Music Awards

Defend Your Ballot: Luis Paez-Pumar, 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 >>

The Lumineers

A Different Drummer

Dance to the beats of Machinedrum and Sepalcure

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 >>

This Week In the Voice: The VMAs Fizzle; Unlocking The Truth Go To Metal School

In this week's Village Voice, out now: Despite the aerial hijinks of P!nk (above) and lots of sex talk, I get underwhelmed by MTV's Video Music Awards; and Jonah Bromwich hangs out with the hard-rocking kids who make up Unlocking The Truth, who you might be able to catch playing Times Square sometim ... More >>

HELL ON HEELS

Pistol Annies fire up Terminal 5

NEW NO LONGER

Jamie XX gets behind 
the boards at LPR

REGGAETON 

LATINO

Don Omar christens 
the new Tette Club

LATIN LOVE

Dance company takes on the icons

Oddsmaker: Do Beyoncé And André 3000 Have Enough Swagu To Beat Kanye And His Dozens Of Friends At The Grammys?

​The Grammys created the awkwardly named Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category ten years ago, around the time Ja Rule's various "thug love" duets were dominating the airwaves. The award recognized a growing sector of popular music that didn't quite fit into the preexisting rap, R&B or pop song ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Will The Grammys Declare Sum 41 To Be More Metal Than Megadeth And Mastodon?

The 54th Grammy Awards mark the combination of the Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Metal Performance awards into the single category Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, which is why Mastodon and Sum 41 are up for the same award. Historically, the metal category has been one of the most confounding ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Best Country Solo Performance, Where Ludacris's Stamp Of Approval Makes A Difference

As part of this year's larger reduction in genre-specific awards, 2012 will see the country portion of the Grammys streamlined to just four categories: Best Solo Performance (which swallows Male and Female Vocal Performance), Best Duo/Group Performance (which swallows Best Duo/Group Vocal Performanc ... 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 >>

Confuse the Market: Post-Crossover, Indie Retreats

DANCE WITH HER

Katy B takes her mission to Drom

The 11 Most Infuriating Songs of 2011

More reasons to turn off the radio

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 >>

Live-Blogging The 2011 American Music Awards: We Could Have Had It All (But Then Adele Had To Go Have A Vocal Cord Hemorrhage)

Welcome to Sound of the City's liveblog of the 2011 American Music Awards, the annual salute to the most popular popular music that exists in the American wild this year. While Lady Gaga and Adele and Beyoncé are absent, this year's show apparently has one performance that will cost $500,000 to pul ... 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 >>

Lil Wayne Just Misses the Milli Mark, but Sells a Boatload of Tha Carter IV

​Yesterday there were rumblings that Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV--the hyperactive MC's newest album, which dropped shortly after he closed out last month's Video Music Awards--had indeed sold more than a million copies in its first week out, the way that its predecessor in the Carter series did ... More >>

Low

k.d. lang & the Siss Boom Bang

The Fame Cookie: 2011 Grammy Awards Live Blog

It's the return of the most talked-about Grammy Awards live blog--a collection of quips, blips, and arguably insightful observations that dares to match the actual Grammy telecast in terms of pure spectacle and Justin Bieber mentions. Please join our hosts Tom Breihan and Ryan Dombal below, and keep ... More >>

We Did It: A 46-Word Think Piece On Arcade Fire's Shocking Grammy Victory

Via you-know-who​So. Arcade Fire won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Maybe you heard about it. And maybe you are aware that this is a momentous occasion, an unprecedented generational coup, a Barbra Streisand-delivered clarion call that launched a thousand think pieces on the Death/Triumph o ... More >>

"Don't Be A Drag, Just Be a Queen"

​That's Lady Gaga's motto in her yay-gay anthem, "Born This Way," as heard all weekend, including on last night's Grammy awards. You've had ample time to listen to the motto, digest it, and recite it to friends in the nightclub bathroom. Does its wisdom resonate for you? I like it. It's ce ... More >>

Justin Bieber and Usher: What's With That?

Is anyone else getting a little embarrassed by all the mutual loving displayed by Justin Bieber and his mentor Usher, as seen on tonight's Grammy awards? We were gushily told it's a "beautiful relationship," then watched the two eye each other as Usher remembered, "I saw you in the parking lot..." ... More >>

No End in Sight For Winter Hellscape According to Las Vegas Odds

​Are you an optimist? Do you think winter will be over after the upcoming deathstorm kills you and everyone you love? If Las Vegas is to be believed (which they always are), brace yourself for six more weeks of this crap.

CHILLWAVE

Clever pianist is on an Apple payday

Free Lindsay Lohan: Someone Pulls Some Strings, Actress Goes Free on Bail

​Lindsay Lohan is free once again. But to rewind: In the last few weeks, Lindsay Lohan failed two court-ordered drug tests, showing either an amazing amount of gall or demonstrating the intensity of a horrible disease. Probably both. As punishment, on Friday morning a judge ordered her directl ... More >>

Lady Gaga Wears Meat to MTV Awards; Corn Syrup Hoping to Change Name & Image

​Michelle Obama addressed the NRA recently -- the National Restaurant Association, that is -- calling for increased efforts to fight childhood obesity. [Nation's Restaurant News] U.S. Foodservice Inc., a food distribution company, agreed to pay $30 million to settle civil fraud charges that i ... More >>

Lynn Hirschberg's M.I.A. Profile Earns a Correction

​Lynn Hirschberg was adamant in an interview Tuesday with the Observer's John Koblin that, although M.I.A. had tapes that seemed to show that Hirschberg misquoted her in Sunday's now-famous Times Magazine profile, she'd gotten her reporting right. At issue? A disputed quote involving the Gramm ... More >>

'A Celebration of Les Paul with Jeff Beck'

I Went To Michael Bolton's House In Connecticut For A Cocktail Party

Our host, in his element​Look, when you get an email with that offer, you say yes. It's just a fact. And thus do I find myself on a bus yesterday evening with 20-odd publicists, journalists (OK!, In Style, Vibe, Entertainment Weekly, etc.), and TV/radio people, a merciful lack of ironical "LOL ... More >>

YEAR OF THE WOMAN

Discussing ladies who rock

So Are Sleigh Bells Doing Production on the New M.I.A. Record? [Update: Yes]

With the caveat that humans must take Diplo's Twitter updates with a grain (several grains, probably) of salt--although his version of what happened the night of the Grammys was probably way better than anything that actually did happen--everyone else in the above Tweet is definitely on the real p ... More >>

BRITTLE SISTER

A third Wainwright bares it at the mic

Live: Even Lou Reed Gets Sentimental At Rock Hall MSG Blowout #2 (Featuring U2, The Boss, The Black Eyed Peas, And Some Dude Named Mick)

Ooooh plus "Iron Man" Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration Madison Square Garden Friday, October 30 "When we were down, rock 'n' roll lifted us up," says Tom Hanks in his introductory remarks for the final night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's benefit-concert extravaganza ... More >>

Bruce! Sam! Billy! Bonnie! Live From The Ludicrously Star-Studded MSG Rock Hall Extravaganza

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration Madison Square Garden Thursday, October 29 The first half of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's two-night benefit concert and 25th-anniversary celebration lasted six hours, ended at 1:30 a.m. and featuring star-studded sets by curators Bruce S ... More >>

Week in Review: Costumes Are Relatively Minimal But There Is No Nudity Involved

This kind of behavior is really unacceptable. APW photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week a shiny pair of crispy white shoes ventured out to New Jersey and All Points West, never to return, we joined the rest of the rainsoaked masses in saluting the Beastie Boys, who weren't there, though they di ... More >>

Capillary Action Win Best New Band in America, New York Division, from Ambitious, Freedom-Loving Boston Weekly Paper

Argument-baiting alt-weekly the Boston Phoenix celebrates "Independents Day" (heh) for the second year in a row by publishing a "Best Band" omnibus broken down by the 50 states. Last July, the paper was ambitious enough to hand out such geographically divided distinctions as "All Time Best Band," ... More >>

Live: The Teeth-Grindingly Precious Grizzly Bear at Town Hall

The MVP, as usual. CREDIT Grizzly Bear Town Hall Friday May 29 Things shouted at Grizzly Bear tonight, in ascending order of dunderheadedness: "What's your favorite color?" "Tweet something!" "What kind of reverb pedal do you use?" "Best album of the year!" Knock it off. GB's Veckatimest is, ... More >>

M.I.A. May or May Not Be A Terrorist Apologist, Says New York Times

My lord this is a badly informed piece in the Times this morning. The lede: To many Americans, Maya Arulpragasam, known as M.I.A., is the very pregnant rapper who gyrated across the stage at Sunday's Grammy Awards. Tet in Sri Lanka, where she spent her childhood years, M.I.A. remains virtually u ... More >>

Age, Beauty Before Youth at Grammys

Despite myriad concessions to modishness and a Twitter feed, it was a Steely Dan sort of year at the Grammys as Robert Plant and Alison Krause's Raising Sand won five awards including Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year ("Please Read the Letter"), and awards in the Country and Contemporary Folk ... More >>

Taylor Swift's Teenage Country-Star Tales, Spiked With Actual Wisdom

Grupo Corpo and Emanuel Gat: Doing Reps

Two choreographers turn ordeal and emotion into design

Fuck a Blog: Once Wins an Oscar

Carl Craig's Hard-Earned Mastery

50 Cent Needs to Shut Up

Three 6 Mafia: Oscar Winners

Country in the City

As Nashville invades New York, a home-grown hayseed scene thrives beneath the CMA's radar