Best New Music

The Chemistry of Common Life

Thu: 10-16-08
Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life

From the first listen, the new post-hardcore album from Fucked Up-- their first for Matador-- is a pummeling, almost exhausting listen. Yet it's also incredibly inclusive and uplifting, an ambitious hard rock record born out of a sense of community and the hope of creating something huge. Vivian Girls and Sebastian Grainger (formerly from Death From Above 1979) guest.

Lost Wisdom

Tue: 10-14-08
Mount Eerie With Julie Doiron and Fred Squire: Lost Wisdom

Phil Elverum finds a perfect foil and vessel for his songs in Julie Doiron on this mini-album, which marries to great effect his meditations on life's Big Questions with her quiet revelations about the everyday. To hear Elverum sing of his existential quandaries in isolation is frequently compelling, but with these songs often cast as duets, we're presented with the notion that Phil's struggles are universal.

Features

Björk [Part Two]
Thu: 10-23-08

Interview: Björk [Part Two]

While in Reykjavík for the Iceland Airwaves festival, we sat down with Björk for a lengthy chat about "Náttúra", her new single with Thom Yorke, and the Náttúra Campaign. In the process, she outlined Náttúra's plan for the development of a new, independent, environmentally friendly Icelandic economy. It isn't a quick fix. And it isn't going to be easy. But when has Björk ever taken the easy way out? [Part 2 of 2]

[Amy Phillips]
Björk [Part One]
Wed: 10-22-08

Interview: Björk [Part One]

While in Reykjavík for the Iceland Airwaves festival, we sat down with Björk for a lengthy chat about "Náttúra", her new single with Thom Yorke, and the Náttúra Campaign. In the process, she outlined Náttúra's plan for the development of a new, independent, environmentally friendly Icelandic economy. It isn't a quick fix. And it isn't going to be easy. But when has Björk ever taken the easy way out? [Part 1 of 2]

[Amy Phillips]
Tue: 10-21-08

Interview: Mavis Staples

The gospel and soul legend, who recently recorded a live album at Chicago's famous Hideout, talks about the pain of singing the blues, Dr. King, and keeping on Michelle Obama's good side.

[Patrick Sisson]
Mon: 10-20-08

Interview: Of Montreal

Just before the release of his band's ninth album, Skeletal Lamping, we talk to Kevin Barnes about the process of writing and performing by himself, the ways he was affected by the backlash to his song's appearance in an Outback Steakhouse commercial, and how there's a middle-aged black transgender man inside us all.

[Tyler Grisham]
Fri: 10-17-08

Column: Resonant Frequency #61

Ten indie singers who approach the microphone armed with more than just songs-- they each are also thinking about their voices, figuring out what might make them most effective given their limitations.

[Mark Richardson]
Thu: 10-16-08

Guest List: Murs

Murs gushes over a certain crew of Ivy League pop stars, shares a little about the new video games he saw at Comic-Con, and explains his life-long wish to sing a song popularized by Kermit the Frog. [Interview: Tyler Grisham]

[Murs]