To show its even-handed political mindset, Atlanta, Georgia’s The Black Lips recently visited both Israel and Palestine to distract the suicide bombers and the itchy trigger fingers with a handful of rock shows because what the Middle East needs more than anything right now is a good on-stage golden shower. The band’s new record for […]

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Covering someone else’s entire record is a bad idea ten times out of ten. But reworking a classic like Black Flag’s Damaged from “memory and intuition” is downright insane. Yet Brooklyn experimental pop deconstructionists The Dirty Projectors have done just that. The result is called Rise Above, and it’s more like a film loosely based […]

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The AV Club has compiled a list of the top 15 masters of on-stage banter. The winner is in a league of his own: Venom lead singer Cronos, whose ten-minute rant is the stuff of legend. It’s kind of obscure but well worth the time to stream. The runner-up is Diamond Dave, of course. And […]

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Found these over at I Am Fuel, Your Are Friends. Dave Grohl’s raw demo drum tracks for Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf. Even if you’re not a fan of QOTSA’s psychedelic glam metal, it’s hard not to appreciate Grohl’s masterful balance of swing and unbridled aggression. He is a bad ass […]

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Stream “Skin Divers” here. This is the highest quality leak from Duran Duran’s forthcoming Red Carpet Massacre. There’s been much debate about the band’s new direction, but to me “Skin Divers” is the most polarizing new song yet to surface. It’s a dark and sleazy club track and another Timbaland collaboration with the inevitable arsenal of repetitive, machinated […]

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Rilo Kiley is a band from which I never thought I’d be anticipating new music. Its first two records sounded trapped in middling indie rock with a country tinge. Ironically, it wasn’t until its major label debut, More Adventurous, that made me pay closer attention, particularly the single “Portions for Foxes.” Jenny Lewis became a […]

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Despite the buzz about Duran Duran’s “Nite Runner” stream at Entertainment Weekly, its label (Epic) has strangely chosen a different track for the first single, which you can stream here: here “Falling Down” is less adventurous and more laid-back than the Timbaland-produced, beat-heavy “Nite Runner.” Perhaps, the label is hoping for another “Ordinary World”-style comeback. Justin Timberlake […]

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