Prince (Musician)

Read All About It: Glowing Cats, Prince, and This Week's 5 Book Events

Kristopher Jansma PowerHouse Arena Thursday, 8 p.m., free Jansma, a New Jersey native and first-time novelist, seems to have constructed his debut around a pretty familiar and eye-twitchingly postmodern concept: namely, the curious propensity of writers to devote a whole lot more time to identifying ... More >>

Elvis Costello, D'Angelo, Chris Rock Pay Tribute to Prince - Carnegie Hall - 3/7/13

Better Than: Sobbing silently while watching the club performance scene in Purple Rain on your couch for the 25th time this week... not that there's anything wrong with that. The stage was bigger, the venue more prestigious, and the atmosphere gave off a more purple hue. But then this was a Prince ... More >>

Touré Tackles Prince in New Book, Finds Jesus, Discovers They're One in the Same

Dearly Beloved, you are gathered here today to read our interview with a writer about a legendary performer. In this corner, Touré: Journalist and thinker for many an outlet (The New Yorker, VIBE, Time.com), and author of Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness: What It Means to Be Black Now. You perhaps kn ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 2/22/13

Here are the 10 best concerts around the city this weekend, in no particular order.

OFF THE WALL

It’s Michael Jackson vs. Prince

Frank Ocean Is Boring: The Year Lifeless Music Found Critical Praise

In 2012, nothing was as popular as being massively boring. Frank Ocean drained the sexiness and excitement out of r&b, to widespread critical acclaim. Lana Del Rey sighed listlessly over string arrangements in a tight dress, like some kind of Kristen Wiig character who stumbled out of the Holodeck a ... More >>

A Serious Conversation With Amanda Fucking Palmer

Fame and the machine

Prince's "God" Inspires A Crisis Of Purple Faith

This month, to celebrate the Internet's unbridled love for wallowing in nostalgia and even greater relishing of talking about why certain cultural artifacts are horrible, Sound of the City presents First Worsts, a series in which our writers remember the first time... they ever hated a song enough t ... More >>

ALL HAIL PRINCE

A night devoted to the Purple One

100 & Single: Of Monkees, Michael, and "Maria"—The History Of The Chart-Dominating, Lifestyle-Accessory Album

Cassandra (Tia Carrere): You've heard it? Wayne (Mike Myers): Exqueeze me? Have I seen this one before? Frampton Comes Alive?! Everybody in the world has Frampton Comes Alive. If you lived in the suburbs you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide. —Wayne's World 2 (1993) Fo ... More >>

Raise Your Hand (Or Your Finger?) If You Didn't Realize M.I.A. Flipped Off The Super Bowl Until You Read 4,035 Breathless Headlines About It

Well! When I went to bed last night I figured I'd be writing about a couple of aspects of Madonna's Super Bowl halftime show, during which she ran through her catalog with the assistance of Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., Cee Lo Green, LMFAO, a marching band, a choir, and gladiators. There was the whole notion ... More >>

Meshell Ndegeocello Gets Crafty On "Weather"

​"Weather" isn't the first Meshell Ndegeocello single to fall into the category of "freak folk," but the album of the same name (Naive) is her first that can be comfortably filed under that genre. Classical and country elements have often enhanced Ndegeocello's melding of jazz, rock, global fu ... More >>

The Top Five Music Videos Directed By Razzie Award "Winners"

MTV turns 30 today. To celebrate, we're running a bunch of pieces on the channel, its legacy, and its future. Angelina Jolie in a Michael Bay production. ​In the 30 years since MTV first hit the air, the music video has proven itself as a medium able to collapse high and low culture—or, ... More >>

Dig If You Will These Pictures: '80s Musicals, from Dolly Parton to Prince

Five Novelty Songs That Were In Heavy Rotation During The Z Morning Zoo's Golden Era

​Today the AV Club has a feature up on enjoyable novelty songs that namechecks (among others) the sitcom-created boyband 2ge her, the musical works of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Barnes & Barnes' seminal "Fish Heads," not to mention good old "Weird Al" Yankovic. Any discussion of novelty s ... More >>

Five Geeky Prince Questions For Meshell Ndegeocello

​ The Topic Prince: pop titan, funk master, scary multi-instrumentalist ("You've got to learn your part," New Power Generation bassist Levi Seacer Jr. told Spin in 1991; "Prince can always come over and play your part"), master songwriter, greatest pop star of the '80s, unending inspiration to ... More >>

Radio Hits One: The Elusive Superstar Duet (Or Three-Way)

​ In last week's breakdown of Lil Wayne's chart ubiquity, I noted that while Lady Gaga's Born This Way and its singles seemed to be everywhere, she hasn't staked out much additional Billboard territory with collaborations. Her only charting collab of late is "3-Way (The Golden Rule)," a little ... More >>

The Three Best Live Performers I've Ever Seen!

​Yes, the new kids have a lot of sparkle and chutzpah, but they don't yet have the seasoning to become the master performers I've personally handpicked for immortality. The three greatest concert givers I've ever seen are: *Patti LaBelle A Patti concert is a religious experience, her fans w ... More >>

Here's Video Of Prince Kicking Kim Kardashian Offstage At Madison Square Garden

Via Kim's Twitter, of course.​Well, this is just stupendous. Prince played his final Madison Square Garden show Monday night, with Cee Lo as an opener and a predictably great set list ("Purple Rain" was the sixth song), but as an overall highlight it's tough to beat pulling Kim Kardashian onst ... More >>

Live: Prince Does The Hits (Well, Some Of Them) At The Izod Center

Look, he's blowing you a kiss. Pics by Nicole Ankowski, more below.​Prince Izod Center Wednesday, December 15 Let's break with format and jump straight to the set list, since that's what you're curious about, right?

PARADE DU PRINCE

He’s back with an army in tow

Winter Guide: Iron & Wine Hop on Pop

Your fake name is good enough for him--Sam Beam chats about his new album

Q&A: Disco Producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm On How To Make A Pop Album

​Norwegian disco producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm is notorious for his extended, drawn-out, cosmic dance tracks. His success lies in never-ending synthed-out grooves that brood without ever hitting a point of explosion--the entire point for his particular brand of space disco. In the past severa ... More >>

You'd Better Get Your Prince Tickets Soon

​As you may have heard, Prince is playing five NYC shows in December, as part of his Welcome 2 America tour, also featuring the likes of Maceo Parker, Mint Condition, Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Sinbad (!!), Lalah Hathaway, Sheila E., Graham Central Station, and still-extant SOTC obs ... More >>

Live: Big Boi Does The Hits At Brooklyn Bowl

​Don't bother requesting anything, he's already gonna play it​Big Boi Brooklyn Bowl Monday, September 6 Better than: The vast majority of other greatest-hits sets performed in bowling alleys. So Big Boi, as someone in his management circle is explaining before tonight's festivities beg ... More >>

New Venue Report: Get A Fruity Drink, Or A Haircut, Or Just Away From Ke$ha At Blind Barber

​Where two different kinds of magic happen. Pics by Puja.​Traditionally, the neighborhood barbershop serves as a place for a haircut, shave, and some gossip. With the recent opening of the East Village's Blind Barber, you can get a beer and some dancing in while you're at it.

Q&A: Author Rob Sheffield on His New Book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran

"Wow, Kenny Rogers was always right!" Photo by Deborah Suchman Zeolia​"Oh my God, you're a Nick Rhodes girl," says Rob Sheffield, referring to Duran Duran's keyboardist. Earlier in the evening, we'd wrapped an interview about Sheffield's new book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young ... More >>

Results of Librarian Sex Survey about as Exciting as Librarians Actually Having Sex

Is that your card catalog or are you just happy to see me?​Hold onto your library cards, peeps. Will Manley has released the results of the librarian sex survey that Wilson Library Bulletin refused to run in 1992 -- the one which he got fired over. The results are... less than scintillating. B ... More >>

MMP! vs BBG!

Prince Lays a Football-Sized Egg: His Viking Anthem 'Purple and Gold'

Prince was so excited about his Minnesota Vikings' victory last weekend in the NFL playoffs that he dashed off a football fight song, "Purple and Gold." It sounds as if it were dashed off by a fan. Purple Rain it ain't. Actually, it sounds like Christian rock, though MTV's Kyle Anderson, who mu ... More >>

Tonight! Vintage Funk And Psychedelic Folk, Or Maybe The Michael Jackson Flick Instead

​L.A. space cadet and early-'80s bedroom-electro fetishist Dam-Funk reverently evokes the era when Prince looked like this and your equipment looked like this. Whether his debut full-length, Toeachizown, is mere nostalgia-drenched kitsch or heartfelt innovation is a question best pondered in a ... More >>

LET'S GO CRAZY

Is grinding allowed during "Darling Nikki" at Prospect Park?

VIDEO MADE THE RADIO STAR

The music of three legends under one roof

Prince Will Audit Until the Last Copy of Purple Rain Is Counted

This teaser clip for Prince's appearance on next week's Tavis Smiley show starts casually enough, with Prince explaining the meaning behind new song "Feel Good, Feel Great, Feel Wonderful"--"It's about telling folks to celebrate and stop hating." But it turns out that's not at all what the song is ... More >>

RAINING REVOLUTION

Rock, romance, heartbreak, and the Purple One

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Q-Tip

Prince at the Super Bowl: Pretty Good, Yeah

Things I Learned Watching American Hardcore

The Best Music Movies Ever

Princely Digs

At home with His Royal Badness, who shows us his secret stash

The Small Paybacks

No, you shouldn't call Prince's new album a comeback, but musicology will do just fine

NY Mirror

Film

Beautifully shot Bellocchio gems finally see light of day

NY Mirror

Deep Purple

Race Matters in New Books on Prince and Hendrix

Music

Mash Culture

Prophecy Fulfilled

Music

Armageddon It