One part George Jones, one part John Ashbery, Richard Buckner brings the MFA poetry workshop to the honky-tonk, or vice versa. He’s the kind of lyricist who is typically described as “elli
Joe Thebeau, the mastermind of Finn’s Motel, describes himself as a “40-year-old married-with-children rock guy” — an unglamorous profile for an indie-rock aspirant, maybe, but
SINGLES ONLY
The flashy Scissor Sisters released their debut in a blaze of glitter and poppy piano parts, but who knew the fabulously retro New York quintet could strike gold twice? The first single,
SHOWS-A-GO-GO!
There are rock shows aplenty this week, but fans will have to rack up some mileage to attend them all. Devotees of Built to Spill will undoubtedly release a huge sigh this weekend when
Guitar dorks are guys mostly, weird guys with ickily long fingernails who stink of cannabis and complicated tablatures. If they’re not droning on about the awesome tuning that they just discover
People love pirates. They prove it by stampeding to see the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, by chomping down on their R’s (arrrrrghs!) on Talk Like a Pirate Day. Piratemania is so widespread, i
New Zealand, a country that’s delivered more than its share of great guitar pop in the last 20-odd years — the Chills, the Clean, the Verlaines, the Bats, Split Enz, and Crowded House, to
CD EXCHANGE: This fall you’ll find Vinyl Static holed up in a closet somewhere with headphones and a compact-disc player — is Vinyl Static the only one still using a CD player? — ind
Last year the Mountain Goats released The Sunset Tree, an aural exorcism inspired by the abusive childhood of the band’s frontman and only permanent member, John Darnielle. Like its predecessor,
CD EXCHANGE
OutKast is back, finally. Last Tuesday the Dirty South duo unleashed Idlewild, an album to accompany the new film, set in the Prohibition era, that’s coming out Aug. 25. The release