The Black Crowes have found themselves again on Warpaint, the long-awaited studio release from the Brothers Robinson and family. For a record that seemed all but impossible for The Black Crowes towards the start of this decade, Warpaint gives The Black Crowes finest works a brand- new rival.

Warpaint is…

With their latest release The Mix Up being a collection of instrumentals and jams, one wonders what kind of statement, if any, the Beastie Boys—one of the earliest success stories in hip hop culture—are trying to make about the status of hip hop music. “We’ve been getting asked that a…

A debut record like Vampire Weekend’s has a lot of stigmas attached to it. Like most bands from New York City, they seemed to have emerged from out of nowhere, and while it appears that they have the wind to their back right now, indie rock is rough terrain. The…

Terminal 5 is really more like a hangar than it is a terminal. Inside, it’s as cold and gray as the January evening outside. The dark and chilly ambiance is only offset by the countless attendees, all packed in on top of each other throughout the three stacking levels of…

It is commonly recognized how pain and loss can inspire the best art. In the case of Wu-Tang Clan, the loss of Ol’ Dirty Bastard in 2004 was just cause for The RZA—a.k.a. The Abbot, Bobby Digital, Zigzag—to reunite the prolific crew from Shaolin for 8 Diagrams, the first official…

Conrad Keely is always keeping busy. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead returned to the area last month and played the Highline Ballroom and the Williamsburg Hall of Music— and the band is, as their MySpace page informs, still “on tour until they die” in support…

The first time I heard Ryan Adams, I was coming up Ocean Parkway from Gilgo Beach while a friend played Love Is Hell. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before, but the material was rich in both style and substance, and I was instantly hooked. That was in 2005, the…

Sky Blue Sky is yet another strong collection of songs from the Chicago-based sextet Wilco. Well-produced and conceived with focus, the album is a remarkable follow-up to 2004’s A Ghost Is Born. That album, which was the follow-up to the massive Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, bore all the earmarks of co-producer…