Life will always be shot full of heartache, melancholy and sadness, some of which can’t be blamed on the popularity of Pat Robertson, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Big Momma’s House. You might get fired from your job. You might break up with your girlfriend. You might be forced to sit through a sequel that may […]

As Joey aptly put it yesterday morning, the just leaked Camp Lo in Black Hollywood, is a legitimate contender for best hip-hop album of the year. Especially considering ’07 has been nothing but aging veterans trying to make classics past their prime, against all the odds. Redman was solid but unspectacular and loaded with filler. […]

Here’s the thing about the Beastie Boys: they’ve always been annoying. Despite their frequent brilliance, success has always come in spite of and not because of Ad-Rock, MCA, & Mike D’s adenoidal yawps and frat-boy lyrics. And yet, despite being blessed with Screech Powers-like voices, the mercurial trio has had an astonishing run over the […]

Hip-hop history is littered with MC’s blessed with scythe-sharp flows and Byzantine lyrics who couldn’t pick out a dope beat if their life depended on it (see also Kass, Ras). Now I wouldn’t go as far as to lump Pharoahe Monch in with the tin-eared rabble, but over the course of five albums and 16 […]

In the decade thus far, scores of pretenders have been hyped as having that elevated and hopelessly nebulous notion of greatness (thanks for stopping by Strokes!). In reality, only a handful of bands have emerged that can be lassoed into such a discussion. My Morning Jacket is one of them. Before you scoff, consider the […]

From hyphy to crunk to snap to grime to whatever the fuck Subtle is, hip-hop has split into a wide variety of sub-genres since its inception. Despite this, most hip-hop heads can be fit pretty neatly into two categories: those who consider NYC’s two golden ages of hip-hop (87-88, 93-97) the high-water marks for the […]

If the Internet reinvented the idea of the overnight sensation, Voxtrot were some of its first guinea pigs—a bunch of kids in their late teens and early 20s who suddenly found themselves digital darlings off the strength of a couple self-produced, self-released EPs recorded in the sweltering heat of a Texas summer, home on break […]

“Cinematic” is the operative cliche that will be thrown about to describe Wax Tailor’s sophomore effort, Hope and Sorrow, but sometimes cliches are cliches for good reason. The record feels tailor-made (pun unintended) to soundtrack a hip-hop tinged re-make of the drug-addled Jack the Ripper flick, From Hell. The kind of thing to throw on […]

On the National’s first two records, lead singer Matt Berninger and the brothers Devendorf and Dessner were middle-weight pugilists trying to move up in the game, fighting on under-cards in undersized venues. Released on their own Brassland label, few people heard The National or Sad Songs for Dirty Lover, but those that did found a […]

The ’80s seem almost archaic in the instant-orgasm Internet age, where everyone has a Netflix account to watch Bulgarian independent DVDs and iPods with enough horse-power to feed a Nepalese family of four for four years. But back in those black and white and fluorescent days when VHS rental shops and frozen yogurt were all […]