Merrill Garbus

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 4/12/13

These 10 concerts were chosen "Best of Weekend" by a robot made of melted down vinyl copies of Black Sabbath's Paranoid and the guts of old tube amplifiers. Make it happy. Go out into that good night.

Big Tree

Tibet House Benefit

Defend Your Ballot: Steven Hyden, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Dan Weiss, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

Pazz & Jop 2012 Tabulation Notes

Weak consensus versus inspiring diversity

The Best Albums Pitchfork Hated This Year

Since Purity Ring, Death Grips and Tame Impala didn't exactly take off this year like Arcade Fire or Animal Collective, Pitchfork's cultural influence might be cooling off, which is bittersweet since their writer stable is probably better now than it ever was (some of us don't miss those novelty rev ... More >>

New Amsterdam Records Badly Hit by Sandy

Following the news of the unfortunate sizable damage to Norton Records, another label based in Red Hook, New Amsterdam Records, has had its headquarters devastated in the storm, including 70% of the label's CD inventory, which the artists themselves actually owned (the label held them as storage but ... More >>

Deftones: Here Comes the Rain

Offering a master class in outperforming a storm

Roomful of Teeth w/ Merrill Garbus

Live: tUnE-yArDs Gets The Panties Flying At Terminal 5

tUnE-yArDs w/Micachu & the Shapes, Delicate Steve Terminal 5 Friday, June 1 Better than: Seeing the "Naked Cowgirl." Merrill Garbus was vamping on "Powa," one of the sexier tracks off tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l, when a sudden synthesizer malfunction interrupted her banshee wail with a country swing ... More >>

Mica Levi's Tweaked Take on Pop

Imagine the shapes

Summer Music Guide: Death Grips' Disappearing Act

Dear Internet: All The Snickering About Madonna's Age Is Getting Real Old

This week Madonna's 12th studio album and dive into the deep end of the EDM pool, MDNA, came out. I didn't like it very much. But what I like even less is the sexism-tinged age-baiting that the record seems to be inspiring in so many critics. Forbes was likely the worst offender of the bunch, going ... More >>

Yoko Ono (6) And Leiber & Stoller (11) Go Head To Heads In SOTC's March Madness

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—continues to chug along, and you get to help choose who makes it to Round Two. This morning's first match puts the a ... More >>

How Not To Write About Female Musicians: A Handy Guide

​Maybe it's all that misguided Year of the Woman chatter that dominated year-end roundups, or the slow, agonizing creep of Fashion Week, or the coming apocalypse, but hoo boy has there been a lot of terrible writing about female musicians in the past few weeks. The latest offender is the New Y ... More >>

Live: Ed Sheeran Rubs Elbows With The Crowd At Mercury Lounge

Ed Sheeran Mercury Lounge Monday, January 30 Better than: Finding a Sugababes album in the 99-cent bin. British pop stars have had something of a rough go when trying to break America, despite often working with much better material than much of what's on the charts over here. The sacking of poor ... More >>

A Couple Of Supplemental Reading Suggestions For Those Who Might Still Be Confused By tUnE-yArDs' Pazz & Jop Victory

​This morning Chuck Klosterman took to his perch at the ESPN-gone-McSweeney's site Grantland and tried to figure out why tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l, a record that he wasn't familiar with (but, he noted, that was loved by his wife), won this year's Pazz & Jop albums poll. He gave the album a lis ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Beyoncé's Unlikely Pazz & Jop Coup

If the triumph of tUnE-yArDs in this year's Pazz & Jop albums poll was one of the biggest upsets in the poll's history, then the companion singles poll offered one of its most predictable winners to date: Adele's "Rolling In The Deep." Smart money had been on that song taking the prize since it bega ... More >>

Pazz & Jop 2011: Michael Tedder On Fucked Up's Majesty, Danny Brown's Cunning Skills, And The Joy Formidable's Outro Power

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. Here, Michael Tedder breaks down his entire ballot, and along the way he talks about about the operatic heights of Fucked Up, the shredding ability of Annie Clark and R ... More >>

Pazz & Jop Comments: Top 10-Plus

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

Confuse the Market: Post-Crossover, Indie Retreats

Pazz & Jop's Album Results Get Soundscanned

The incredible shrinking album

Beyonce, Nicki, and Merrill Get Optimistic

Finding the bright side of 2011

tUnE-yArds, PJ Harvey, and St. Vincent Get Physical

Pazz & Jop 2011: Seth Colter Walls On Craig Taborn, Matana Roberts, And Voting From The Fringe

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. We'll start off the series with Seth Colter Walls of New York City, who has a constant itch to do the deep dive and find the single-voter albums out there. Find his bal ... More >>

The 39th Pazz And Jop Poll Is Live

Hooray and huzzah, the Pazz & Jop poll, calculated from the ballots of 700 critics around the globe, is up and running and ready for your perusal. Congratulations to Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, whose w h o k i l l walked away with the albums poll; and Adele, whose inescapable yet compelling even o ... More >>

Sound Of The City's 2011 NBA Preview: Each Team, Paired With An Album From The Past Year

Think of the orange car as a clue. ​The resurrected NBA season kicks off (thankfully, finally) on Sunday. To celebrate, we've paired each team with a notable album from the past year; the list, with tweet-sized justifications, is below. (NB, although the NBA-savvy of you might have already fig ... More >>

The 10 Best Live Shows of 2011

The best stuff we saw on stage this year, from thrash to Kpop

This Week In The Voice: The 10 Best Concerts Of 2011; Tenor Saxophonists Ascend

​In this week's Village Voice, on newsstands now: I pick my 10 favorite concerts of 2011 (Patrick Stump (above), PJ Harvey, and tUnE-yArDs all make the short list); and Francis Davis runs down recent standout releases by tenor saxophonists.

Little Scream

Congratulations To All The Music-Related Winners In The Voice's Best Of New York Awards

Das Racist, New York's Best Rap Moguls With A Business Plan. ​It's Best Of New York day! We've honored about 40 different music-related entities in our annual roundup of the best this city has to offer, from the Best Twitterer to the Best Fiddler to the Best Radio Show. Congratulations to all ... More >>

Fall Arts: Music Picks

LIL TUNE-SHE

tUnE-yArDs rEtUrNs tO nEw yOrK

Five Artists Who Should Cover Beyoncé At Some Point In The Near Future (And The Songs They Should Tackle)

​In honor of Beyoncé's four-night run at Roseland, which continues with a sold-out show tonight, Sound of the City is celebrating the singer with a series of features. While she's a singular artist with her own way of handling tracks, it's fun to imagine what would happen if other artists tac ... More >>

Live: Julianna Barwick And Ikue Mori Keep It Minimal At White Columns

Jenn Pelly​ Julianna Barwick & Ikue Mori White Columns Gallery Thursday, July 14 Better than: Spending twelve hours in a tiny car driving to Chicago to watch Julianna Barwick play this weekend at Pitchfork Festival. (Oh wait...) The not-for-profit White Columns Gallery describes itself as " ... More >>

Live: tUnE-yArDs Explodes At Pier 54

tUnE-yArDs w/Austra Pier 54 at Hudson River Park Thursday, July 14 Better than: Standing around with your arms crossed. "Everyone turn around and look at the moon," tUnE-yArDs mastermind Merrill Garbus instructed at the outset of tUnE-yArDs' set last night. She was asking people not just to marv ... More >>

Austra, Class Actress And DOM Are This Summer's RiverRocks Opening Acts

DOM, in the haze. ​The openers for this summer's RiverRocks concert series—three free shows at Hudson River Park's Pier 54, taking place on Thursday evenings in July and August—have been announced: the darkelectro Toronto act Austra will support tUnE-yArDs at this season's July 14 ... More >>

Summer Guide: Don't Take Brad Paisley to the Airport Strip Club

The country star likes six strings, not G-strings. Plus, summer music picks

Watch Videos From Last Night's Our Band Could Be Your Concert

Above, the ever-fierce Merrill Garbus (dba tUnE-yArDs) takes on Sonic Youth's "The Burning Spear" at last night's Our Band Could Be Your Concert, the multi-act musical tribute to the bridge between the DIY pioneers chronicled in Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life and indie acts of today. ... More >>

nEaT

Garbus, you slay us

tUnE-yArDs Raises Her Voice

Merrill Garbus bravely engages with the world's ladies and gentlemen on w h o k i l l

tUnE-yArDs Announces New Album, Plays MHOW In May

​Merrill Garbus, a/k/a the ukulele-strumming/drum-pounding/beatboxing/growling dervish known as tUnE-yArDs, is one of the best live acts going right now, a riot of energy, color, and (most importantly) volume, a loop-building and tonsil-flaring spectacle so joyous we're willing to tolerate the ... More >>

Spring Guide: Londoners the xx and More

Enjoying American top-10 lists with the hit Brits

An Interview With tUnE-yArDs: 'Get People's Attention or Die'

An occasionally embarrassing chat with the one-woman feral folk sensation

Check Out Some Badass Tune-Yards Videos

We have raved in this space about budding DIY r&b siren Merrill Garbus, a/k/a Tune Yards (or tUnE-YaRdS, if you prefer), whose 2008 full-length Bird-Brains is an excellent, almost uncomfortably intimate kitchen-table pop record, and whose live show is utterly stupendous, Garbus looping drums and ... More >>

PANDORA'S BOX

Many worlds behind one sonar

Live: In Praise of tUnE-YaRdS, Who Rendered The Dirty Projectors A Mere Afterthought At Music Hall of Williamsburg

Example of tUnE-YaRdS' wanton radness Dirty Projectors/tUnE-YaRdS Music Hall of Williamsburg Thursday, November 19 Look, the Projectors are doing fine, just fine. Just a wee bit overexposed at the moment, maybe. "All I know is this part of the city is the creative capital of the entire world," ... More >>