It’s not uncommon for a festival’s last day to be something of a comedown. It’s Sunday, and everyone’s sunburnt and hungover and staring down the barrel of a work week — the return to reality matched with the physical fatigue of having stood out in a field for three days. It takes a powerful and ...

After being quiet for a long time following 2011′s The Dreamer/The Believer, Chicago rapper Common has been making some rumblings in the past few months in preparation for his new album Nobody Smiling. At the beginning of the year, he shared “War” and “Made In Black America” in quick succession b...

It’s easy to get cynical about the recent epidemic of broken-up bands reuniting and getting that festival money, but when the band in question is one like Pulp, the mere possibility of hearing “Common People” performed live tends to overwhelm any of those qualms. And now, those who haven’t gotten a chance ...

Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton is a new documentary about the influential and long-running California rap indie label Stones Throw, and it features a long list of luminaries, including Snoop Dogg, Mike D, Common, DOOM, Madlib, Tyler, The Creator, and label founder Peanut Butter Wolf. But the most famous talking head in the movie is [...]

It takes about ten minutes from the moment I meet Sharon Van Etten for her to make her first confession: “Sorry, I’m pretty hungover today.” She says it with a sort of bashful glance downwards — as if it’s uncommon for a musician to show up for an interview in such a state. Then she [...]