Music

Scowling crust punk girl who just walked past the line for the Wussy show: “Is Cher playing tonight?”

Ours is an age of cultural cannibalism. We have rather suddenly gained very convenient access to nearly the whole of human history’s significant creative output, and we are remixing it with careless abandon. We have introduced The Beatles to Jay-Z, Jane Austen to George Romero, and Abraham Lincoln to Bram Stoker. If something gets a modicum of attention online, it can count on being Photoshopped, captioned, auto-tuned, GIF’ed, pickled, bronzed, or arranged for ukulele and… See more →

It is an election year, and as our president and other political incumbents across the country dust off their dirtiest tricks to retain their posts, so too do our returning regional air guitar champions. Of our first six cities this year, only Portland and Boston are sending new blood to the finals, and neither of their winners from last year returned to defend their titles. So as we pulled up to Washington, DC’s legendary 9:30… See more →

Boston’s air guitar faithful assembled at Brighton Music Hall on Friday night. They came to talk loudly over the judges’ commentary, and they stayed to marvel at performances that were by turns inspiring and reviling.

The air guitarists of Boston have long toiled fruitlessly in the glittery shadow of four-time champ McNallica (Erin McNally), whose charisma and fire was insurmountable even on the rare occasion she faced a worthy challenger. But with McNallica’s retirement came… See more →

There are two things that make New York City one of the toughest markets in US Air Guitar:

1. The staggering amount of top tier talent, both local and imported, and
2. The Daily Show’s Jason Jones, whose commentary has reduced all but the most thick-skinned competitors to quivering heaps in the backstage bathroom.

Alongside ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner and music biz free agent Leigh Lust, Jones returned on Thursday night to his perch in the… See more →

Um holy shit Refused.

All @mSutters ever wanted from an @AndrewWk show was a bloody nose, and now I have given it to him.

Art communicates. The core message might be as simple as “I like Slayer” or as complicated as “Let’s begin reversing centuries of female marginalization.” The work’s context and various expressive textures contribute narrative layers that enrich that core message. The more we identify with the message, its layers, and their convergence, the more we like the art, even if we can’t explain what those things are or how we connect with them.

In the who,… See more →

Someone left $20 in the ATM, so I’m getting paid to see Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter and The Sadies tonight. I like this arrangement.

When music is great, there’s nothing better.

Believe the hype about Fucked Up’s live show.

It is no secret that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Is there any other event celebrated on a mass scale whose very purpose is to challenge the tenuous divide between pain and pleasure? Halloween encourages us to enjoy our fear, to find mirth in the macabre, to recognize how death enriches life. On every other day, fear holds us back; on Halloween, it propels us forward. What’s not to love?

And so it… See more →

Skip the drama and check Questo’s list. I love stuff like this.

Over three years ago, I won my first air guitar competition in Philadelphia. It had more of an impact on my life than I ever would have expected, introducing me to a bizarre and joyful underworld of free spirits who forced me to reevaluate what it means to experience music.

A few months later, and not entirely coincidentally, I accepted a job offer in Boston at what might be described as competitive air guitar’s above-ground… See more →

Excellent review of what may be my favorite record of the year.

Staff at a new venue giddily pulled us off the street for the final moments of a Fred Frith performance. I ❤ Brooklyn. roulette.org

Click through and read Albini’s entire post.

What is it about punk rock jocks five times your size that makes them think it’s cool to throw you into a pile of chairs?

Read the full response letter. It is enjoyable.

Even from the insurmountable egos involved, the bloated boasting on display here is a painful read. But I have to admit I’m curious to hear this record, even if it’s a morbid curiosity.

Time for Tombs to blast the residue of this crappy day off me. @ Studio at Webster Hall gowal.la/c/4p8TJ

Holy shit, Tombs was fucking fantastic. A sound like theirs can easily turn into a murky mess live, but they brought it to terrifying life.

To my Philly people: I’m not saying I hadn’t been to an R5 show in ages, but the last time I saw the sound guy, he was clean shaven.

Today’s agenda: 1. Drive across the desert with @essl and @VictoriaMia. 2. yfrog.com/h0bjeifj

Indio’s Motel 6 is currently dirtbag central. We are home.

I'm at The Big 4 Festival in Indio, CA gowal.la/c/459Fh

A N T H R A X

S L A Y E R

For some reason, Twitter didn’t want you to know about M E G A D E T H and M E T A L L I C A .… See more →

Thin Lizzy without Phil always seemed like a bad idea, but holy hell am I glad I saw them tonight. He’s gone but certainly not forgotten.

By all means, bring your identity-starved girlfriend accessory to the metal show and clutch each other all night like junior high is ending.

Mixed feelings about Godspeed You Black Emperor tonight. Iffy setlist, but great to hear them live and insanely loud again after so long.

I don’t like the execution, but the idea is adorable.

This is more like it.

I wish there was more information here. Is this inflation-adjusted? How are sales distributed across singles, albums, etc?

Tonight I danced my ass off to a live Dismemberment Plan set for the first time in seven years.

I’m not sure there has ever been a subject more deserving of a documentary probe than this one.

Travis’s vocals on “What Do You Want Me to Say” are kind of terrible, but they sound fucking great otherwise. Can’t wait to see them next week.

If Archers tour, my show-going ratio of current bands to reunited bands may just tip irrevocably into "you are old and irrelevant" territory.

I didn’t even know she was sick. This is so sad.

In a career like this, it’s interesting to try to pinpoint the moment when the question changes from "How can I keep doing stuff I love to do?" to "How can I keep people paying attention to me?"

The song is bland as hell, but the video is really, really well done.

I am so confused. How/why did this happen? Who the fuck are those three doofuses that keep popping up?

I would have omitted the Misfits logo, made the eyes completely black, and dialed the date back thirty years, but still, this is pretty rad.

Feeling pretty sorry for those of you that didn’t see Man or Astro-man and Dex Romweber Duo on the tour they’re wrapping up tomorrow.

Oh, fuck you.

Ouch.

One of my favorite Samhain songs, but it has always bummed me out that the studio version sounds so terrible (as was the case with a lot of Samhain stuff, really). I think I’ll record my own version.

My earplugs were no match for Swans.

I can’t put my finger on what I like so much about this poster. I do know that something about its seemingly random noise invited me to explore it, and that the actual information is easily discernible despite that noise, thanks to a clear focal point and succinct text.

Man, I might have hoped A.V. Club would be above the whole “quote the snippet where he talks shit on the beloved famous people!” thing, but at least it linked to the rest of the interview, which is great. As much as Albini usually kinda comes off as a dick, I can’t say I disagree with him. And regarding his own past dalliances in the mainstream music biz, I’d really like to know what he… See more →

Juggalo culture is unlikely to ever hold any appeal for me beyond morbid fascination, but damn if this lengthy interview didn’t make make me go, "You do your thing, Violent J. High five."

As expected, seeing Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter was worth every penny of that overpriced Sunn/Boris ticket.

Wow, Justin Bieber slowed down 800% is surprisingly lovely.

Next time I am in a bad mood, remind me of tonight, when Cynic played the entirety of Focus, in sequence, a few feet away from me.

“Why did Red Hot Chili Peppers go ‘Under the Bridge’? There was a plate of shit there that they wanted to jack off into.” — Neil Hamburger

Last time I saw Faith No More, I didn’t know how to make a web site, and Limp Bizkit opened. Tonight’s was a better show for a better time.

Great review of a deluxe reissue of one of the best records of the 90s.