Features

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  Chatting With Jimmy Cobb, Kind of Blue's Last Surviving Player

  Remembering the greatest jazz album of all time, 50 years on

  Jimmy Cobb is early. The sole surviving performer on Miles Davis's 1959 album Kind of Blue is waiting in a sixth-floor conference room just blocks from Columbia's old 30th Street Studios, the converted (Greek, Russian, or Armenian, depending...

  By Rob Trucks

  Wednesday, October 08

  Jimmy Cobb is early. The sole surviving performer on Miles Davis's 1959 album Kind of Blue is waiting in a sixth-floor conference room just... More >>
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  Streets Is Watching (PBS)

  Mike Skinner gets happy, and deep, and existential

  Mike Skinner's 2002 bedroom-rap debut, Original Pirate Material, presented life in Birmingham, UK, as a dreary fluctuation between grinding boredom and self-destruction. His subsequent efforts were suitably pessimistic: The second was a druggy...

  By Ben Detrick

  Wednesday, October 08

  Mike Skinner's 2002 bedroom-rap debut, Original Pirate Material, presented life in Birmingham, UK, as a dreary fluctuation between grinding... More >>
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  Swing Votes

  Jazz gets political again, just in time

  Before the presidential campaign devolved into a Sarah Palin literacy course, there was this idea, promoted by McCain's handlers and stolen in fact from Hillary Clinton's campaign, that we were to choose between experience and change. Eighty-two-year-old...

  By Larry Blumenfeld

  Wednesday, October 08

  Before the presidential campaign devolved into a Sarah Palin literacy course, there was this idea, promoted by McCain's handlers and stolen in... More >>
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  Calle 13's Bold Innovation, Vulgarity

  On their self-titled 2005 debut, Calle 13 were hilarious and musically innovative, vocalist Residente's lyrics poking fun at every aspect of contemporary Latin culture while his cousin Visitante's beats combined reggaeton, hip-hop, and funk into a...

  By Phil Freeman

  Wednesday, October 08

  On their self-titled 2005 debut, Calle 13 were hilarious and musically innovative, vocalist Residente's lyrics poking fun at every aspect of... More >>
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  LL Cool J Eats His Own Lunch, and a Few Other Things

  Exit 13 is LL Cool J's final album for Def Jam, which released his debut, Radio—dare I say it?—nearly a quarter-century ago. So at this, the culmination of his career, it isn't surprising to find the rapper defiantly affirming the supremacy...

  By Harry Allen

  Wednesday, October 08

  Exit 13 is LL Cool J's final album for Def Jam, which released his debut, Radio—dare I say it?—nearly a quarter-century ago. So at... More >>
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  Grizzly Bear Offshoot Department of Eagles Takes Chameleonic Flight

  Side projects are a risky maneuver—expectations are evenly split between those who want you to sound exactly like the group you've splintered from, and those anticipating something wildly different. Most dedicated Grizzly Bear fans know that...

  By Lauren Gitlin

  Wednesday, October 08

  Side projects are a risky maneuver—expectations are evenly split between those who want you to sound exactly like the group you've... More >>
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  More Geek-Snot Anthems From Jay Reatard

  Jay Reatard likes to spread himself thin: The high-school dropout has joined upwards of 15 bands (the Lost Sounds, the Angry Angles, etc.) in the last decade, all while releasing solo singles, EPs, and other recorded ephemera at a manic, Bob Pollard–worthy...

  By John S.W. MacDonald

  Wednesday, October 08

  Jay Reatard likes to spread himself thin: The high-school dropout has joined upwards of 15 bands (the Lost Sounds, the Angry Angles, etc.) in the... More >>
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  Ragged Lumberjack Wails from Lambchop and Ray LaMontagne

  Nashville’s Lambchop have been flouting Music Row protocol for so long that their anti-formula has become a formula. There’s no mistaking OH (Ohio), the band’s 10th full-length, as anything but the work of frontman Kurt Wagner...

  By Mikael Wood

  Wednesday, October 08

  Nashville’s Lambchop have been flouting Music Row protocol for so long that their anti-formula has become a formula. There’s no... More >>
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  Morgan Geist's Luscious Disco, Just In Time for the Death of Bottle Service

  That anyone who casually follows New York electronic music knows the name Morgan Geist is a huge testament to the man's talent: The Environ Records founder has released just two solo albums in 10 years, opting to work mainly behind the scenes as a...

  By Sam Ubl

  Wednesday, October 08

  That anyone who casually follows New York electronic music knows the name Morgan Geist is a huge testament to the man's talent: The Environ... More >>
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  Lee Ann Womack's Country-Siren Schizophrenia

  Of all the divas Nashville has coughed up recently, Lee Ann Womack has to be the saddest—which easily makes her the most fascinating, particularly since her biggest hit was the ultra-uplift, seize-the-day, let’s-all-cry-and-twirl-on-the-beach...

  By Werner Trieschmann

  Wednesday, October 08

  Of all the divas Nashville has coughed up recently, Lee Ann Womack has to be the saddest—which easily makes her the most fascinating,... More >>