Justin Vernon

The Best of Coachella, Weekend One

Karen O's Outfit Karen O's wardrobe on Friday night was bad ass. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's front woman appeared on the main stage in a technicolor cape draped over a suit that looked like it was made of mercury. The vibrant collage was topped with a headpiece that Liberace might have worn had he ever bee ... More >>

Spring Arts Guide Picks: Music

The Oral History of Kid Rock's The Polyfuze Method

Though it's practically needless to say by now, this Saturday -- March 16 -- is a date that most rock fans have long had circled on their calendar: The 20th anniversary of Kid Rock's remarkable second album, The Polyfuze Method. See also: Scott Stapp Clears Up That Story About the Orgy on Kid Rock' ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 12/3/12

Here are the ten best concerts around the city this week, in no particular order.

Meet 4AD's Indians, Denmark's Bon Iver

I first came across Indians entirely by accident courtesy of a CMJ schedule screw-up. On the first night of the annual music marathon back in October, I had been bouncing from the Rockwood Music Hall to Pianos to Cake Shop when the list of bands I had hastily scrawled in a notebook led me to the Liv ... More >>

Anaïs Mitchell

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 >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 9/21/12

In no particular order, here are ten can't-miss shows in New York this weekend. For the Voice's full rundown of New York concerts, hit up villagevoice.com/concerts. See Also: - All Tomorrow's Parties Preview: Founder Barry Hogan on the Festival's Move to New York City - Fear of a Talibam! Planet - ... More >>

Into the Woods

Indie folk phenoms Bon Iver return

Q&A: Questlove On Artistic Freedom, "Shuffle Culture," And Spreading The Springsteen Gospel

In a recent tweet responding to a follower's assertion that he was a celebrity, the drummer and head Root Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson demurred, claiming he was merely "a personality." The follower had a point, though; according to a website devoted to Quest's blogs about meeting famous people, for in ... More >>

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 >>

Oddsmaking: Is Bon Iver Or Foster The People Alt-But-Not-Too-Alt Enough To Win At This Year's Grammys?

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences introduced the Best Alternative Music Performance category in 1991 in anticipation of punk breaking later that year (and permanently renamed the award in 2000). Over the past two decades, the changing demographics of the nominees have reflected the ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Will Mumford & Sons Upset "Rolling In The Deep" In The Grammys' Record Of The Year Race?

Every year, when I get involved in Grammy debates with my cooler friends, I tell them the problem with the awards isn't that they reward mass-appeal schlock. If the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is doing its job right, it should be rewarding popular, undeniable, and somewhat unhip ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Who Will Win This Year's Best New Artist Trophy At The Grammys?

In this week's Voice I wrote about Skrillex, the emo-dude-gone-dubstep-auteur who's spawned a bunch of funny-Photoshop blogs and garnered five Grammy nominations. One of the categories he's nominated in is one of the Big Four—Best New Artist, which seems to have shaken off its "one-way ticket ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Will Adele Go "Rolling" Over Her Song Of The Year Competition?

The Grammys have a determinedly behind-the-times history, and Song of the Year is one of the ceremony's most reliably old-fashioned categories. It's given to the songwriter—even though what constitutes a "song" today is a lot different than when the Grammys began in 1959, back when sheet music ... More >>

Live: Elijah Wood DJs While Bon Iver Stays In His Corner At The Woolworth Building

Diana Levine/Bushmills​ Elijah Wood The Wooly Thursday, February 2 Better Than: Reading about Bon Iver on the internet today. After attending a party called Macaulay Culkin's iPod two months ago, during which I watched the love of my kindergarten days supervise a six-hour playlist and the tw ... More >>

Pazz & Jop Comments: Top 10-Plus

The year's big albums, from tUnE-yArDs on down

Confuse the Market: Post-Crossover, Indie Retreats

Beyonce, Nicki, and Merrill Get Optimistic

Finding the bright side of 2011

The 11 Most Infuriating Songs Of 2011, No. 6: Bon Iver, "Holocene"

The Song: Bon Iver, "Holocene" The Crimes: Shapelessness, "atmosphere," wondering if we're all just particles, man, invoking existential music-listening crises. Many of this year's most risible songs had clear reasons for being as irritating as they were—self-impressed "punk"dom, grating whi ... More >>

Jon Menges Trio w/ Pete McCann

20 Questions Brought Up By The Grammy Nominations

Last night's Grammy nominations show was full of pomp, eyeliner, and people on Twitter becoming very confused. Here's the complete list of nominees; below, 20 questions that we're still wrestling with some 14 hours after the broadcast signed off. 1. "Super Bass": Robbed or totally robbed? 2. Now t ... More >>

Will Bon Iver Be The Arcade Fire Of 2012? And Other Pre-Grammy Nomination Show Questions

Tonight's Grammy nomination concert, airing at 10 p.m. on CBS, will not only jam-pack a bunch of performances by the likes of Lady Gaga and Jason Aldean into its 60 minutes, it'll also let us know which artists will be prostrating themselves in front of the globe and thanking their families and God ... More >>

Live: Anaïs Mitchell Brings Hadestown From (Le) Poisson Rouge To Washington Square Park

by Laura Leebove Anaïs Mitchell and the Hadestown Orchestra (le) poisson rouge Sunday, November 20 Better than: Watching Occupy Wall Street protesters on TV. Anaïs Mitchell's show on Sunday night began on a crowded stage at (le) poisson rouge and ended in a singalong-propelled march to nearby W ... More >>

Live: Bon Iver Blossoms Into A Band At Prospect Park

Jake Moore​ Bon Iver w/The Rosebuds Celebrate Brooklyn! at Prospect Park Bandshell Wednesday, August 10 Better than: Going it alone. The now nine-member collective known as Bon Iver has certainly evolved from its oft-retold cabin origins. At Prospect Park last night, the band showed off the ... More >>

Bon Iver: Super, Natural

Stretching Justin Vernon's sound into the widescreen format

This Week In The Voice: New Orleans' Future, Bon Iver's Widescreen Sound, And Pitbull's Unexpected Dominance

D.L. AndersonJustin Vernon. ​In this week's Village Voice, available near you if you are currently located in the New York metropolitan area: Larry Blumenfeld looks at the tensions between music-makers and lawmakers in New Orleans; Jess Harvell gives the once-over to the sumptuous self-titled ... More >>

American Idol Breaks Out Its Copy Of Carole King: Her Greatest Hits

Michael Becker/FOX​ The same week NBC attempts to take on American Idol by launching the loud, flashy The Voice, Idol makes one of those baffling decisions that only Idol can make: Devoting an entire 90 minutes to saluting the deeply, overwhelmingly annoying singer-songwriter Carole King. I h ... More >>

American Idol Season 10, Top 11: The Freaky Rictus Smile of Thia Megia

This person has no idea what Motown is. Photo courtesy Michael Becker/ FOX. ​Since last we spoke, Karen Rodriguez has gone back to MySpaceLand, Steven Tyler's wardrobe has grown impressively more absurd, and Jacob Lusk has bodied the fuck out of Heart's "Alone." I missed the last week of Ameri ... More >>

Justin Vernon Announces New Bon Iver Album

​If you had asked us after 2007's For Emma, Forever Ago, or even after 2009's auto-tune adorned EP, Blood Bank, we probably would have told you Bon Iver would be crazy to put out an album during the summer. Justin Vernon had made a name for himself by capitalizing on heartbreak, exorcizing awa ... More >>

Rob Harvilla's Top 10 Singles of 2010

​Not every great song this year was released by Katy Perry. From a snarling avant-electro NPR lecture to a haunted-house posse cut to a ludicrously profane viral sensation, here are 10 examples. "Teenage Dream" might still be better than all of these, though. Better get this started before I c ... More >>

Live: Kanye West At Bowery Ballroom, Ranting, Seething, And Enthralling

Kanye West, Finally Unraveled

Plumbing the gorgeous nightmares of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The 10 Best Posse Cuts of 2010 (So Far)

​Posse cuts are like friendlier versions of the WWE's Royal Rumble -- a platform designed to showcase all of the stars in the game, both up-and-coming and certified. Think back to the Main Source's 1991 "Live At The Barbecue," featuring Akinyele, Joe Fatal, and the debut of a rapper named Nas, ... More >>

The 10 Best Verses From Kanye West's Good Friday Project, So Far

​As sustained, goodwill-generating rap publicity stunts go, Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Fridays series is almost entirely without precedent. Other rappers, guys like Freeway and Crooked I, have given away free music in regular installments, but those guys are B-listers and supporting players, and th ... More >>

Week in Review: Report Gang Activity

Have seen you seen this man?​In the week we wondered if it was still possible to sell out in 2010 (short answer: no), we also found ourselves introduced to the horrific new term "rape gaze," about which the less that's now said, the better. Cleanse your palate with the six best things you can ... More >>

Live: GAYNGS Bring Justin Vernon, Sax Solos to the Music Hall of Williamsburg

Photos by Shoshanah TarkowOne heck of a Minneapolis "Musical Super-Family." Better than: a sax solo, by any other name GAYNGS is not a small concept. The slow-jammin' Minneapolis collective, led by Ryan Olson, is a rotating crew of 23 musicians that includes Zack Coulter and Adam Hurlburt of So ... More >>

Kanye Explains His Attraction To Bon Iver: "He's Similar To Me, Like Where He Just Does Shit Just So People Would Be Like, 'Oh Shit, How Did You Do That?'"

I don't know, seems Photoshopped​Sorry, but I felt that quote deserved to be reprinted in full in the largest font I had immediately available. Yes, America, it would appear the Kanye-Bon Iver team-up is a real thing, per a chat with Rolling Stone in which he acknowledges -- and we totally sup ... More >>

Dustin Peyseur, From Beach Fossils, on Loving Rock Ladies: "They all make me want to give chocolates and roses endlessly (and then be immediately punched in the face for being a chauvinist pig!)"

Dustin Peyseur, sensitive as fuck.​Even though they are so cowardly and weak that they ran screaming from their offices yesterday as if a little snow were a nuclear bomb, we still love our friends at eMusic, not least for their tradition of putting together holiday-appropriate featurettes. How ... More >>

New St. Vincent Video: "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood," Featuring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein

Not news that St. Vincent's Annie Clark has all kinds of special friends--she just came off a week in NYC that involved performing with everyone from David Byrne to Bon Iver's Justin Vernon to the National. So of course she pulled ThunderAnt, who go by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein when not d ... More >>

Live: St. Vincent (and David Byrne, and Bryce Dessner, and the Bon Iver Dude) Invade the Allen Room

Good audio, lousy video, though it does seem as though she's floating in midair. St. Vincent Allen Room Friday, January 29 "Well this is just dreadfully pleasant," deadpans Annie Clark, summing it all up expertly, as usual. St. Vincent is holding court in the prettiest venue in NYC, vista-wise, t ... More >>

BON NUIT

NY Guitar Festival diverges into folk

Please Let the Auto-Tune Jokes End: A Brief History of the Pitch-Correcting Software's Legacy

If Auto-Tune hit its peak as a joke delivery device last week amidst the spectacle of a weirdly robotic Katie Couric involuntarily singing an "O Superman"-reminiscent lament for melting polar ice caps, it also hit its nadir at about the same time, when a tape surfaced of an Auto-Tuned Martin Luthe ... More >>

Megafaun+the Rosebuds

This Week in the Voice: Pazz & Jop!

Catch up on a year's worth of musicology with the Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll, now in its 36th year of goading the nation's top parsers to struggle over the higher meaning of sonic culture. Review the singles top-1,761 and albums top-1,693, see how your favorite critics voted, and attend the deep thou ... More >>

Bon Iver: Digital Love, Analog Grief

Justin Vernon wins this year's battle of the heartbroken, Kanye's histrionics notwithstanding

What Are You Listening To, Bon Iver Dude?

Interview: Bon Iver's Justin Vernon

Live: Bon Iver at Bowery Ballroom

Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago

More rustic, beautiful folkiness