The last time Pulp played a gig in New York City, at Hammerstein Ballroom on June 16 1998, (appropriately Bloomsday given erudite frontman Jarvis Cocker’s fondness for noting anniversaries) President Bill Clinton was in the ugly thick of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the FDA had just approved Viagra, and the north and south towers of the…

Brothers Peter and David Brewis of Sunderland (who have been making music as Field Music since 2005) released their ambitious, sprawling and majestic double album Measure… in 2010. For their fourth LP they’ve opted for brevity and a return to a more fragmented — yet curiously cohesive — aesthetic that dictated their earlier records. The

Although The 2 Bears, the cheeky London duo of Raf Rundell and Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, often do press, videos and performances in pink-mouthed bear suits, like plush escapees from Anthrocon, the Winnie-the-Pooh schtick doesn’t mean the duo’s playful debut, Be Strong, is mere folderol. Be Strong… is a deadly serious – and seriously

Director Bob Fosse gave his cinematic alter ego, the womanizing, amphetamine-popping Joe Gideon, a splashy showbiz send-off in the1979 semi-autobiographical film All That Jazz…, staging a musical finale that enabled Gideon to bid farewell to everyone in his life before meeting Death, in the comely form of Jessica Lange.
There is a slight reminder

It’s been one hell of a month for Michael Kiwanuka. The full-throttle gallop of the North London songwriter’s ascent in just about nine months, from unknown session-guitarist-posting-songs-on-MySpace to one of the most praised, new British artists since Adele (who tapped Kiwanuka to tour with her this spring before he even released his first EP) is…

Much as they might desire it, Coldplay are never going to record the kind of rock — or even pop — album that music critics want them to record. They’re not Radiohead, Arcade Fire or The Clash. Chris Martin isn’t Win Butler, Guy Garvey or even Damon Albarn. He’s more like the Prince William of…

Romantic betrayal wounds, but it can also inspire breathtaking songcraft. Just 21, Laura Marling has already released two preternaturally mature albums, but her third, the tear-stained tempest A Creature I Don’t Know…, is her masterpiece. Tumbling from the fury-to-fortitude suite of ‘The Beast’, ‘Night After Night’ and ‘My Friends’ to the soaring, one-night-stand lament

Elbow kick off their long summer of festival stops and gigs this Saturday at Slane Castle, supporting Kings of Leon, marking the 30th anniversary of estate’s first concert with then-headliners Thin Lizzy. The Manchester lads of Elbow, who wear their hearts so unabashedly on their sleeves as both musicians and close friends, have been supporting…

There is an undeniable majesty to Guy Garvey’s husky, plaintive wave of a voice as it languidly sweeps across the expansive shoreline of Elbow’s astonishing fifth album, Build A Rocket Boys! This follow-up to the Manchester band’s 2008 Mercury Prize-winning The Seldom Seen Kid… meets the best of all worlds; it retains Elbow’s poetic individuality and gentle,

Malcolm McLaren, whose storied and controversial career bounced from managing the Sex Pistols, to creating the influential clothing shop Sex with former girlfriend Vivienne Westwood to his own solo singing career, died on Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was 64. While The Independent and the BBC are reporting that McLaren died in New…

How appropriate that Charlotte Gainsbourg’s beautiful, enticingly abstract new album I.R.M. follows her brave, ugly turn in Lars von Trier’s violent, psychological-disembowelment-as-film Antichrist…. Gainsbourg, who walked out on the furthest limb with von Trier, won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Now, in an inspired partnership with Beck, she has released

While it’s still far from the inevitable backlash guaranteed to smack any ferociously hyped band in the noggin, Delphic has just dropped a crafted, inspiriting debut that is curiously getting a bit of a drubbing for being derivative whilst being enthusiastically praised for doing it so damn well.
While fleeting comparisons to other dance-rock kids…

Talk about surprises. After spending most of American Idol’s eighth season as the odds on favorite to win, eyeliner enhanced rocker Adam Lambert lost to doe-eyed Kris Allen last night in an upset not unlike Mine That Bird’s longshot win of the Kentucky Derby earlier this month.
Allen is now doomed to record the perfectly…

Green Day played a second secret show at New York’s Webster Hall on Tuesday evening (May 19). The two hour gig included songs from their new album 21st Century Breakdown…, while the balance of the set was chock full of Green Day classics and lesser-known tracks, ranging from “Basket Case,” to “American Idiot” to