Phil Freeman

Lulu: Lou Reed, Metallica, And The Sound Of Comment Sections Howling In Protest

​The ever-evolving microgenre of "trollgaze" isn't just limited to whippersnapper up-and-comers. Today we look at one of this week's most chattered-about albums, the Metallica/Lou Reed collaboration Lulu, to try and deduce one thing: Can a 90-minute double album based off German Expressionist ... More >>

Rammstein Are Bringing Their Penis Cannons To The Izod Center

They are German. Pic by Phil Freeman.​Pyro-drenched porn-metal titans Rammstein are a dark-horse candidate for your Five Live Shows I'd Better See Before I Die list, what with the flamethrowers, the showers of shattered baby dolls, the 20-foot angel wings that shoot yet more fire, the penis ca ... More >>

Jason Moran Tops Himself

The adventurous Ten headlines the Voice's Fifth Annual Jazz Critics' Poll

Week In Review: You Know We Were Kidding About That Best Year Ever Thing, Right?

A thing that happened. Photo by Phil Freeman.​In the week we debated whether 2010 was the best year for music ever (you guys know that was a joke, right?), we pitted Chris Brown against Katy Perry, Titus Andronicus against LCD Soundsystem, Taylor Swift against M.I.A., and house music against h ... More >>

Live: Iron Maiden Murders Madison Square Garden

Nate "Igor" SmithA few of the many Iron Maiden fans Igor photographed last night. Iron Maiden Monday, July 12 Madison Square Garden There is, still to this day, an Iron Maiden dress code. It consists of denim. A black T-shirt with the band's logo in that inimitable Metal Lord font. And somewhere i ... More >>

Suggested Afternoon Listening: NYC Taper's Boot Of Friday Night's Melvins Show At Webster Hall

​As documented by our own Phil Freeman, deathless, matchless sludge-rockers the Melvins joined the farewell-tour-bound Isis for a Friday-night Webster Hall headbanging spectacular, and NYT Taper was there; though Isis are audio-taping-averse, the Melvins set alone is pretty stupendous, if only ... More >>

This Week's Voice: The Hold Steady, Flying Lotus, Daddy Yankee In Space, and the Return of the Jazz Rent Party

Flying Lotus, yet another outstanding cultural accessory to smoking weed. Photo by Timothy Saccenti​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla writes the definitive piece on the Hold Steady's newest, Heaven Is Whenever, while Mike Powell explains the omnivorous electronic headphone music of L. ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Alice in Chains, Drive By Truckers, Regina Carter, Greenberg, and More

Alice in Chains get down. Photo by Santiago Felipe.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla sees the sorta resurrected Alice in Chains at Terminal 5, Stephen Deusner on the creative nonfiction of the Drive By Truckers' The Big To-Do, and Phil Freeman gets personal with jazz violinist Regina ... More >>

Please Welcome The New Quarterly Jazz/Metal/Etc. Zine Burning Ambulance

​Matthew Shipp and some intense font action adorn the inaugural cover of Burning Ambulance, a new arts-journal enterprise from friend-of-SOTC Phil Freeman and other fine, adventurous scribes (Kurt Gottschalk, Matt Cibula, Stephen Haynes, and Phil Nugent) tackling some fine, adventurous subject ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Spoon's Transference, Bull Riding at MSG, Weasel Walter, the 2009 New Yorker Cartoonist Final Standings, and More

Spoon, doing less with less. Photo by Autumn De Wilde​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla on Spoon's defiantly skeletal Transference, Phil Freeman goes bull riding at MSG's arena rock rodeo, and Brad Cohan meets the new kid in town (and old head extremist drummer) Weasel Walter. In Boo ... More >>

Vijay Iyer Tops the Fourth Annual Village Voice Jazz Poll

Historicity and records from other fresh faces take our 2009 jazz poll

This Week's Voice: Gucci Mane, Def Jam's 25th, Say Anything, Bill Simmons, Roger Corman at Anthology, and More

He's got more check than a Czechoslavian. Photo by Zacke Wolfe.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla goes abroad with Gucci Mane's Cold War mixtape trilogy: "Funny voices aside, The Cold War isn't a particularly conceptual affair, instead favoring a breathtakingly monochromatic wash of b ... More >>

This Weekend! Saint Vitus, Echo and the Bunnymen, Glenn Branca, and David Bazan

"Basically, I think right now, the world's in shit," Scott "Wino" Weinrich told the Voice's own Phil Freeman recently, by way of explaining the decision to revive the finest iteration of doom-metal giants Saint Vitus for a brief tour. "There's a lot of despair, a lot of economic problems. People h ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Rap's Online Overdose, Our Jazz Consumer Guide, Heaven & Hell, Quentin Tarantino, and More

Charles Hamilton, hitting delete​In this week's Village Voice, Ben Detrick reports on rap's online overdose and the perils of allowing guys like Charles Hamilton anywhere near the Internet. Tom Hull presents the summer edition of our Jazz Consumer Guide. Phil Freeman celebrates the rebirth o ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​Years ago, Ella Taylor interviewed Quentin Tarantino at his favorite Denny's. She returns to the scene to ask about Inglourious Basterds and his career. Tarantino is charmng, but if you want to be pissed at him, he does say things like, "A case can be made that I re-created the gangster fil ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Jane's Addiction, 'Muslim Voices,' Francis Ford Coppola, The Hangover, Exit Art's 'Negritude,' The Life and Times of I.F. Stone, and More

Jared GruenwaldTropicalia in Furs In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Charly Wilder tracks down an East Village storehouse of Brazilian psychedelia at Tropicalia in Furs. Phil Freeman on the Jane's Addiction reunion and three-CD, one-DVD box set, A Cabinet of Curiosities. Andy Beta talks ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

Oh come on. This picture, and Michael Musto interviewing Joan Rivers? Are you that straight you wouldn't enjoy it? New York hasn't had this good a mob trial in a while: Roger Khan, exiled drug dealer and a hero to some of his neighbors in Guyana, got picked up by the DEA; celebrity mob lawyer Bob S ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Spring Arts Guide, Wells Tower, Metric, Soderbergh, Britney Spears, Will Oldham, Mary Gaitskill, I Love You, Man, and More

Frances Llewellyn In this week's Village Voice, we unveil our 2009 Spring Arts Guide: Stacey Anderson on Metric's dreamy new Fantasies, Zach Baron on author Wells Tower's Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, Aaron Hillis in conversation with Steven Soderbergh, Robert Shuster on sculptor Chakaia B ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

When you think about out-of-control parents and coaches in little-league sports, you probably think of the suburbs. But right here in the city, there are sixth-graders playing 12 months a year, with sponsors like Nike, signing bonuses -- and out-of-control parents and coaches. This is Elite Youth ... More >>

2008 Jazz Poll Ballots: A-O

New releases, reissues, debuts, and more—each critic's picks

2007 Jazz Poll Ballots: A-O

New releases, reissues, debuts, and more—each critic's picks

The 2007 Jazz Poll

This year's finisher's

Live: Zune's Old-Rapper Picnic

A Double-Shot of 'Hate Us or Love Us'

Reasons to Be Cheerful (Just Three)

If 2006's musical slate seems bleak, just look to the occasionally goofy but still exhilarating extremes

'Voice' Jazz Poll Critics' Ballots

First Annual Jazz Poll Winners

From Ornette Coleman to Esperanza Spalding, it's the music you need to hear

Close-Up on Elizabeth, New Jersey

Letters