Email Author Rob Harvilla

Awards

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published October 13, 2009

  "On 50 Cent's Self-Help Book"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published November 3, 2009

  ""On Michael Jackson's 'This Is It'"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published December 8, 2009

  "Go See Phish at Least Once"

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published August 5, 2008

  "A Running Diary of Hip-Hop Superfest Rock the Bells"

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published September 17, 2008

  "Ride the Plastic Lightening"

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published November 26, 2008

  "Why Chinese Democracy's Fine Print is Way More Fun than the Record Itself"

• 2008 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published November 1, 2007

  "The Fey Highwayman"

• 2008 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published August 9, 2007

  "The Disorientation of Lauryn Hill"

• 2008 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published March 8, 2007

  "Hot Hot Heat"

• 2008 - Deadline Club Awards/New York City Society of Professional Journalists, published March 8, 2007

  "Hot Hot Heat"

• 2007 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published August 21, 2006

  "Get Busy Living"

• 2007 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published July 5, 2006

  "Crazy For You, But Not That Crazy"

• 2007 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published September 18, 2006

  "Spankmaster and Servant"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published August 17, 2005

  "Powerpop for Now People"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published March 30, 2005

  "The Titmaster Tommy Lee"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published July 20, 2005

  "Race Against Rockism"

More

2010 Stories by Rob Harvilla

• Warpaint Wallow Exuberantly

  published December 8, 2010

  Warpaint live is a disconcerting experience. They're smiling! The bass player is dancing (and wearing overalls)! People in the crowd are... More >>

• 

  Best Of NYC: Worrying About Nicki Minaj

  published October 20, 2010

  We’ve fallen in love with stupendously bizarre Queens rapper Nicki Minaj in our own way—each of us with our own customized trigger.... More >>

• Queens of the Stone Age's Super Sad True Love Story

  published August 11, 2010

  It is, objectively speaking, the best opening track of the past decade, any record, any genre; it is a list of drugs. The lyrics to "Feel Good... More >>

• 

  The Arcade Fire Get Serious

  published August 4, 2010

  I wish the new Arcade Fire record were funnier. The Canadian arena-rockers (yes, arena-rockers! Two shows at Madison Square Garden this week!... More >>

• Gary Shteyngart Writes Another Smelly Book

  published July 27, 2010

  Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story tries to be many things—tragicomic 1984 update, poignant May-December romance... More >>

• M.I.A. Is Mad at You

  published July 13, 2010

  The gulf between how much fun it is to talk about M.I.A. and how much fun it is to actually listen to M.I.A.'s music has stretched into a... More >>

• Big Boi Is Not Too Artsy

  published July 6, 2010

  Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty is out this week. Seriously. You can hear it and buy it and everything. For... More >>

• The Brilliant Stupidity of The-Dream

  published June 29, 2010

  "What rhyme with 'asshole'? Asshole." Thereby does Terius Nash, a/k/a deliciously absurd r&b semi-superstar The-Dream, deliver the best... More >>

• Laurie Anderson Doesn't Have Any Answers

  published June 22, 2010

  "You know the reason I really love the stars?" asks Laurie Anderson, in the electronically treated, increasingly resigned baritone alter-ego... More >>

• A People's History of Summer Jam 2010

  published June 8, 2010

  Summer Jam, Hot 97's annual hip-hop bacchanal, this year infiltrated New Meadowlands Stadium for a mercifully not-tornado-besotted Sunday... More >>

• The Planet-Obliterating Joys of Sleigh Bells

  published May 18, 2010

  Alexis Krauss customarily sheds several spandex-based layers while onstage with her pulverizingly loud Brooklyn electro-rock duo, Sleigh Bells,... More >>

• The Hold Steady Age Gracefully

  published May 4, 2010

  You have to remember: The Hold Steady were wizened, wistful veterans when they started. Frontman Craig Finn, fresh off a bruising stint... More >>

• The Eerie Relief of Sam Amidon

  published April 27, 2010

  "We'll do an old murder ballad," announces Sam Amidon with laconic good cheer, acknowledging our demand for an encore. It's an early April... More >>

• On Green Day's Vivid, Lurid, Somewhat Vapid American Idiot Musical

  published April 20, 2010

  Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck, goes the Green Day musical. Fuck this, fuck that, fuck me, fuck you. Like mall-punk Mamet. The 10-pound curse words... More >>

• The Gleeful Self-Sabotage of MGMT

  published April 13, 2010

  So MGMT, a couple years after a gold record, a handful of legitimately stupendous electro-pop singles, involuntary inclusion in several... More >>

• Erykah Badu, In Love

  published March 30, 2010

  You'll get over it, your initial disappointment that Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh, daffy title aside, is not... More >>

• The Resurrection of Alice in Chains

  published March 16, 2010

  Let's quickly dispense with the super-ugly aspects of Alice in Chains' nearly 25-year career arc; this will require harkening back to the... More >>

• SXSW Cheat Sheet 2010

  published March 9, 2010

  So South by Southwest is upon us again, whereupon thousands of fledgling bands (and this year, for some reason, Stone Temple Pilots) descend... More >>

• Welcome Back, Mr. Riffer: Sam Lipsyte's The Ask

  published March 2, 2010

  Sam Lipsyte's corrosive, obscene, unpleasantly hilarious The Ask is a novel full of morally unsound, spiritually beleaguered New Yorkers... More >>

• John Mayer Shuts Up and Sings

  published March 2, 2010

  John Mayer, in person, is startlingly handsome, until he opens his mouth. Except this time, he is not announcing that his dick is a white... More >>

• Oh, Yoko Ono

  published February 23, 2010

  Yoko Ono still does that Yoko Ono thing. You know the one. The one that requires italics, or caps lock, or maybe both. She crouches slightly,... More >>

• Re-Surrender to Jonathan Richman

  published February 16, 2010

  A couple years back, Jonathan Richman released a song called "You Can Have a Cell Phone That's OK But Not Me." It is, like most of his... More >>

• Yeasayer: The Jam Band Goes Digital

  published February 9, 2010

  New iTunes genre tag: "LOL Brooklyn." New entry under said tag: Yeasayer's Odd Blood, wherein the fanciest of boroughs gets its very own... More >>

• An Interview With tUnE-yArDs: 'Get People's Attention or Die'

  published February 2, 2010

  Tune-Yards—which, if you're feeling typographically adventurous, you are welcome to render, per her preference, as... More >>

• Tales From Aventura Land

  published January 26, 2010

  When a guy named Romeo points at your girl, who is sitting right next to you, and purrs, "He can't be your man, 'cause I'm your man,"... More >>