John Mayer

ATTN New Bands: Chill, For These Are the Best of Times

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you ... More >>

Every Simile on Lil Wayne's I Am Not a Human Being II

Lil Wayne has just released his tenth studio album, I Am Not a Human Being II. It's been 18 years since his first album: True Story as one half of The B.G.'z. In that time, he's been a lesser-known member of an embattled southern hip-hop group, a scrawny kid, a mixtape hero, the greatest rapper aliv ... More >>

SNL Sound-Off: Alabama Shakes

After watching Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard belt her way through "Hold On" and "Always Alright" on Saturday Night Live, I did what I always do--peruse Twitter to see what people have to say about SNL's musical guest--and CHRIST that was an infuriating exercise. In a perfect world, Howard's glorio ... More >>

Pazz & Jop: Frank Ocean's Sea Change

His musical and personal honesty made waves in 2012

Live: Bon Iver and Frank Ocean Are Trying to Break Your Heart

Better Than: Seeing either of these guys in a festival setting, which seems to be the only way you're going to these days. Last night Fader magazine and Vitamin Water's collaborative Uncapped tour series hosted their grand finale at the Lower East Side's Angel Orensanz Center. The performers were b ... More >>

How to Speak Republican

Leaked document reveals the secrets of the GOP's coded language

Life, Love, Soul

Coming This Week: SXSW Coverage

by Chris Gray "What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." —Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of ... More >>

Live: Winter Jazzfest Breaks Down Boundaries And Confounds Expectations

​Winter Jazzfest Friday-Saturday, January 6-7 Better than: Summer Zydeco Fest (assuming such a terror exists). After a discordant, twisted reimagining of Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" by his trio Ceramic Dog, guitarist Marc Ribot slyly reminded the audience at Sullivan Hall Friday wha ... More >>

Rhett Miller

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 >>

Radio Hits One: VH1 Takes On The '00s Pop Canon

VH1 spent last week counting down what the channel, and its panel of celebrities and "experts," consider The 100 Greatest Songs of The '00s. They certainly haven't been the first to assemble such a list—Rolling Stone and Pitchfork and every blog under the sun had their say about two years ago, ... More >>

Live: Taylor Swift Sparkles And Survives At The Prudential Center

Taylor Swift w/NeedToBreathe, Danny Gokey Prudential Center Tuesday, July 19 Better than: Bottling up your emotions. Before Taylor Swift took the stage last night, I was looking around the Prudential Center, marveling once again at the craftwork on display during an arena show. In contrast to Ka ... More >>

The Voice: The Dominance Of Javier, The Rise Of Vicci

via RickeyVicci Martinez performs "Dog Days Are Over."​I wish Game of Thrones was still on. It isn't. But hey, The Voice is still on! On last week's show, it seemed pretty obvious which four singers would make it through and which ones wouldn't. On Team Cee Lo, for instance, it was absolutely ... More >>

The Voice: Cee Lo Wigs Out, Adam Levine Gets Inspired By Old VH1 Playlists

via Rickey​Hey, The Voice! It's still pretty good! And right now, there's pretty much nothing else on TV except for Game of Thrones! On last night's episode, Carson Daly, you'll be happy to learn, moved on from the detestable suit-with-sneakers look he was rocking last week. Unfortunately, he ... More >>

The Dual Citizenship of Jon Wurster

From Superchunk to WFMU, his forays into both music and comedy inspire us all

Live: Tom Waits (And A Punk-Rock Neil Diamond) Dominate The Rock Hall Induction Ceremony

The 2011 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Monday, March 14 Better Than: Whatever was happening at Death by Audio tonight that Bruce Springsteen didn't show up to, for whatever reason. First off, let's tell you what you want to hear: Tom Waits stole the show ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10, Final 13: Bodies Falling Everywhere

No time even to discuss that shirt. Credit: Frank Micelotta/FOX.​Two hours? Really, American Idol? You needed two hours for a results show? And you were still scrambling to finish it by the end? This show's results episodes are notoriously stretched-out marathons, where 30 seconds' worth of in ... More >>

Top 10 Super Bowl 2012 Halftime-Show Possibilities

Let's all do our best to keep this from happening​So another enjoyable terrible Super Bowl Halftime Show is in the books, and as we wash "I Gotta Feeling" out of our eyes and ears for the thousandth time, the question becomes: Who will grace the stage in 2012? How old will their most famous al ... More >>

Conan O'Brien is Now on Tumblr

​Looks like the rumored Conan O'Brien Tumblr is now live. The "old media" has now "done been" officially "shown up." He writes of his new show: "As you can see, we still have a bit of work to do...." While we're at it, we might as well air out a Tumblr rumor we've heard from, like, four differ ... More >>

Jay-Z's Ten Most Shameful Rock and Roll Moments

​Yesterday, it was announced that Jay-Z would be joining U2 on the band's five-date tour of Australia come November. It makes sense: in addition to commingling at the top of the Forbes 2010 Music Earners List, Jay-Z and U2 have performed together before--more than once, in fact. (Never forget ... More >>

Kanye West. Performing At Twitter HQ. Oh Yes.

Exciting times for Kanye West, eh? First came video of his Twitter-dissing freestyle at Facebook headquarters, a video whose release was immediately followed by his, uh, starting an official Kanye West Twitter account. And now here's another video of him... performing... at... Twitter's... headqua ... More >>

Liz Phair Returns With Internet-Only Funstyle, Rhymes "Genius" With "Peen-ius"

​On Saturday, lizphair.com suddenly had a new album available via download for a mere $5.99, with one streaming track as a sample, or maybe a warning: "Bollywood" features our heroine rapping in different voices over, yes, a Bollywood tabla. This, in addition to the low asking price, prnt scrn ... More >>

Sixteen-Year-Old Sailor Abby Sunderland Rescued at Sea, Bound to Do It Again

​What's with these children who can't sit still and enjoy their Tamagotchis or whatever? Start a blog or something. Be safe! Instead, Abby Sunderland, like her brother Zac, insisted on sailing around the world alone. Expectedly, this is tough to do, and Thursday things got scary. Sunderland se ... More >>

American Idol Season 9, the Final Three: Casey James Makes a Deal With the Devil; Lee DeWyze Lives On An Airport Runway

Credit: EW/Michael Becker​Answer me something: How the fuck is Casey James still on American Idol? I realize this is a weak season and all, but he should've been gone at least a month ago, and I have no idea how to explain his continued existence on the show unless he's made some sort of devil ... More >>

Nikon at Jones Beach 2010 Summer Schedule Proves, Once Again, That All Under-40 Adult New Yorkers Are Drunks

Jones Beach With the Rihanna/Ke$ha bill already announced for Nikon at Jones Beach Theater this summer, a pop-superheroine double-threat that Nicki Minaj sadly abandoned, there was a momentary glimmer of possibility that the Lon Guyland outdoor amphitheater's other bookings would give metropolitan ... More >>

INDIE CASTAWAYS

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and the Cairo Gang wash up on Monster Island

American Idol Season 9, Top 8 Guys: Michael Lynche Redeems His Own Bad Parenting; Tim Urban Hits the Suburbs

Kidnap that fool--Tim Urban. Photo by Frank Micelotta/ FOX. ​Such a weird night on Idol. There's still plenty of dogshit left on the men's side of the competition, and maybe even worse, there are plenty of people who haven't yet decided if they're going to be dogshit or not. And the night got ... More >>

Transsexual Lesbian Takes Hollywood!

Prodigal Sons director Kimberly Reed fills me in.

New York City Martini Crawl

In which we prowl the city sampling today's take on the most classic cocktail

Live: Jay-Z Celebrates Life, Death, and The Blueprint 3 at Madison Square Garden

Jay-Z and Madison Square Garden have a little history between them. In 2003, on the occasion of his retirement, Jay-Z recorded his MSG farewell concert on 35MM film. That footage became Fade To Black, the single best concert film of the decade. In 2009, on the occasion of the eight year anniversar ... More >>

Michael Jackson Memorial Fails to Destroy the Internet

Despite the best efforts of hundreds of simultaneous live blogs, streams on an incredible array of different platforms and websites, and John Mayer's unforgivable jazz face, the internet survived yesterday's midday Michael Jackson memorial with barely a stutter. MSN reported that 50% more people w ... More >>

Jackson Memorial Scheduled for 1PM EST

Michael Jackson's bonkers Staples Center memorial is scheduled for 10AM PST, and is set to feature a random assortment of basketball players, reality TV show contestants, and John Mayer. This Rolling Stone item cites TMZ and contains the allegation that "Michael Jackson's casket will take center sta ... More >>

Live Blogging the Michael Jackson Memorial

Live Video streaming by Ustream For all the lovely grace notes, homages, and eulogies that have flowed from any number of erudite and compassionate individuals in the wake of Michael Jackson's untimely death at the young age of 50, a celebrity's death is not over in American until the huge, gaudy, ... More >>

News Roundup: Perez Hilton Sues, Kanye West/Spike Jonze, Jim James, My Morning Jacket

--Perez Hilton is suing Black Eyed Peas manager Polo Molina for battery and "infliction of emotional distress," after, you know, he got punched for calling Will.I.Am something homophobic. Hilton's lawyer said in a statement: "Whether you love Perez or hate him, he is entitled to his freedom of speec ... More >>

Billy Joel. Shea Stadium. Let's Do This.

Captain Jack's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Students Protest Washington Square Park Redesign

Extensions of a Woman

Alicia Keys is still a few albums away from her masterpiece. She'll get there.

Provincializm: Ben Lee Covers Against Me, Etc.

The Chocolate Wars

On the bewildering summertime dominance of Tay Zonday and R. Kelly

Things I Learned Watching Black Snake Moan

Jay-Z's Kingdom Come: It's Official

Try Isn't Do

Musical drugs and shared secret codes abort the utopic mission

Ms. Liz to You

Liz Phair discovers that there are other ways to be honest than taking your clothes off

The Other Foot

The FCC sweeps Eliot Spitzer's payola findings under the rug

Store Wars

Indies battle chains over product as industry kicks John Doe

Edges of the Groove

Arguments against education, reclaimed punk rants, electropop with staying power

He's Got Reservations, but Not the Kind You Think

Outdoor Concerts & Music Festivals

Music