Music

No, it's not We Got It 4 Cheap: Vol. 2. That mixtape was a flamethrower to the safe houses major label rappers found themselves in, circa 2005.
November 30, 2006 at 12:00 am

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have had an extreme career arc. Their 2002 major label debut Source Tags & Codes was an era-defining work of anthemic indie rock - one of those precious high school records I could blast for weeks on end in my '89 Mazda 323, driving from one South Jersey diner to another, getting home late at night and highly caffeinated, reading LiveJournals until 4 a.m.
November 16, 2006 at 12:00 am

Joanna Newsom's second album, Ys, is a daunting little number. Take the defiant medieval blonde on the cover, sickle in hand.
November 16, 2006 at 12:00 am

Manya Scheps can't stand the rain. By 8 p.m. over two inches have drenched the city and begun to leak through the walls of her basement.
November 16, 2006 at 12:00 am

Jay-Z famously rapped on Kanye West's College Dropout that he's "not a businessman" but a "business, man." Cocksure, of course, but kind of an insightful self-examination.
November 16, 2006 at 12:00 am

Across four albums, Mobb Deep's primal realism vaulted them amongst hip-hop's biggest names; they rap-battled with Tupac and rhymed alongside Nas, B.I.G.
November 9, 2006 at 12:00 am

John Medeski is definitely not a physicist. Still, the 41-year-old pianist has his own convincing theory of nature: "Everything is vibration and sound.
November 9, 2006 at 12:00 am

Luke Jenner, singer-guitarist for the Rapture, looks serious in a cramped dressing room downstairs at Pure nightclub.
November 9, 2006 at 12:00 am

Paul Michel's fourth album, Quiet State of Panic, filled with tracks about loneliness and wistful romance, would make the perfect soundtrack for a sequel to Wicker Park.
November 2, 2006 at 12:00 am

The Rapture are back. After their meteoric rise in 2003 on the strength of hit single "House of Jealous Lovers," the band spent a few years out of the public eye.
November 2, 2006 at 12:00 am

It's close to midnight at the Rotunda on 40th and Walnut. On the steps outside, a cypher of about 20 hip-hop heads huddle in close as a ghetto blaster thumps old school loops and two emcees in the middle face-off: "Common nigga, you don't think that's a lie / That's like saying when I spit it I don't spit fly / That's like saying you ain't you and I ain't I / Like this ain't the Gathering it's a street word fight." The crowd goes nuts, leaning back like witnesses of a car wreck to reward the verbal beating.
November 2, 2006 at 12:00 am

In 1974, drinking buddies John Lennon and Harry Nilsson decided to make a record. The Nilsson-penned, Lennon-produced result was Pussy Cats, equal parts riotous sing-along and nostalgic meditation.
November 2, 2006 at 12:00 am

Sometimes when a band is 40 years old they release an album that is more for themselves than for the fans.
November 2, 2006 at 12:00 am

Born in the U.K., the fifth album from Badly Drawn Boy (a.k.a. Damon Gough), sounds like a rock 'n' roll musical.
October 26, 2006 at 12:00 am

Lady Sovereign is a girl who knows how to take her criticisms with a healthy grain of salt. "They can fuck off," said the 20-year-old British rapper of her detractors.
October 26, 2006 at 12:00 am

Diddy and his Bad Boy camp taught hip-hop how to spend loot. Not some gambino-type Infiniti shit, I am talking Maybach shit.
October 26, 2006 at 12:00 am

If there is a white picket fence along the rock-star trajectory, Chris Funk has likely found it. The Decemberists' jack-of-all-instruments (guitarists first and foremost; banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, pedal steel, glockenspiel, and hammered dulcimer follow suit) has a few weeks to spend with his family in Portland, Oregon before casting off on full tours of the U.S.
October 26, 2006 at 12:00 am

With a new album out and a national tour, Ben Kweller certainly is a busy fellow. Sacrificing valuable time for baby clothes shopping at a Cincinnati Old Navy, the one-man band takes a few moments to talk to Street about bloody noses, intellectual property, and even his music. Street: On your new album you play all the instruments yourself, was that something you planned on doing much prior to recording, or when exactly was that decision made? Kweller: It happened at the last minute.
October 26, 2006 at 12:00 am

In the shadow of the massive success of his former band, Pixies frontman Frank Black has been diligently recording under his own name since 1993.
October 12, 2006 at 12:00 am

Chin Up Chin Up This Harness Can't Ride Anything Listening to This Harness Can't Ride Anything, the sophomore album from Chicago's Chin Up Chin Up, is much like a visit to the Midwest - forgettable. This Harness, recorded with producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine), begins with promise.
October 12, 2006 at 12:00 am