Thin Lizzy

Free Energy, Ty Segall and the Problem Facing Guitar-Based Music

Free Energy find themselves in a strange new world. A fuzzy, poppy, rock 'n' roll band inspired by '70s acts like Big Star, Thin Lizzy, and The Cars, they grew up on rock. "Paul and I are both from the same small town," says Evan Wells, who started the band with his brother Scott and their friend P ... More >>

Ten Big Deal Albums We're Hella Excited For

Hey: Albums! In case people still care about these things, here's a batch of potentially interesting releases arriving in the coming weeks and months:

Q&A: Pizza Punkers Little Seizures On Their Old Bands, Good Parties, And The Power Of Vietnamese Sandwiches

Little Seizures are a one-yearish-old band populated by roughly 80%, uh, wizened local punk veterans. Their howling and chutzpah heave out like a bunch of brats, though, and it's especially evident on their brand-new 7" "Pizza Punk," which bounces around with Johnny Thunders-like riffs, Angry Samoan ... More >>

Q&A: The Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli On Getting The Band Back Together, The Art Of Comedy, And Bad At-Bat Music

Tonight at the Bowery Ballroom, the Afghan Whigs—the Cincinnati torchbearers for damaged soul music—return to the stage after 13 years on hiatus, and if their performances on last night's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon are any indication, tonight's sold-out show will be full of the band's ... More >>

Afghan Whigs Are Uptown Again

The emotional anthropology behind the band's return

Q&A: Howler's Jordan Gatesmith On New York Crowds, Power Napping, And Dreaming Of Uncle Jesse

From off the streets of the City Of Lakes (that's Minneapolis) comes Howler, who serve as a reminder that ferocity, vulnerability, and yearning spring eternal in young bands' breasts. Although Howler, with their new album America Give Up, throws in more catchy, crunchy riffs—not to mention a J ... More >>

Nas Takes Illmatic To Texas As South By Southwest Comes To An End

Before the 2012 edition of South By Southwest blows out of town, allow Village Voice Media's editors to share their favorite moments from the festival's fourth, and final, day.

This Weekend In New York: Habibi, Natural Child, Liturgy, And Zola Jesus Bring Catharsis To Manhattan

In Waste Of Paint, our writer/artist team of Jamie Peck and Debbie Allen will review goings-on about town in words and images. This weekend we found ourselves in the rare situation that all the shows we wanted to see were in "the city": one at the Lower East Side's anachronistically good Cake Shop, ... More >>

Live: The Darkness Return, Bringing Glam And Sweat With Them

The Darkness Irving Plaza Saturday, February 4 Better than: Your ironic love of hair metal. There's a sea of white people two-fisting 24 oz. Bud Lights the size of Pringles cans and dudes in collared shirts amusing each other with their cartoonish falsettos. Sure, glam rock may not be as popular ... More >>

Judas Priest

Q&A: Pujol's Daniel Pujol On Jack White, Refusing To Be Sad And Angry, And "E-Merican Realism"

Jonathan Kingsbury​Daniel Pujol formed Pujol about two years ago, and he has put out ten releases—singles, EPs, and full-length albums—in that short period. When Pujol (the band) isn't touring, writing or recording, Pujol (the guy) is playing the Nashville circuit with his other ba ... More >>

Live: Cheetah Chrome, Bob Pfeifer, Mike Hudson, And Eric Davidson Look Back At Cleveland's Fiery Punk Scene

Stephen SlaybaughBob Pfeifer. ​ Cleveland Confidential Book Tour, moderated by Luc Sante and featuring Cheetah Chrome, Mike Hudson, and Bob Pfeifer plus Eric Davidson powerHouse Arena Saturday, April 9 Better Than: Watching the East River burn while sitting in a swank DUMBO loft. There must ... More >>

Thin Lizzy (Or What's Left Of Them) Are Playing Best Buy Theater Later This Month

Two of the guys on this cover are still alive and in the band, and that'll have to do.​It's tough dealing with Frankensteined, death-ravaged, radically lineup-shuffled entities like Thin Lizzy, the '70s-ascendant twin-guitar-rock sensations whose performing days by all rights should've ended i ... More >>

Live: Smith Westerns Turn Glasslands Into Their Own Private Garage

Everybody wants to be a star on a Tuesday night. Pics by Rob, more below.​Smith Westerns/Ducktails/Bass Drum of Death Glasslands Tuesday, January 18 Better Than: Well, certainly staying at home sulking about missing another Prince show at Madison Square Garden. Every Smith Westerns lead-guit ... More >>

Crooked Fingers

Striped-Jumpsuit Prisoners No Longer Acceptable Setup/Cleanup Crew For Coney Island Shows

​Here is one problem, at least, the Jelly Pool Parties don't have: They didn't just lose their cheap supply of chain-gang labor. Per The Brooklyn Paper comes news that whatever trash you left behind at last week's B-52s show at Coney Island was picked up by a prison inmate. Striped jumpsuit an ... More >>

Download "July," the New Single From Weirdo Local Psych Titans Starring

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. ​"When I was eight, my Dad and I made a haunted house in our basement for Halloween," says Starring guitarist Clara Latham. "He played 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' from Pink Floyd's Ummagumma, ter ... More >>

Live: The Hold Steady Bro Down At Bowery Ballroom

The Hold Steady Bowery Ballroom Saturday, April 17 And what better song to kick off the first of two special Record Store Day gigs than the one that ignites on the words "We put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested"?

Listen to the Mountain Goats Cover "The Boys Are Back in Town," Shout Out Final Fantasy

​The December 2 Bell House sequel to nyctaper's recording of the Mountain Goats' December 1 show at Webster Hall is now up as well--highlights this time around include a Thin Lizzy cover in which Owen Pallett's Final Fantasy somehow makes it into the lyrics. Not the first time Darnielle has do ... More >>

CMJ: Surfer Blood at the Cake Shop; Free Energy, the Golden Filter, and Cold Cave at Webster Hall's Studio

You'll never be this young again. Surfer Blood photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​You feel sorry for Surfer Blood, you really do. It's CMJ Tuesday, there's some invisible wheel turning, and when you walk into the basement of Cake Shop at 4:30pm on a sunny afternoon you all of a sudden know where the arr ... More >>

New Free Energy's "Free Energy" Is Making Us Miss All Kinds of Things Right Now

The only time the DFA-signed, cheerfully glam Philly quintet Free Energy has let us down so far was at the Mercury Lounge, where they awkwardly shuffled through a set that was surely affected by the visibly uncomfortable jeans the frontman was wearing. (They'll hopefully avenge themselves on New Y ... More >>

The Full-Tilt, Half-Naked Joys of Israeli Cock Rockers Monotonix

On the gleeful, uncouth, spontaneous, not-at-all-satirical chaos

Open Apology to Everyone Following Harvilla on Twitter

Having recently noted someone else's penchant for regret, let me offer a mea culpa of my own to those unfortunate enough to be fucking with me on Twitter: Yes, for some reason, I seized overzealously on the #coolbandsmadeuncool meme and rattled off, like, a dozen puns in an hour or so, including " ... More >>

How Superdrag's Resurrection Really Feels

The Knoxville power-pop quartet mount a snarling, ferocious comeback, spiritual awakening notwithstanding

Mountain Goats in Philadelphia November 7: Setlist

Hugs and Kisses 65: The Boys' To Hell With The Boys

Girl Talk's Pop-Music Car-Wreck

T Party

Hey, kids—the band is not Irony Maiden

Slough Feg's Hardworlder

Badass sci-fi metal that it's finally cool to listen to

The Bridge-and-Tunnel Crowd Stays Home

Welcome to the Jumpoff, an unpretentious party similar to its Manhattan brethren, but. . . closer

Bards of the 'Burbs

Fountains of Wayne craft resonant pop-punk by focusing on boring people like you

The War on War

Ted Leo protests on, not so we don't have to, but because most of us won't

In the Shadow of No Tower

Insound, Other Music, and Anthology explore the brave new world of digital music

Cotton Candy on the Edge of Town

On the uneasily triumphant Hold Steady, once nearly dead, now born to run

Ignoring Sincerity

Atlanta's Roy Owens Jr. just can't click-start

One Sound

Swede garagers produced so loud that you can't hear them

Surf'n' Turf: Rock on the Beach!

A rundown of everybody's favorite summer festival, Coney Island's mecca of hot 'n' cool

Loudmouthed belle of Hell won't shut up, demands more

Iron Claws

Acclaimed metal bands keep living, searching, pushing on

Movin' Out

Nothin's cool, they found your father in the swimming pool

Prolific Brooklynites Repeat Themselves For a Long Time Once Again

CMJ Musicfest 2003

Music

French Fries and Fruit Flies

Not Yesterday Once More

Sex Pleas That Swing

A Beard-Rock Lover's Latest Great Odd Leap Forward

Immigrant Songs

Big Pimpin’ in the Red Sea

Roto-Roots Rock Flushes Your Troubles Down the Drain

Boys and Girls of Summer

Double Shot