Music
Magnum Opus Cycnorum
Swans, led by one Michael Gira, are the only band around right now to combine the abrasive militancy of classic American noise rock with mind-boggling avant-garde imagination.
Music
Music
Keep Brooklyn Weird
Parquet Courts have been compared to Wire, Television, the Velvet Underground, the Modern Lovers, Sonic Youth, the Feelies, the Fall, Minor Threat, Flipper, Guided by Voices, Archers of Loaf, Silkworm, of course Pavement, and I could go on.
Art
A Musical Urban Intervention Turns Brooklyn into Trumpet City
North Brooklyn will soon be buzzing with the sound of a procession of trumpets, as an experiment in breaking up city noise with music takes over a stretch of Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
Music
Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (August 2014, Part 2)
As for iSweat Fitness Music, ah, blame it if you will on my own schlocky taste.
Music
Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (August 2014, Part 1)
It has come to my attention that the radio edit of Future's "Move That Dope" has been christened "Move That Doh" in a classic censorship joke.
Music
Fagen's Critical Catalogue (July 2014, Part 2)
In part 2 of this month, reviews of Lana Del Rey, Sam Smith, Indian Ocean, and Kitten.
Music
Fagen's Critical Catalogue (July 2014, Part 1)
In part 1 of this month, reviews of Celtic Woman, The Fault in Our Stars, The Rough Guide to Indian Classical Music, and Deadmau5.
Music
Fagen's Critical Catalogue (June 2014, Part 2)
In part 2 of this month, reviews of First Aid Kit, EMA, How to Dress Well, and Jack White.
Music
Fagen's Critical Catalogue (June 2014, Part 1)
In part 1 of this month, reviews of Jason Derulo, Skrillex, Linkin Park, and Young Thug & Bloody Jay.
Music
The Legendary Auteur: Deconstructing Pazz & Jop
As the Village Voice’s 41st Pazz & Jop Critics Poll makes clear, Kanye West is the most gifted popular musician of our time. This may sound like empty, generalized hyperbole, and it is. But nothing else would do justice to a man whose renown dwarfs your average celebrity, because West has reached an
Music
Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (May 2014, Part 2)
In part 2 of this month, reviews of Drive-By-Truckers, The Hold Steady, and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.
Art
New Algorithm Turns the Emotion of Language into Music
The future of e-books, or any electronic text, may be soundtracked. A new experiment in automation is generating music in response to the emotion of words in literature.