Foo Fighters

Rush to Judgment, and the Rock Hall of Fame

Rush fans have been very angry for a very long time. Not at the long-lived Canadian prog-rock trio--no, they worship them unequivocally. The "world's biggest cult band" has a fanatical following heavily composed of dudes, and in the last decade, those dudes have been pissed, ranting about the Rock a ... More >>

Potty Mouth: "It Is Not Our Job To Teach The Rest of the World How To Not Be Assholes"

Potty Mouth is a rock band from Western Massachusetts. With the exception of singer/guitarist Abby Weems, who graduated from high school last year, the members of the band either attended Northampton's Smith College (bassist Ally Einbinder and guitarist Phoebe Harris are graduates) or currently atte ... More >>

'The Concert for Sandy Relief'

Radio Hits One: Nine Songs From 2012 That Should Have Been Huge

The term "flop," in a musical context, usually refers to an unsuccessful album. Though singles constantly perform above or below expectations, a song will rarely get a reputation as a flop unless there's a lot riding on it, such as a pre-release single from a big-name album. In 2011, Beyonce's "Run ... More >>

SOTC Premiere: It Is Happening Again: A Texas Is The Reason Microfilm (Plus A Q&A With Norman Brannon)

Texas is the Reason were and, recently, are a band. They formed in 1994 and released one self-titled EP and one full-length, Do You Know Who You Are?, on which they exemplified a kind of emo that was both anxious and circling—small, contained universes of songs that somehow managed to seem ope ... More >>

Neil Young, Foo Fighters, Black Keys To Play A Big Charity Show In Central Park

The Global Festival 2012, a concert on Central Park's Great Lawn sponsored by an outfit called the Global Poverty Project, will take place on September 29; Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, and the Black Keys will headline, with Band of Horses and K'Naan serving as support acts. As is custom ... More >>

Live: The Summerland Tour Lets A Decades-Old Sun Shine In At Roseland

Summerland Tour: Everclear, Sugar Ray, Gin Blossoms, Lit, Marcy Playground Roseland Ballroom Wednesday, July 18 Better than: Watching Empire Records on basic cable. We make the "remember the '90s" joke around these parts a fair amount, but this week the alt-rock strain of that decade has been stu ... More >>

Q&A: That Dog.'s Anna Waronker On Her Band's Reunion Shows, Josie And The Pussycats And Sweet Valley High

That Dog. are proof that the '90s were a very different time, one when an alt-pop band with three women, one guy, extraordinarily catchy songs ("Never Say Never" and "Long Island" were every bit the equal of "Buddy Holly" and "Say It Ain't So"), and a cool gimmick (full-time violinist Petra Haden) c ... More >>

Did Anyone Else Cry During Kristen Wiig's SNL Farewell Last Night?

Rumors have been circulating for some time that Kristen Wiig was considering her seventh year as an Saturday Night Live castmember to be her last. And, in the last sketch of the season finale on Saturday night, she confirmed those rumors with one of the best (and emotional) send-offs in the show's h ... More >>

The Promise Ring

Laurie Anderson (7) Takes On Norah Jones (10) As The First Round Of SOTC's March Madness Begins To Wrap Up

​The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which you, the Sound of the City voting public, help determine the quintessential New York musician—finishes up this week, with the Round of 32 scheduled to kick off Monday. (The schedule and results so far are he ... More >>

In Defense Of Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl had a good time at the Grammys on Sunday. The Foo Fighters won pretty much every rock-oriented award possible, he reminded everyone that he's got the power-ballad game on lock, and he even got to show off his sweet Slayer T-shirt. Once again, everything came up Grohl. The most likable man ... More >>

The Grammys: Rock and Grohl

When past and future collide, does the present win?

Live-Blogging The 2012 Grammys: Tributes, Tribulations, Skrillex, And The Return Of Adele

via Cats Who Look Like SkrillexWill this cat win Best New Artist?​Welcome to Sound of the City's liveblog of the 54th Annual Grammys, coming to you live from a couch in Astoria. There are quite a few questions lurking around tonight's ceremony. Will Adele sweep the three major categories in wh ... More >>

It's Adele vs. Gaga At The Grammys Sunday

And that's good because it'll take some of the heat off Gaga vs. Madonna. But who do you think will win the Grammy for Album of the Year?

Radio Hits One: Foster The People, Cage The Elephant Lead The Charge Of New "The" Bands

Back around 2001, a Transatlantic cabal of music critics led a media hype machine declaring that rock was "back." To further this thesis, it grouped together a disparate set of bands offering variations on the stripped-down "garage rock" template who were often cheekily referred to as the "The" Band ... More >>

The Bamboozle: Moving Back To Asbury Park (!), Headlined By Bon Jovi (?)

The 2012 edition of The Bamboozle—the weekend-long festival of complete and utter overstimulation in the name of music and carnival rides—will take place May 18 through 20, and instead of being held in the parking lot of the Meadowlands' football stadium, as it has been for the past cou ... More >>

I'm Up For A Grammy Award!

​As you'll recall, I'm in TV on the Radio's video for Nine Types of Light. I brilliantly played a hapless janitor, Carol Burnett-style, thanks to filmmakers Amy Davis and Jon Mortisugu, who cast me with a mop in mind and also nabbed Murray Hill to play the nightclub MC. And it's up for the G ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Playing Armchair A&R With The Singles From 2011's Biggest And Best Albums

​The two big formats that have long ruled over popular music are the single and the album. They have a great duality between them: the song and the collection; the sliver and the whole; the appetizer and the main course. Albums are the full-length format long considered pop music's ultimate a ... More >>

Q&A: Bob Mould On See A Little Light, Blowoff, Hüsker Dü And Being "Pretty Fuckin' Out" At 51

Brendan McWeeney​When Bob Mould—ex-"miserablist" and noise-pop architect behind Amerindie rock gods Hüsker Dü and alt-pop gurus Sugar, as well as under his own name—writes in his brutally honest autobiography tour de force See A Little Light of a revelatory moment in 1998 when he ... More >>

The American Music Awards Nominations: Hey, Did You Know Adele Sold A Lot Of Albums This Year?

Have you bought your copy yet? (Give it time.) ​You can have your Grammys and your Mercury Prizes and your Polaris Prizes and whatever other musical prizes honor things like "talent" and "artistry"—the most honest awards show in pop music, though, is undoubtedly the American Music Awards ... More >>

Live: Torche And Friends Dominate At Music Hall Of Williamsburg

​ Torche w/ Big Business, Helms Alee Music Hall of Williamsburg Wednesday, July 20 Better than: I would say any other metal show, but apparently there were a few other good ones. Last afternoon, with the e-mercury that I assume powers our digital thermometers refusing to recede, the Torche/ ... More >>

Dave Grohl Does Not Want You To Take His Band's Name Too Literally

His band may be called the Foo Fighters, but Dave Grohl wants the world to know that said nomenclature does not serve as carte blanche for people to get their conflict on during his concerts. During the Foos' Monday night show in London, he stopped mid-song to eject someone who was causing a ruckus ... More >>

Radio Hits One: The Foo Fighters Foster The Alternative Generation Gap

​ The Foo Fighters' seventh album Wasting Light became the band's first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 upon its release in April, following a mountain of pre-release hype that included some of the best reviews of the band's career, a documentary about the making of the album, and the inevitable pu ... More >>

Watch: Nas and Damian Marley Trek Through Jamaica in "Nah Mean"

​Not content with just being announced as part of the rather-weak Lollapalooza 2011 lineup today, Nas and Damian Marley have dropped the music video for "Nah Mean" from their album Distant Relatives. The clip, shot almost entirely in black and white, follows Nasty Nas and Jr. Gong as they take ... More >>

Q&A: My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way on Vampires, Glee, And Liza Minnelli

​ My Chemical Romance's fearless leader talks about mocking his own concept albums and rebelling vicariously through his hair. What are your favorite post-apocalyptic movies? Night of the Comet, Mad Max obviously--I actually prefer the first one. A Boy and His Dog. I think those are like the ... More >>

The Dears

Live: Man Forever, Oneida Drummer Kid Millions' Pulverizing Side Project, Pounds Issue Project Room, Ecstatically

Good lord: The brahs in action a few weeks back. Man Forever Issue Project Room Friday, June 25 Say "drummer's solo project" and conflicting sounds come to mind--Foo Fighters, "Sussudio," Peter Criss, Charlie Watts' Charlie Parker project--with few of them ever meditating exclusively on the drum ... More >>

Our First Date With Them Crooked Vultures

Getting to know a deliciously indulgent, only slightly exhausting hard-rock supergroup

BRIGHT EYES

Seattle scene beacons bury the hatchet

News Roundup: Pearl Jam, Wavves, Green Day, Dr. Dog

​--Pearl Jam have put together an online scavenger hunt to promote upcoming album Backspacer. The band has placed nine images (designed by political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow) thoughout the internet (view one here). If you find all nine images, Eddie Vedder will play a private acoustic concert i ... More >>

RECREATED, NOT SEDATED

The punks of Sunset Boulevard return

News Roundup: Chris Brown/Rihanna, Oxford Collapse, Sunny Day Real Estate, Coney Island Rockabilly Festival

--Chris Brown reached a plea deal in court yesterday in his felony assault case. Brown will avoid jail time by receiving probation, doing 180 days of community service in his native Virginia, and attending domestic violence counseling classes. Brown is ordered to stay 50 yards away from Rihanna for ... More >>

Live: Jimmy Eat World Reprise Clarity at Terminal 5

all photos by Rebecca Smeyne If you were cynical you might say that Jimmy Eat World, who took the stage at Terminal 5 last night in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their 1999 album Clarity, were dropping their Foo Fighters-covering-the Outfield radio rock of recent days to cash in on the rel ... More >>

What a Long, Strange Season It's Been

Movin' on out: Leah (photo: Bravo)How to cap-off the chefs' time in New York--a time that began with them peeling apples in the Big Apple, then had them pretending to care about the Foo Fighters and cooking Thanksgiving dinner in toaster ovens in the middle of the summer, and featured Padma dressed ... More >>

What's Wrong With Top Chef This Season?

Really?As I blinked through yet another episode of Top Chef last night, I had to wonder? Was it me or the show? Why do these 60 Bravo minutes not offer the pleasure they once did. Indeed it's not me. It's not you. It's the show. I've been trying to understand just what has gone wrong this year, and ... More >>

School of Seven Bells or Secret Machines: The Choice Is Yours

Yes, Dave Grohl Can Rock the Garden

The Foo Fighters continue their inexplicable bid to be the last band standing

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

This Year's Grammy Nominations: Fucking Insane

Provincializm: Blitz, New Order, Dusty Grails of the '80s

The VMAs: A Running Diary

VH-1's Rock Honors: A Running Diary

Like a Hurricane Six Feet Under There's Calm in Your Eye

Music

Horns and Halos

Strokes Are Stoked!

Born to Be Alive

Motorway to Roswell

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