John Mulaney: SNL, Stefon & Self-Punchlines
Twenty-nine-year-old John Mulaney is an old soul. Despite his place as a Saturday Night Live writer/producer and an up-and-coming comic, his comedic sensibility is rooted in the old-dude humor of guys like Woody Allen, Jack Benny and Bob Newhart, whose albums he listened to avidly as a youngster. There was another positive male role model in those days as well. “I think when you’re a kid, you impersonate people that you see on TV or in movies or in your real life,” Mulaney says. “And I think, in a lot of ways, the way I present myself is as... read more
Found in: Comedy, FeaturesRosie Thomas: Healing With Love
“With Love came at a time I needed it most,” Rosie Thomas says about her newest album. “It was the award at the end of a hard time, it was the bouquet of flowers that you need when you’re coming out of something very difficult.” read more
Found in: Music, FeaturesA Conversation with Jim James and Amy Ray
The Indigo Girls' Amy Ray's latest solo album, Lung of Love, dropped last week, featuring collaborators like My Morning Jacket's Jim James. Paste had the opportunity to listen in on a recent phone conversation between Ray and James, where the pair discussed the digital revolution, activism and their Southern roots. read more
Found in: Music, ColumnsBest of What's Next: Alexia Rasmussen
On Alexia Rasmussen’s first trip to the Sundance Film Festival this year, she jumped straight into the deep end of the pool, promoting not one but two films she appeared in. She had previously appeared in another hot Sundance property, last year’s Our Idiot Brother, but had not made the trip to Park City. So this year’s festival was quite a shock.... read more
Found in: Movies, FeaturesSleeper Agent: The Best of What's Next
Tony Smith sits pensively sipping an energy drink in a Chicago hotel after his band Sleeper Agent made the seven-hour drive from their hometown of Bowling Green the night before they’re due to play a big bash at the Aragon Ballroom. read more
Found in: Music, FeaturesJim White: Beware the Bluebirds
For Southern-fried folk singer Jim White, it all revolves around the bluebirds. Five of the brightly plumed harbingers of happiness that he noticed on a telephone wire outside his new home, on the first warm day of a recent spring. read more
Found in: Music, FeaturesCarolina Chocolate Drops: Slow Change
In Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens, the Carolina Chocolate Drops have two of the most charismatic performers in any genre. This stage presence complicates the band’s mission to preserve the nearly lost tradition of African-American string bands and jug bands. read more
Found in: Music, FeaturesEstelle: All of Me
Rihanna’s success might give some people pause at the idea that any of those single-named R&B hitstresses could attain the career longevity that Amerie and Ciara could not. But it took Rihanna an absurd amount of time to achieve a household name—namely, six albums in seven years, which despite plenty of hits (especially “We Found Love,” “Umbrella,” “SOS” and the underrated “Disturbia”) likely took a backseat to her unfortunate history of abuse at her Grammy-winning ex’s hands to get there. Amerie, Ciara and Estelle barely have six albums between them. read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsLyle Lovett: Release Me
Somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Bob Wills lies the Promised Land inhabited by Lyle Lovett, who balances elegantly broken romanticism with loose-jointed swing that shuffles and jumps like exalted Texas Playboys. Lanky with high rise hair, Lovett has been an anomaly of the singer/songwriter ilk since appearing with a chock-a-block debut album - and Release Me, his final album of an almost 30 year career for Curb, finds him resolutely steadfast in his excellence and eclecticism. read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsAndrew Bird: Breaking The Loop
In February 2010, Andrew Bird performed a 20-minute solo concert at the TED Conference—the annual non-profit event held to disseminate “ideas worth spreading.” read more
Found in: Music, Features
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