Photo by Alicia J. RoseIt's never a bad idea to go see the Thermals. Five years ago, I saw the Portland ragers play a converted auto body shop in Baltimore with the Hold Steady opening, and they wrecked. They're playing slightly larger venues these days, but it's safe to say that they will bring same bouncing-off-walls basement-punk energy and a...

We were told the new Sonic Youth album, their 16th, was going to include black metal-inspired lyrics and "heavy ass weirdo hooks" but nobody let us know about the John Fahey album art: The brilliant finger-picking guitarist and writer's (check out How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life) red, white, and black pigments adorn The Eternal's front cov...

The insanely ambitious Canadian hardcore warriors in Fucked Up are on a very serious roll these days. First, they cranked out The Chemistry of Common Life, one of last year's most viscerally satisfying slabs of posi-rage. Then they played a ridiculous 12-hour show in downtown Manhattan. Indirectly, they inspired this Rob Harvilla article, one ...

-- The forthcoming Red Hot benefit compilation Dark Was the Night (out on 4AD February 17 in the U.S. and February 16 in the UK) features, like, every band Pitchfork covers. A few of those bands will be on hand this Friday, February 6, to DJ the album's New York release party. The party jumps off at the downtown bar Stanton Public, and members ...

Hey, remember last year, when a couple of members of Pavement said something about maybe reuniting in an Entertainment Weekly interview and got everyone excited and then did not actually reunite? Well, they're doing it again.It's OK. Breathe. Everything will be all right. But stop listening to what former members of Pavement tell you about maybe...