If you are in New York tonight and looking for something to do, you should head on down to the Bowery Poetry Club for a special music-writer version of the Literary Death Match featuring readings by James Gavin (Stormy Weather: The Life Of Lena Horne), Courtney Gillette (Tom Tom Magazine), Jessica Hopper (The Girl’s Guide To Rocking), and Christopher R. Weingarten (1000timesyes and this here site). Plus a performance by Franklin Bruno! (NB: None of those people are pictured at left.) I’d be there if I wasn’t a couple of states away. [Literary Death Match] More »
Oh man, it’s almost Labor Day weekend! Which means barbecues, earlier sunsets, and the close of summer in the American mind-set. (Not to mention the ever-closer encroachment of the Video Music Awards! Ack!) So what better time to look back? Feel free to share your favorite musical experiences of the Memorial-To-Labor-Day period in this space, while you are (I hope!) waiting to go outside and enjoy the last crackles of summer. My list—which ranges from shows to finding out bits of news—after the jump. More »
In the wake of releasing a pretty decent new track yesterday, Weezer has announced the title of its forthcoming seventh album, and it has already riled up the corners of the Internet that like to get upset about these sorts of things. Calling it Raditude kind of helped! More »
Yesterday, our good pal/rock twitic Christopher R. Weingarten took to the stage at the 140 Character Conference to talk about the content-free nature of so much music discussion on Twitter–and the wider Web–these days, and he threw in a few bits about the ever-dying breed of the “rock writer” and the way “crowdsourcing” killed indie rock in there as well. His charisma and smarts and the way that the crowd basically ate out of the palm of his hand (see also) filled me with something that kind of resembled hope! [140conf] More »
As you might have noticed, this is a bittersweet week around here; because of budget cuts, we’ve had to say goodbye to pretty much all the Idolator contributing writers, from columnists to daily bloggers. The site is going to go on as a solo project of sorts, although the news cycle might run at a slightly slower pace. I just wanted to take a moment on this crappy day to thank everyone who’s contributed to the site during my tenure, from the people who helped me sift through the news cycle every day to the columnists, each of whom expanded the focus of the site. More »
