still can’t bring myself to cancel my subscription.) When it comes to art, music, theatre and […]

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