When Tom Gabel started writing music as Against Me! he was all on his own – just a kid thrashing on an acoustic guitar (occasionally with a drummer in tow) in whatever space would let him set up and play. Now, of course, Against Me! pack ‘em in all over the globe, which makes the notion of getting back to...Continue

Filmed at Seattle's Showbox Theater in 2007 as the Long Winters were wrapping up yet another long stint on the road, Live at the Showbox provides the viewer an authentic Long Winters concert experience while seated in the comfort of their own living room. I never would have thought that it would be possible to witness a virtual Showbox...Continue

"Rebel Jesus" notwithstanding, if Jackson Browne were to record a Christmas album, it would probably suck... and be full of pretentious, pompous, self-righteous holiday sentiment (this from the guy who gave Darryl Hannah a black eye).

The Fleshtones, on the other hand, have released a Christmas album that flat out fucking rocks!

Is it on the seminal level of James Brown's Funky Christmas...Continue

While Rahsaan Patterson offers up a few familiar holiday songs onThe Ultimate Gift ("Little Drummer Boy," "Wonderful Christmastime"), it’s his six original songs that make the spirits bright. Possessing a marvelous voice reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, Patterson’s tunes evoke a variety of moods – albeit not always merry. “That First Christmas,”...Continue

Finally, a Christmas album worth listening to all year long. When Mary Chapin Carpenter set out to create Come Darkness, Come Light – Twelve Songs Of Christmas, she took a very different approach than most artists with holiday albums. Rather than simply lending her voice to timeworn Christmas standards, she wrote her own set of heartfelt songs that explore...Continue

At the core of Winterpills’ third album, Central Chambers, the Northampton, MA, quintet maintains its signature chamber-indie ambience while exploring new grounds sonically and lyrically. You’ll hear production running the gamut from boom box lo-fi to crisp studio sonorousness; dense rockers balanced by quiet hymns; and an overall diversity in instruments...Continue

Department of Eagles began in 2000, when New York University freshmen Fred Nicolaus and Daniel Rossen were assigned to the same room. The two began making music together, collecting samples and turning them into songs using pirated software and a microphone borrowed from their neighbor Chris Taylor (who, years later, would become Daniel's bandmate in Grizzly Bear). Somewhat accidentally, a...Continue

Meet one of 2008’s most exciting new talents. Even before she released a note of music – and at just nineteen – Adele had already chalked up a Jools Holland TV show appearance, worked with award-winning producer/artist Mark Ronson, signed to XL Recordings and supported Amos Lee and Devendra Banhart. “As soon as I got a microphone in my hand,...Continue

The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel institution that has performed in various incarnations for over six decades. Originally called the Happy Land Jubilee Singers, they formed in 1937 at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Alabama. After the untimely death of original lead vocalist Velma Bozman in 1947, they changed their name to the Happy...Continue

Shall Noise Upon is the third full-length album from Apollo Sunshine. Recorded during the summer of 2007 in a house inhabited by spirits in the Catskill Mountains, the album sees multi-instrumentalists Jesse Gallagher, Sam Cohen, and Jeremy Black weaving through a multitude of styles (psych-pop, groove-funk, cowboy songs, samba/tropicalia) with assured fluidity and inspiration. This is not...Continue