The Fall And Rise Of Pop, Part I
Back in May, Luke Haines titillated his handfuls of observers by calling for a Pop Strike. His plea – for a week’s respite from musical production and criticism – got him a few column inches, but it […]

CANNIBAL OX – “The F-Word”
Mathematics, wounded Ox style: F1 is of course “fuck”, but F2 is “friend”, and F3 = F1 times F2 = “friction”. This, in other words, is not undie rap so much as indie rap[…]

The best music article Salon has published in ages, even if (like me), you’re not a big two-step listener. Because its central idea – that critics and musicians simply do not take commercial music seriously enough (either as finished prod[…]

Starlust: (Primal-Scream.net) world (in)famous primal scream fanfiction. Approach with caution. (via Kate on ILE).[…]

9% of Americans don’t know who Paul McCartney is: given name-recognition factors of politicians, historical figures, Jesus, etc. this is actually staggeringly low. Objectivity also compels me to note that the “biggest fans” (undefin[…]

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS – “My Slow Descent Into Alcoholism”
If you’re going to form a band to bring super-fresh power pop values back to indie, would it not be possible to do so without sounding quite so much like “Size Of[…]

A Thousand Songs – 0881 – 0895[…]

THE STROKES – “Last Night”
THE FRENCH KICKS – “Young Lawyer”
Oh, The Strokes, The Strokes, The Strokes. Where do you begin with The Strokes? You could begin with “Last Night”, off their first single. It[…]

rootnode.org: a collaborative music website. Interesting idea – didn’t see many opinions that made my ears prick up, but it only launched in April so, again, early days.[…]

Mr. David Raposa may dislike J-Lo’s “Play”, but even so he deserves better than having his sidebar link scuppered by an extraneous ‘w’. So: go to Popshots.[…]