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Music Features

Once jilted, Halle Petro abandons Broadway

Rock audition
As an actor-turned-songwriter trying to find success fronting a band, Halle Petro knows that jumping into the new world of music, with its über-knowledgeable geeks and coarsely seasoned players, makes her feel a little "uncool."

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | November 16, 2011

Anthony Gonzalez of M83 elevates his game

Plus, the revenge of the double album
Music occupies time but not space, meaning that a musician's musical indulgences tend to stretch out in time to make up for the fact that, once emitted, the signals disappear in the aether like wisps of nothing disappearing into more nothing.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | November 16, 2011

25 years later, Buffalo Tom's frontman looks back at the early days

Career in rock
Buffalo Tom was on its way up. But back then, the farthest imaginable point "up" for a band like us was to be able to tour the States and Europe, maybe headlining places like the Channel or even, in our wildest dreams, the Orpheum. This was P.N. (pre-Nirvana), after all.

By: BILL JANOVITZ | November 16, 2011

Rob Halford gives Judas Priest one last spin

Metal god
When you talk to a living legend like Rob Halford, it should come as no surprise that you are dealing with a pro; after all, the man not only invented almost all the tropes and conventions of modern heavy metal, but he's been doing it all — show after show, album after album, tour after tour — nonstop for almost 40 years.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | November 15, 2011

The Musical Box revives a lost Genesis record

Like a Lamb to the theater
"And I'm hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway."

By: IRA KANTOR | November 09, 2011

The rise and fall of the Columbia House record club — and how we learned to steal music

Send no money
On June 29, 2011, the last remnant of what was once Columbia House — the mightiest mail-order record club company that ever existed — quietly shuttered for good.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN AND JASON W. SMITH | November 18, 2011

Catching up with a shape-shifting Viva Viva

Band on the run
With creative assists from Bud, Jack, and Marlboro Reds — call it a musician's late-night BLT — Viva Viva's Chris Warren grabs his acoustic guitar and launches into an impromptu "Sweet Jane."

By: NOLAN GAWRON | November 09, 2011

Black Sabbath are back — in print and on film

Masters of reality
The literature on Black Sabbath — already extensive — will continue to grow, as we try, try, try again to wrap our poor noggins around the irreducibly cosmic fact of this band.

By: JAMES PARKER | November 14, 2011

Noel Gallagher takes center stage

Fookin' birds
Oasis fans have long wondered what the Manchester band's records would have sounded like without Liam Gallagher in the mix.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | November 09, 2011

The enduring evolution of Lovers

Full-fledged fling
Lovers, the chamber-folk-turned-synth-pop project helmed by Boston-born Carolyn Berk, has seen plenty of critical acclaim since its first release, 2002's Starlit Sunken Ship (Orange Twin).

By: THOMAS PAGE MCBEE | November 09, 2011

The Big Hurt: Bieber's balls, Weiland and She & Him's Xmas albums, Nicki Minaj's trash, and more

Music news in brief
While his upcoming Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe, may sound like a surefire hit, it was nearly scuppered by a pair of glistening ornaments.

By: DAVID THORPE | November 09, 2011

The Big Hurt: Backsliding once more into the Billboard Christian Songs chart

Who charted?
Of all the Billboard offerings I've covered in Who Charted — which is most of them, excluding major eccentrics like the Hot Norwegian Skiffle 100 — there are none I'm more excited to revisit than the Christian Songs chart

By: DAVID THORPE | November 02, 2011

The restless Nashville pop of Caitlin Rose

Stone pony
It's late Sunday afternoon and singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose is folding laundry and watching a movie on BET in her Nashville home.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | November 03, 2011

Interview: Lil B speaks

The face of based
A word to describe Lil B? Enigmatic comes close, but doesn't really suffice.

By: MICHAEL C. WALSH | November 03, 2011

Quilt stitch sonic gold

Dream weavers
The first track on Quilt's homonymous debut — out this week via Brooklyn label Mexican Summer — is "Young Gold," a three-minute cinematic jam stitched with the band's signature swirling group vocals, temperate drumming, and a sophisticated patchwork of '60s-twangs and Eastern-inspired tones.

By: LIZ PELLY | November 03, 2011