​It’s a pretty slow week for just announced shows, but be that as it may, this week truly is a case study in quality over quantity. D.C. punk revivalists Ted Leo & The Pharmacists lead this savvy pack of announcements, and they are a band who knows how to have fun…

[jump] What seems like a rather simple concept is beautifully accomplished by the heretofore anonymous music critic behind the mini-discogs. Take, for example, The Replacements:  How could you possibly sum up Weezer’s entire career better than that in a shorter amount of time? You simply cannot — hence the brilliance…

​​September 14 is a black Friday of sorts for the music world. There is an embarrassment of riches, new release-wise, set for that Meg Tuesday. NPR realizes this, so they’re giving you a head start by offering album streams of 14 albums to be released next Tuesday. Which just so…

Where Bright Lights — as well as Antics and Our Love to Admire — were full of peppy, upbeat indie rock classics, Interpol decidedly slows things down and goes for the artsy effect here, much to the chagrin of some long-time fans. (Myself included). While there are some bright spots…

The hits, they keep-a-comin’. Seattle’s The Stranger recently conducted a brilliant field test, if you will, which forced four 17-18 year olds to listen to nothing but Bob Dylan for 3 days. Specifically, the youngsters had to listen to Dylan’s exhaustive three disc set Biograph while they packed for college and…

The former Goodie Mobber and Gnarls Barkley frontman is readying a new album, The Lady Killer, set to hit stores December 7. It will be his third solo album and his first since 2004’s Cee-Lo Green Is…the Soul Machine. Head on over to Cee-Lo’s Facebook page and click like (if you…

As much as we like to deny that we were awkward teenagers, the fact remains that we most certainly were. When I think of my own teenage years, I tend to reflect on the music that I really liked. While I started to come around in my late teenage years, the…

August just refuses — in any ungodly way possible — to go away. We’re cursed with 31 days of the month, and today, the last and final day of this mess, just had to fall on a Tuesday. What does that mean? Another ho-hum batch of new releases, this time…

What happens when delicious Mexican food meets the album cover of Billy Joel’s 1980 album Glass Houses? Hilarity. Such is the case for Album Tacos, a fantastic new Tumblr that popped up on the radar this weekend. Rocket science, this ain’t, but it yields some very funny and innovative results…

America’s favorite old man/recording artist Bob Dylan tried to stick it to the man this past Wednesday night at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater.The 69-year-old folk legend decided he was going to rebel against Ticketmaster and surplus ticket charges and nix issuing tickets to his show altogether.It’s a noble experiment in…

It’s OK, Sufjan Stevens fans, you can piss your pants about this one — The Age of Adz, Steven’s first album in nearly five years — will be released October 12.This is especially good news for Arizona fans of Stevens as he is set to play Mesa Arts Center on…

It’s not often a world-class musician is kicking off their American tour in Arizona, so try to understand that the recent announcement that Joanna Newsom has a fall tour planned and is starting out in Arizona is a big, big deal. Newsom will play Tucson’s Rialto Theatre November 6 before…

Why all the effort for just one album? There’s really no rhyme or reason to it — the fact that it leaked so early helped me write a post about the album when it was still fresh to my ears. By this point, however, I have completely consumed the thing…

How about some Italian DJs who wear Spider Man masks onstage at every performance and call themselves Bloody Beetroots? October 29 marks their performance at the Marquee Theatre, just in time for those not in the know to figure, “Oh, they must be wearing those things since Halloween is two…

[jump] All four !!! albums have their own standout moments (“Feel Good Hit of the Fall,” “Hello? Is This Thing On?” and “Must Be The Moon,” respectively) and Strange Weather is no exception. The heavy-handed-yet-insanely-funky “Even Judas Gave Jesus a Kiss” is one of the strongest tracks amid a strong…

​It’s no secret that musicians often jump in bed with a brand name to help bump up their paychecks. Hell, I’ve seen country music top hat-aficionados Big & Rich in concert — a concert in which they thanked Chevrolet multiple times for being a sponsor. It seems country music and…

Hell, a lot has changed with indie rock/pop since 2005. Where Broom captured the innocence of a slowly building scene, Let It Sway finds itself mired in a chronological crisis — struggling to find its footing with these modern times. Fans of the band will mostly appreciate the band’s tweaking…

Big news from last night/this morning — The Suburbs, the third album from Montreal indie rockers Arcade Fire, landed on the top of the Billboard 200 this week.The Suburbs sold 156,000 copies in its initial week, edging out Eminem’s Recovery by 4,000 units. Thanks to a lofty $3.99 pricetag at…