Salem

Farrah Abraham: The Salem Of Teen Mom?

This week's candidate for The Internet's Worst Song Ever (At Least Until The Next One) is the inaugural musical offering from an MTV reality star: Teen Mom's Farrah Abraham. The young mother released the more-processed-than-Velveeta "Getting Up From Rock Bottom" on Friday, and before you could say " ... More >>

Live: Grimes Pushes Buttons At Mercury Lounge

Grimes Mercury Lounge Friday, March 23 Better than: Sitting at home crying into my beer over my failure to score Fiona Apple tickets. Today, bands are offered infinite opportunities for attention; given the right combination of talent and virality, an obscure 18-year-old bedroom musician might wak ... More >>

Live: Raekwon Turns Prospect Park Into Another Corner Of His World

Raekwon, Smif-N-Wessun, Joell Ortiz Celebrate Brooklyn! at Prospect Park Bandshell Saturday, July 9 Better than: "Salem (DJ set)" at Brooklyn Bowl The Prospect Park Bandshell is probably the best place to catch a hip-hop show in the New York City summer. Yes, you're going to have to stand in a li ... More >>

Salem "Remix" Britney Spears, To Disappointing Ends

What's the music industry equivalent of a Razzie--the top spot on our year-end worst songs countdown? 2010 honorees Salem may have just taken the top spot on this year's list with their "remix" of Britney Spears' apocalyptically catchy jam "Til The World Ends." It's hard to even call their version ... More >>

Fake Salem Song Teaches Internet A Lesson It'll Probably Forget Pretty Soon

​ Yesterday the Internet lit up for a bit with news of a new track from the draggy, divisive outfit Salem. "Nite Daze," according to the email blasting it around the Internet, was "all about the drag environment of being incredibly tired, in a dream-state, wasted or on something, and forcing ... More >>

Week In Review: Grade It On A Curve

​Five days! Many items! A look at the last week at Sound of the City is below. We weighed Salem and fake Salem and the Internet and the slippery notion of "truth" online We chatted with Mike Watt about being on crutches, taking naps, and "the Neutral Milk guy." We counted down Kool Keith's ... More >>

Bay Ridge Apartment Fire Blamed on Pet Tortoise

​Being a tortoise is really unfair sometimes. You have to carry this big shell around on your back (fortunately, it's awesome for hiding under, like when you run into someone at the mall who you just don't feel like small-talking it up with). You're known as being sort of "slow," but also reli ... More >>

HOCUS POCUS

Have a staring contest with Salem

Rightbloggers Compare Large National Protests (Union) Unfavorably with Large National Protests (Koch Brothers)

Last weekend rallies were held in all 50 states in support of the teachers' union in Wisconsin. And at the Wisconsin state capitol, at least 70,000 people came out on Saturday to protest Governor Walker's attempt to break the union. Sounds like a big deal, right? Hundreds of thousands of people tur ... More >>

Leave Chillwave Alone

In defense of the nostalgia-steeped genre Ariel Pink both invented and abandoned

Top 25 Headlines Not As Weird As "Dave Sitek Joins Jane's Addiction"

Good luck learning all the chord changes in "Jane Says," dude​So TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek has joined Jane's Addiction, in some unspecified bassist/songwriter/possibly-non-touring-member capacity, which is super bizarre when you first hear about it, but is, upon reflection, not the stranges ... More >>

SOTC Nightlife Awards: The Best Parties of 2010, Featuring Q-Tip, Let's Play House, Jelly NYC, and More

The crowd at Let's Play House, our favorite wandering house party. Photo by John Barclay.​Before we sink into holiday hibernation, we thought we'd take a moment to reflect on our exploits, and present to you our very own 2010 SOTC Nightlife Awards. Below, our fourth installment examines the ye ... More >>

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #1: Train, "Hey, Soul Sister"

F2K10 has been a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Relieve the journey here. The future of rock music, right here.​Here are some important things to know about Train's "Hey, Soul Sister."

2010: The Year In Music Photos

​The year in music, circa 2010, started at the Cake Shop, with a shred-down to the New Year courtesy of Siren Festival MVP-to-be Marissa Paternoster and her band Screaming Females. After a tour through the NYE fetes of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, that night ended amidst a marathon sh ... More >>

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 >>

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #6: Salem, "Trap Door"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. The face of rap in 2010. Photo via MySpace.​Here are five compelling reasons why Salem is the worst new band of the year:

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? House Music vs. Hashtag Rap

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! The most important artist of 2010.​Hi everybody! To ... More >>

No Way Back, Lunice, Fixed, and Defcon Headline Your Weekend In Nightlife

​Behold, your hand-picked guide for what to do this weekend... organized by neighborhood! FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5 Neighborhood: Williamsburg Party: No Way Back DJs: The Hardy Boyz, Kimyon Huggins Highlights: The "boyz", better known as Turntable Lab affiliates and warriors of the night Lloydski, ... More >>

Download Fuck NoOoOO: The Anti-Witch House Mixtape, Curated By You-Know-Who

​Official friend-of-SOTC/last critic standing/great Halloween costume idea Christopher R. Weingarten, outraged at the critical proliferation of witch house (not to mention its even less desirable offshoots), has taken it upon himself to compile the characteristically amusingly (and profanely) ... More >>

10 Halloween Costume Ideas For Music Nerds

​Halloween is nearly upon us. You don't have a costume yet, because you're a music nerd. We are here to help. Abandon your half-assed Lady Gaga concept and try these practical suggestions instead.

CMJ Day Two: Salem Briefly Shut Everyone Up at Ramiken Crucible

Yup Salem Ramiken Crucible Wednesday, October 20 Better than: Black Kids at the R Bar, 2007. Salem are referred to by some as witch house, drag, haunted house, or. . . never mind. The point is that people are actively referring to Salem. Curmudgeons who turn typing into rent checks are arguing ab ... More >>

Your CMJ 2010 Panels, Cynically Summarized: Day 2 (Wednesday)

​It continues. On the second day everyone wakes up a little late, a little hungover, a little cranky at having failed to get into Salem. Shake it off, though, at one of this afternoon's informative industry panels, which we've taken the liberty of crassly summarizing below.

Dreaded Band Salem Will Actually Be In Town Next Week

​Fresh off a brush with the microgenre that dare not speak its awful name (now officially stricken from the Pitchfork and Creep websites, banished from whatever dark virtual place it came), incredibly polarizing, journo-fight-inspiring Michigan three-piece Salem will actually be in New York ne ... More >>

The Horrifyingly Named Micro-Genre "Rape Gaze" Explained

One guess as to what they call the expressions they're making in this photo​Readers of this morning's Salem review on Pitchfork might have recoiled a bit as the piece's writer, Larry Fitzmaurice, casually rattled off a few terms commonly used to describe the gothy Michigan band's sound--"witch ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Nine 11 Thesaurus, Sisters, Salem, Negative Plane, and More

Nine 11 Thesaurus. Photo by Santiago Felipe.​In this week's Village Voice, Andy Beta profiles Bushwick teen rap ensemble Nine 11 Thesaurus and the after-school program that produced them, Ray Cummings talks with Brooklyn noise pop band Sisters, Eavvon O'Neal on Salem and witch house, and Adam ... More >>

The Salem 'Witch House' Trials

Combining hip-hop menace with electro iciness, to disconcerting effect

This Week in the Voice: The 2010 New York Film Festival

​Every year, we descend on Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center to separate the hype from the heavyweights at American cinema's fall classic, the New York Film Festival. This year is no different, as legendary Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman weighs in with the hits and misses of The 2010 N ... More >>

CMJ 2010 Announces 700 More Artists: Phoenix, GZA, Francis and the Lights, Screaming Females, Franz Nicolay, and More

Our hero, Screaming Females frontlady Marissa Paternoster, at Siren. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​The second round of artists announcements is out, and it's the big one--count on newly installed acts Phoenix, GZA, Screaming Females, Extra Lens, Francis and the Lights, et al, to be your headliners, ... More >>

Draft the Walkmen High

The finest drunk-sounding American rock band around perseveres, buzzless

CMJ 2010 Initial Line-Up Announced: Surfer Blood, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Ghostface Killah, the Blow, Salem, and More

Surfer Blood play Cake Shop during last year's CMJ. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​Hey, remember last year, when we predicted that the stresses of Surfer Blood's twelve different CMJ shows would cause the band to self-destruct? Um, that's not at all what happened. Instead, the Florida band rode thei ... More >>

Photos: Hello From Vice's Ridiculously Grandiose Creators Project Fete At Milk Studios Saturday Night, Starring M.I.A., Sleigh Bells, And The Victorious Die Antwoord

​M.I.A. and Die Antwoord, respectively; you'll never guess who was better. All pics by Rebecca Smeyne, way more below.​I'm still not 100 percent sure what the Creators Project is, exactly, other than a perfectly fine excuse to cram a ton of big-shot artists (and Salem!), a few film scree ... More >>

Die Antwoord, Mark Ronson, Interpol, and Sleigh Bells Are Playing Vice's Free Creators Project Thing

​Last time this happened, Vice blew threw $250,000 and Titus Andronicus's Patrick Stickles ended up with red handprints on his neck and a sad, outraged story to tell. This time, semiconductor manufacturing unit Intel will foot the bill, and it's hard to imagine crazed South African rappers Die ... More >>

Days of Our Lives Just Keeps on Going

​I haven't watched a soap opera since the dwarf on Passions died, but I'll read a book about any show biz topic, so I'm currently absorbing a history of Days of Our Lives by executive producer Ken Corday. In the epic work, Corday talks about how the long-running soap survived budget crunches ... More >>

VICE Goes Highbrow, Unleashes 'The Creators Project'

​So, VICE is holding a media event right now where they're feeding media people lots of booze, and they're telling them things while they do it. The gist is this: they got a bunch of money from Intel, and they're not spending it on drugs. They've unleashed The Creators Project, which is three ... More >>

Crop to Cup Brings Family-Farmed Joe to Brooklyn Heights

Joe you know.​Crop to Cup's new Brooklyn Heights location opened its doors today. Brooklyn Based reports that, while the family-farmed coffee specialist has managed to be omitted from the recent craft coffee craze, its focus on small-batch growers sets it apart from the current drop of artisan ... More >>

Q&A: Local Monterrey Band Quiero Club Talk Todd P's MtyMx Fest, What New Yorkers Can Expect to Find Down in Mexico, and Why You'll Never See Their Band on U.S. Soil

​Chances are if you're not going to local promoter Todd P's MtyMx Festival--the DIY indie-rock gathering happening in Monterrey, Mexico next week--you'll never get to see Quiero Club live. Along with their counterparts Kinky and Plastilina Mosh, the electro-pop quintet have become local heroes ... More >>

Week in Review: Let Us Soak in Positive Forces

New Year's Eve...no idea, basically. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week we learned that Animal Collective's manager is apparently endowed with a baby leg, in the one dark place where that would be a meaningful statement, we did our best to otherwise cleanse the ol' SOTC soul, apologizing to ... More >>

Both Michael Stipe and Terence Koh Were at Salem's Glasslands Show Last Night

The deathgaze, Gucci Mane-remixing, mystery-goth act Salem played Glasslands last night and found themselves experiencing the classically weird New York experience of playing in front of representatives of every major media outlet in the city, plus artist Terence Koh (who's photographed the band b ... More >>

5 Things To Ruin Your Thanksgiving

For us, Thanksgiving was pre-ruined by the grisly medical press releases we received over the past week, portraying the holiday as a menace. (And they keep coming! The Saint Louis University Medical Center offers "Surviving the Holidays: 10 Tips for Staying Healthy." Number 1: "Keep your distance -- ... More >>

Studies in Crap: The Story of the United States

Your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power. The Story of the United States Author: Elbridge S. Brooks Publisher: Lothrop Publishing Company, Bosto ... More >>

Chicago Justice as a Nonstop Floor Show

Deflower Power: Debut Novel Mines the Depths of Reality TV

Wearing the Melancholy

This Dungeon's for Hire, Even If We're Just Dancing in the Darkwave

Commodify Your Descent

Nation

Summer of Smith

How Ben Blew Into (and Out Of) Bloomington

Star Struck

Sci-Fi Conventions Give Actors Eternal Life

Where Were the Law Guardians?

When Cowardice Paralyzed a Town