music Catching a band at the beginning of a tour, when they’ve got a new album and they’re debuting songs onstage, one can often sense the freshness the group brings to the material. The day before this gig, London-based guitar pop band the Clientele had released the sublime God Save the Clientele, a lush collection […]

cd The Arcade Fire’s actual music can get lost in the unusual media frenzy that has surrounded the band over the past three years. On the eve of the release of their second album, Neon Bible, both The New Yorker and The New York Times ran lengthy profiles. (Not to mention the adoration that extends […]

music Rock ’n’ roll at its purest is supposed to be loud, raw and (occasionally) a little scary, which explains why so many of the form’s finest practitioners have been unpleasant people with a few screws loose. The three members of the Hoboken, New Jersey-based Yo La Tengo, who played to a sold-out Starr Hill […]

cd By indie standards, The Shins are huge. They’ve been helped along the way by a catchy tune in a McDonald’s commercial and the words Zach Braff put into the mouth of Natalie Portman in his film Garden State: Surely, The Shins Will Change Your Life will one day be the title of a book […]