Best of What's Next: Mayer Hawthorne
For Andrew Mayer Cohen, the Motown-influenced tunes were just musical doodles... read more
Go Your Own Way: Norah Jones and The Swell Season Recover From Broken Hearts
Is The Fall a breakup record? “I think in a lot of ways it is, and in a lot of ways it isn’t,” says Norah Jones of the follow-up to 2007’s Not Too Late. Her split that year with longtime boyfriend Lee Alexander made the gossip pages, despite her silence on the subject. She has no intention of sharing her thoughts on the matter today, either, though she’s generous with the fries accompanying her hefty veggie burger at the East Village restaurant where we’ve met. “Will you have some?” she asks. “I won’t eat them all.”... read more
MySpace Looking to Purchase imeem
Rupert Murdoch’s bleeding social networking site, MySpace, is making some drastic moves to eek a profit out of a Facebook/Twitter-dominated industry, one of them a possible pay model to earn back some of the $20 million the site spends on streaming royalties every month. Next could be the acquisition of free-streaming music site imeem.... read more
Watch the Trailer for Jeff Bridges Flick, Crazy Heart
Fox Searchlight has released the trailer for Crazy Heart, the film that critics says will help Jeff Bridges win his overdue Oscar.... read more
Will Desperados be the Female Hangover?
With the roaring box-office success of this summer’s The Hangover, not to mention its planned sequel, you can all but rest assured that studios are being flooded with pitches that begin something like, “It’s just like The Hangover, except…,” even as we type this.... read more
Sam Fogarino Talks New Interpol Album, Courtney Love
"[Our Love to Admire] was not our most cohesive moment," he says... read more
The Who to Play Super Bowl, Says Another Anonymous Source
Another person unwilling to reveal their name has told another publication that The Who will indeed perform at Super Bowl XLIV, adding to the anticipation of the NFL’s (and the band’s) apparently-pending official announcement.... read more
Best of What's Next: fun.
Hometown: New York Album: Aim and Ignite Members: Andrew Dost (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Nate Ruess (vocals), Jack Antonoff (guitar, vocals) For Fans Of: Ben Folds, Queen, The Format Last year, following the dissolution of his first band, ex-Format frontman Nate Ruess made a pilgrimage idealized by young Americans long before Sinatra’s famed salute: Having overstayed his welcome in his Arizona hometown, the songwriter moved to New York to start a new life. “There’s a big difference between comfort and what you’re destined to do,” Ruess says. “I needed a change in every aspect of my life.”... read more
The Velvet Underground Reunites for New York Public Library Chat
It’s been a long time since proto-punk legends The Velvet Underground started stretching the confines of rock ‘n’ roll in the late ‘60s, and while the band itself doesn’t have plans to reunite for a performance any time soon, they are doing the next best thing. Former frontman Lou Reed, bassist Doug Yule and drummer Maureen Tucker will make an appearance at the New York Public Library on Dec. 8 to chat with rock journalist David Fricke about the band’s legacy and impact on rock music’s evolution.... read more
Noah Baumbach's New Movie Coming in March
Focus Features has set a March 12 debut for Noah Baumbach’s latest, Greenberg, an earlier-than-expected release for a filmmaker whose work is typically rolled out in the fall as awards bait.... read more
The Rapture Working With Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Producer on New Album
Following up his work on Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, French producer Philippe Zdar will lend his creative hand to The Rapture’s forthcoming full-length album.... read more
Carrie Underwood: Play On
Underwood’s third album is overdeveloped and undercooked Carrie Underwood’s new album isn’t meant for iPods or headphones—or, for that matter, for individuals. It’s a more public record than a private or personal one, sometimes for better but usually for worse. Opener and first single “Cowboy Casanova” is a barnburner that will be the prelude to many girls’ nights out, while “Mama’s Song” will no doubt soundtrack innumerable weddings in the next few months. Other songs on Play On have less lofty goals: “Someday When I Stop loving You” and “What Can I Say” are soundtrack-ready montage rock; the latter deserves... read more
Start Press: Details, Details
Like millions of gamers around the world, I spent a decent chunk of this past week clutching an M4 Carbine assault rifle and elbow-crawling around in the muck trying not to get waxed. I watched from space as a nuclear missile detonated over the United States’ eastern seaboard. I scrambled through the charred husk of the Oval Office while the entire city of Washington D.C. smouldered to ash around me like a bad acid trip at a 4th of July barbecue in Hell. On a deep-cover assignment as a CIA operative, I followed a group of Russian terrorists as they... read more
Best of What's Next: Pomegranates
Pomegranates' Everybody, Come Outside! might be the most fitting album title of the year... read more
Joss Whedon Animates Season Eight of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Joss Whedon’s recent projects have had mixed results. Last year’s stellar Dr. Horrible won an Emmy, but news arrived last week that Whedon’s cult favorite, the beleaguered Dollhouse, will be cancelled, airing its final episodes this January. (For a tongue-in-cheek suggestion as to why Fox cancelled the series, check out this video from College Humor.)... read more
Can MySpace Survive Without Free Music Streaming?
Just a few years ago, when Napster wasn’t such a distant memory and free-streaming sites like Lala, Imeem and Hype Machine were in their infancy, one site ruled as the best avenue for free samples of new bands: MySpace. Sure, the site carried a certain affiliation with young people who take oddly angled pictures of themselves, but the it also held, and still holds, a huge cache of band pages ripe with free-streaming tunes.... read more
Jonathan Safran Foer: Eating Animals
Jonathan Safran Foer’s novels are dense, energetic, concerned with all things moral and Jewish, pleased with themselves, sentimental, and too wordy for a lot of us. They are like wild Russian dances that leave you breathless and wondering why you stayed on the dance floor. Without argument, he is enormously talented and passionate, but his writing and gimmicks can get in the way of the material.... read more
Yo La Tengo Sets Tour Dates Sans Service Charges
Surcharges are the bane of any concert experience, tricking show-goers to pay just a little more than expected for their musical experience. Yo La Tengo is doing their part to sidestep some of these pesky add-ons while supporting their latest Popular Songs. Which is to say: the band’s upcoming January shows in middle-America will be delightfully easy on the wallet, each just $20 or less.... read more
Frightened Rabbit Comes Out of Hibernation for New Album
It’s cold out. Cold and dry, in a way that causes your lips to crack. Even your thickest scarf won’t keep the air from stinging your neck. But you’re inside, under a blanket, a cup of hot tea on your lap; you’re watching wood disappear in the fireplace. You’re comfortable, safe. That’s the mood of Frightened Rabbit’s music. And in 2010, just after the thaw of winter, we’ll get to hear some more of it; the perpetually-sweater-clad band will release it’s third album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, in March.... read more
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Release Date: November 25, 2009 Director: Wes Anderson Writer: Roald Dahl (novel), Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach (screenplay) Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Cox, Michael Gambon, Anjelica Huston Studio/Run Time: Twentieth Century Fox, 87 min. Wes Anderson’s whimsical animated film features his familiar themes and undeniable fingerprints, but has broader-than-usual appeal.... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Stay Zombie…
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
