Joanna Newsom

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 2/4/13

Here are the 10 best shows to check out around the city this week, in no particular order.

Diane Cluck

HANGING ON

Active Child hit Mercury Lounge

On Mirel Wagner and the Alleged Death and Apparent Spread of Freak Folk

Scattered cosmic dust

This Week In The Voice: The Freak-Folk Diaspora; Jim Jones Makes His Move

Annabel MehranJoanna Newsom. ​This week in the Village Voice, out now: Grayson Currin examines the state of the freak-folk scene, which eight years ago seemed to dominate the American indie landscape; and J. Pablo talks to Jim Jones about chess, TV, and the meaning of the "Vampire Life."

Da Capo's Second-Best Music Writing 2011: 112 Of Last Year's Most Notable Music Stories

The 2011 edition of Da Capo's annual anthology Best Music Writing— which this year was guest edited by The New Yorker classical writer and The Rest Is Noise author Alex Ross; Daphne Carr has been the series editor since 2006—contains 32 essays and is augmented by a a jumbo-sized "Other N ... More >>

Edmar Castaneda

"Live": Turntable.fm Goes From Zero To Woodstock '99 At #VIPFest

​ Hipster Runoff, Gorilla vs. Bear, Diplo Turntable.fm Monday, June 27 Better than: Listening to your friends DJ on turntable.fm. Turntable.fm is a newish "social DJing" site that basically brings the chat-room concept to the world of online radio stations. DJs can congregate in rooms and ad ... More >>

The Family Jams: Only for Die-Hard 'Freak Folk' Fanatics

Arcade Fire Sell Nearly Half A Million Records in 2010, Will Perform at the Grammys

​"The whole chart thing is kind of like sports," said an unimpressed Merge label chief Laura Ballance, back when Arcade Fire hit #1 on the Billboard charts. That may well be true. But if selling records is like sports, Arcade Fire are weirdly good at it, considering they're a bunch of spindly ... More >>

Top 25 Headlines Not As Weird As "Dave Sitek Joins Jane's Addiction"

Good luck learning all the chord changes in "Jane Says," dude​So TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek has joined Jane's Addiction, in some unspecified bassist/songwriter/possibly-non-touring-member capacity, which is super bizarre when you first hear about it, but is, upon reflection, not the stranges ... More >>

Joanna Newsom

Download: Lacrymosa, "Sylvia (If I Meant)"

Shadowy, piano-playing chanteuse Caitlin Pasko is Lacrymosa, a drifty-dreamy fog of theatrical belting, twisted art-folk croon, bold melodies, and spectral tenderness--a haunted house version of uneasy troubadours like Antony, Joanna Newsom, or Bat For Lashes. After spending 18 years living in the ... More >>

Paging Hipster Runoff: Andy Samberg Attends Pearl Jam Show

​A tipster pal sends along a photo of Saturday Night Live castmates Andy Samberg and Will Forte hanging out in the will-call line at last night's Pearl Jam concert at MSG. Note the era-appropriate flannel! Our pal Hipster Runoff might have something to say about the man who dates indie rock go ... More >>

Live: Joanna Newsom, Shredding Ethereally At Town Hall

Jamming up north not too long ago. Joanna Newsom Town Hall Thursday, March 18 "Did you say, 'Play faster?' she asks. "No! Fantastic!" replies one of several hundred rapt, lusting, audience-bound gentlemen. Thought so.

Week In Review: Rock 'n' Roll Is Here To Stay

My compatriots are either in Texas for SXSW or Mexico for MtyMx (reminder to Zach: Do not buy or sell drugs) at the moment, but it's beautiful out in NYC right now so I am surprisingly not bitter about being left here to recap a week marred, unfortunately, by the death of power-pop god Alex Chilto ... More >>

Tonight! Joanna Newsom, Scissor Sisters, King Missile, BAM's Opera Festival, and Nautical Almanac

​Tonight, Joanna Newsom spares you her baby/grandma coos -- her first New York outing in support of her new triple album, Have One on Me, is sold out at Town Hall, as is the Scissor Sisters show at Bowery Ballroom. So with the two biggest concerts of the night beyond reach, and with all those ... More >>

LOVELY STRINGS

Joanna Newsom shares secrets of the heart

Explaining the Success of Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Which Has Sold More Copies Than 50 Cent's Before I Self-Destruct and That Joanna Newsom Record Combined

​A small shift at the top of the charts this week -- snoozy country act Lady Antebellum retakes the top spot, with Need You Now selling 126,000 copies to the smoky Sade album Soldier Of Love's 79,000 -- is followed by a slew of debuts from artists of varying notoriety. Polarizing American Idol ... More >>

Week in Review: Michael Bolton is... JACK THE RIPPER!

Hey look, it's Michael Bolton. Photo by the intrepid Rob Harvilla.​In the week we attended a cocktail party at Michael Bolton's house, we learned that the god has a Kanye platinum plaque on his wall and the finest Scrabble board Toys R Us sells on his mantle. Our guided tour of New York's most ... More >>

Dam-Funk

Joanna Newsom, Somewhat Simplified

America's harp-plucking sweetheart scales back on her new, uh, triple album

Hanne Hukkelberg

The Decade in Music Genre Hype

A solemn tribute to once-hot-shit trends that (mostly) won't be joining us in the '10s

The 50 Worst Songs of the '00s, F2K No. 20: Gym Class Heroes, "Taxi Driver"

F2K is a countdown of the 50 worst songs of the decade. Track our progress here. Since emo already ruined rock music for a generation, why not just take rap too?

Alela Diane

Live: Sufjan Stevens Soothes An Unsettled Bowery Ballroom

Sufjan Stevens Bowery Ballroom Monday, October 5 Chippy night down at the ol' Bowery. Heading downstairs we pass a heated argument between two hungry patrons and a bouncer defending the club's "all exits are final" policy. The men's bathroom is briefly closed due to unfortunate leakage; "hold it, ... More >>

Lauren Dukoff's Family: Pretty Pictures of Devandra Banhart, Bat for Lashes, Others

Recently, rock photographer Lauren Dukoff released Family, a collection of photography which, among other things, chronicles the photographer's long friendship with Devandra Banhart. The book also presents Dukoff's portraits of Vetiver, Bat for Lashes, Joanna Newsom, and other musicians/artists/frie ... More >>

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: Alela Diane's "Dry Grass & Shadows"

Last week's prediction: I hear the new Animal Collective is pretty good... Nevada City is a Denis Johnson-type Northern California mountain town whose chief economic/cultural export is hippies, more or less: Joanna Newsome, Gary Snyder, Utah Phillips, Terry Riley, and the 25-year-old Adela Diane. ... More >>

Recommended: Amanda Petrusich's 'It Still Moves' at Book Court

Live: Bent Festival at DCTV

Please Ignore This Band

Why Vampire Weekend’s high-society fetishizations can’t help but drive you to Black Flag

Breihan vs. Harvilla: Does Indie-Rock Need Rhythm?

Provincializm: Top 3 Mixtape Songs To Repel or Confuse Recipients

Harptallica Comes to New York

This Year's Model

Fickle artists reinvent the remix, and themselves

More High-Class Broadsides

America's Next Top Redneck Model invades Hollywood, retains Nashvillian charm

This Week's Burrito Placemat: Arctic Monkeys, Tommie Sunshine, Guitar Hero

How to Be an American Idiot

The Internet may eventually kill "the album" as a concept, but 2006 kept the concept album alive

Bob, Barkley, and Beyond: The Top 20

The poll's upper echelons drive us crazy, or at least drive us to drink

Milk-Eyed and Heaven-Bound

Joanna and Neko storm the Top 10 with dancing bears and several trips to the river

Noise From the Front

For the week of November 8–14, 2006

Music

Stuff you need to know to avoid ostracism

Sailing the Seas of Ys

Joanna Newsom is nobody's pixie, sprite, bear, fairy, or folk freak

CMJ Music Marathon Highlights

Start Making Sense

On the beauty but hollow humanity of micromanaged Mac rock

The Lion, the Witch, But Above All, the Wardrobe

Fantasy + Fashion = Magic

Bleak Songster Canters South, Worries About Paws, Shouts 'Fuck All Y'all'

Harmonies and Abysses

Across the sky sheet the impossible birds in a steady illiterate movement homewards

Music