The BBC is reporting that Sex Pistols’ svengali and artist-musician Malcolm McLaren has died: Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of punk group the Sex Pistols, has died in New York, aged 64, his agent has said. There have been a lot of famous pop music managers over the years, but none like McLaren. Though the … [Read more…]
The folks behind Lollapalooza officially unveiled the lineup for this year’s fest (that’s right - no more letter guessing) Tuesday morning. And it looks like someone’s been reading Pitchfork. The lineup is jam packed with indie bands. Many of those acts have received the greatest praise Pitchfork has to offer, the oft-coveted “Best New Music” chalice/crown/shiny thing. … [Read more…]
The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s reputation precedes the band. The mathcore quintet is (in)famous for their chaotic live sets, which are known for hosting waves of crowd-surfing and leaving members of the crowd and/or band with a broken bone or two. Such a legendary live performance might explain why the crowd Friday at Reggie’s Rock Club … [Read more…]
Steve Almond wrote a little diatribe raging against music criticism for The Boston Globe a couple weeks ago. I say “little” because his argument is just that: Weak, narrow-minded, short-sighted… All of these things and more. For an author/journalist whose work I’ve enjoyed when I come across it, I was genuinely shocked to see the contempt … [Read more…]
Lollapalooza, the gigantic three-day alternative pop music extravaganza, announced its 2010 lineup. Except you’ve probably got to be Vanna White to be able to discern who will be there from this quirky/gimmicky mess: It’s a cute concept, but you’ve got to wonder why they decided to only use the “Os” from Lollapalooza and not any … [Read more…]
Free the Music is a guide to new albums, EPs and songs that are available for free online. Today’s drop is: Signals/Supple Youth Tour Mixtape. I was crushed when I found out The Mae Shi broke up last summer. Or should I say, split in twain. Whatever the case may be, a number of the … [Read more…]
It’s great when public service announcements try and reach out to youths by showing off their cred in humorous fashions. Yet, one particular road safety ad in Australia seems to take things a little too far [via The Sydney Morning Herald]: The government announced on Monday a new online advertising campaign targeting young people who … [Read more…]
Friday night I stood for two-plus hours in awe as I watched The Appleseed Cast perform their entire 2001 double album Low Level Owl. The Lawrence, Kansas emo band played to a packed crowd at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge, and gracefully played the criminally overlooked double album, with a brief intermission breaking up the two volumes and … [Read more…]
I was shocked when I stumbled upon the news that Internet-based indie radio station WOXY will shut down today [via the Daily Swarm]: Due to current economic realities and the lack of ongoing funding for WOXY’s operations, we’ve been forced to suspend our live broadcasts as of March 23rd. What seems so strange is that … [Read more…]
MGMT’s new album, Congratulations, leaked online. So the band cleverly began to stream the new record on their site. In an even smarter move, the group punctuated the appearance of the album’s music with this simple statement: Hey everybody, the album leaked, and we wanted you to be able to hear it from us. We … [Read more…]