Polarizing TV chef Rachael Ray is having another party at South By Southwest this year; it'll take place Saturday March 21, and last all day, and probably be ridiculously hard to get into once again. And yes, there will be food (like, um, seven layer sliders, the ingredient list of which gives me st...

*MP3: Hold Steady - "Positive Jam" *MP3: Hockey Night - "Grim Break" *MP3: Interpol - "Heinrich Maneuver" *MP3: Justin Timberlake - "Sexy Back" *MP3: Cloud Cult - "Fairy Tale" *MP3: Bon Iver - "Babys" *MP3: Kanye West - "Stronger" *MP3: Kings of Leon - "Knocked Up" *MP3: Les Savy Fav - "What Would W...

Our friend Dusty is on a week-long tour with Brooklyn-via-Mpls’  most-loved/hated band  The Hold Steady. It makes for quite the interesting read whether you dig The Hold Steady or not… Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. warning: this will most likely be entirely about me and no...

I'm on some kind of Springsteen kick today, so I figured I'd keep the train rolling and talk about Jason Anderson. In a world where The Hold Steady are pretty huge and The Gaslight Anthem are up-and-comers, it seems unfair to me that the former Wolf Colonel/Mount Eerie/Yume Bitsu member is overlooke...

A spin around your local Internet dials... - Two great Fleet Foxes performances from last weekend's SNL - see both clips at Rolling Stone... pretty awesome singing and playing... - Pitchfork wins best headline with its story about Neil Young: "Neil Young to Release Potentially Batshit Concept Album"...

74 1Intro: “Burn and Shineâ€� by The Elms 2“The Re-Arrangerâ€� by Mates of State. 3“The Riverâ€� by Anathallo. 4“Heavenâ€� by Lake. 5“Feel the Loveâ€� by Cut Copy. 6“Who You Areâ€� by Vandarth. 7“Captain Jesusâ€� by Bob Martin. 8“Out On the Sandâ€� by Javelins. 9“Cruel” b...

#1. MATTHEW RYAN, Matthew Ryan Vs. the Silver State (00:02:59) Whether he’s performing a ballad or a rock song, Ryan’s intelligence and intensity course through this release. (Twangville review, mp3s and video here.) #2. THE HOLD STEADY, Stay Positive (Vagrant) They rock, they roll and then they...

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment� is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it. I’m not nec...

(Florence and the Machine) While looking back at 2008’s year in music, I decided that for the first time I didn’t want to make a list of just albums. Now that most of the money I spend on music is either via vinyl or mp3s, it didn’t make sense to keep it that limited. So far that r...

These are my favorite albums of 2008. As always, these only reflect music that I was able to afford or otherwise get my grubby hands on. Regretfully, the lastest from Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Marc Broussard, Ray Lamontagne, Amos Lee, and Butch Walker among dozens of others kept a distance. #1...