First, some housekeeping notes. I’m going to put aside the Sunday Basics column aside from now. Stats show that I don’t get too many visitors on Sundays, and at the moment I need to devote my writing to cover letters…

My biggest complaint about Melissa and Paul is that it’s inconvenient to get to their music. Some of us just aren’t cool enough to have turntables. I guess that means we have to turn to Bandcamp. Punknews has a stream…

A few seconds into The Grand Prospect’s EP I thought, “Are these guys really from Brooklyn?” Because, frankly, they have too much soul and authenticity. As Tim Barry pointed out in “Fine Foods Market” (off his new CD) there are…

If you’ve been in New York City at any point in the last couple of years, you’ve probably walked by an Outernational bumper sticker. But since viral marketing doesn’t work, I had no fucking idea what those stickers were for.…

Brother Dege is spooky. But he’s X-Files-spooky — the kind of spooky that lingers with you 24 hours after the fact, because it’s just that convincing. His music is not the kind of overwrought eeriness that so many folkies strain…