POSTED // Jun 11,2008 - "Peace,” is his greeting. Guy says he’s cool, “just chillin’ and shit.” The image that forms isn’t of a hip-hop star soakin’ up chlorine and Hennessey in his pool; it’s of a superhero in his fortress...

POSTED // May 28,2008 - Ignorance and Shakespeare go together like ignorance and metal; therefore, Shakespeare and metal are natural partners. That is to say, it may not make sense, but it sounds hella good. Together. Metal and Shakespeare. What I’m gettin’ at: Some...

POSTED // May 21,2008 - Serendipitous phone calls don’t exactly fit the country & western—’scuse me, Americana—archetype. If one redneck calls another, it’s supposed to be with bad news or an invitation to a rowdy good time, not exciting new...

POSTED // Apr 16,2008 - About a month ago, Saul Williams was playing to a huge crowd in Austin, Texas. They were gathered there for a tribute to Lou Reed—an uncommon influence in the hip-hop realm. But Williams, who first burst into the public consciousness as incarcerated...

POSTED // Apr 2,2008 - To many, Daniel Johnston is a hero, a tragic legend who sings his soul and expresses emotions we can’t seem to articulate in simple songs he once passed around on cassettes tapes in the early 1980s. He does it because he’s crazy, or that’s...

POSTED // Feb 27,2008 - The idea of being pelted with raw meat—even at a time when Mad Cow Disease wasn’t shit compared to AIDS—was probably enough to scare anybody. Who would do that? The same sick SOB who’d guzzle blood from poor Yorick’s skull...

POSTED // Feb 20,2008 - Please enjoy the music while your party is reached.” Even worse than ringtones is the hold music some cell phone users use to replace the familiar intermittent electronic ululations—one man’s favorite song is another man’s strident,...

POSTED // Feb 13,2008 - First, he calls early. That ain’t very rock & roll—much less shock rock—of Marilyn Manson, is it? That is, unless he calls early to say he’s right outside with a sixer of PBR under one arm and the severed head of ex-bandmate...

POSTED // Jan 30,2008 - From the eastern seaboard, where a third sun shines on skyscrapers, factories and boardwalks, comes Yeasayer, a quartet of musical mystics whose alchemical songs brim with volatility and beauty. They are the sound of day and night, up and down, war and...

POSTED // Jan 2,2008 - Life is a series of lucky, lucky, lucky moments and incidences. And sometimes, not.” The words are wistful, sensitive. Certainly not what you’d expect to come, measured and meditative, from the snaggle-toothed, trenchant maw of John Lydon,...