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Steven Soderbergh's TV series adaptation of "The Girlfriend Experience" just debuted this past weekend and he's getting ready to pitch the next two seasons of "The Knick." If you thought that's more than enough for one person to handle, you thought wrong. Somewhere in all of that, the director has knocked out a music video for Dtcv. Read More: Interview: Steven Soderbergh Talks "The Knick' Season 2, The Future of TV, And Much More The band features French singer-songwriter Lola G. and former Guided by Voices member James Greer, and the latter is key. Years and years ago, Soderbergh tried to mount a big screen, 3D musical “Cleo” which would've featured music by Guided By Voices' frontman Robert Pollard. Obviously that didn't happen, so we'll have to settle for this semi-abstract video in which vintage footage of rural American life comes right up against the impersonal modern world.

Guided By Voices drummer Kevin Fennell may not have succeeded in selling his drum kit on eBay for $55,000, but he has succeeded in airing the band’s dirty laundry. In a post on the auction’s Facebook page, a friend of Fennell (read: probably Fennell) posted an email correspondence between Fennell and Gbv frontman Robert Pollard. In the back-and-forth, Fennell claims he resigned from the band, while Pollard insists he was fired. The email also sheds a little light on Fennell’s beef with the band, which he claims stems from the band’s recent lack of live ...

Last week, news broke that Guided By Voices drummer Kevin Fennell was selling (or attempting to sell) the “simply good looking” kit he used on Bee Thousand, Mag Earwig, and other Gbv records, asking a mere $55,000 on eBay. Now comes news that Fennell is no longer in the band—a move that either came because of the sale or that may have sparked the sale, it's not entirely clear. All we have to go on is a statement from Robert Pollard’s management, saying, “The band Guided By Voices has nothing to do with the sale of ...

It may have only cost Robert Pollard and Co. the price of a four-track player and a few cases of Meister Bräu to launch themselves into the indie rock stratosphere, but THR points out the makers of Bee Thousand have set an auction to start at $55,000 for their original drum kit. The kit belongs to original Guided By Voices drummer Kevin Fennell and includes two toms, a bass drum, several cymbals and a foot pedal. Though the lo-fi garage rockers experienced their fair share of lineup changes after signing to a major label in 1995, Fennell’s drum kit somehow...

From Faster Louder, one of our team of experts bringing you the best new music from around the world: a perfect slice of anxious Aussie slacker-pop

Listen on Soundcloud

Home to Dick Diver and the Twerps, independent record label Chapter Music are the masterminds behind a low-key slacker pop revolution in Melbourne, and their most recent signing The Stevens fits snugly into this expanding stable.

Led by Travis MacDonald and Twerps drummer Alex Macfarlane on guitars, the band was snapped up by Chapter following the release of their 2012 self-titled debut Ep. New single Hindsight is their first official release since the signing. Clocking in at just over two minutes, it's a perfect slice of anxious Aussie pop. MacDonald's nasal vocals are mixed low and lazy alongside jittery guitar and sweet backing melodies, recalling The Church's earlier work as well as Orange Juice and The Wedding Present.

The band came together...

In keeping with the spirit of getting people out and buying physical media, this Sept. 7 will see the inaugural Cassette Store Day. And, though the media has been largely ignored by the majority of music consumers in recent years, its D.I.Y. aesthetic has helped it remain a viable option for upstarts bands. The list of Cassette Store Day releases is small, but it packs a wallop with notable reissues from Animal Collective, At The Drive-In, Suicidal Tendencies, and Guided By Voices, while The Flaming Lips will be offering up its latest album The Terror for the occasion ...

It's been more than a decade since the 1990s ended, yet the Internet can't seem to go a day without a reminder of the neon slap bracelets that may have been banned from your school.

Yes, we get it. Times are tough and there's comfort in reflection, but enough is enough.

Below, a final goodbye to the 90s to end the nostalgia once and for all. (We're not kidding. There are 1990 items below.)

1. Scrunchies

2. "The Wild Thornberries"

3. Dawson and Joey

4. "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"

5. Mr. Feeny

7. MTV playing music videos

8. Snick

9. The premiere of "Freaks and Geeks"

10. Levar Burton

11. "Daria"

12. "Arthur"

13. "The Powerpuff Girls"

14. "Smart Guy"

15. Comedy Central globe logo with buildings

16. "The X-Files"

17. Rosie O'Donnell

18. Bill Nye

19. "Dawson's Creek"

20. The Mighty Ducks"

21. "Are You Afraid of the Dark"

22. Cornholio

23. Rachel Green

24. Tim Allen

25. "All That"

26. "Beverly Hills 90210"

27. "Step by Step"

28. "The Ren & Stimpy Show"

29. "The Famous Jett Jackson"

30. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

In the lead up to the release of Ouya, and through my time testing it for my review, the one question that kept popping into my head was, "who is this for?" It's fair to ask the same question of the other consoles that are either on the market, or soon to be, but those consoles have dedicated fanbases, a portion of which will by anything with the right logo on it. Ouya is an entirely new machine, and subsequently, it's for an entirely new audience. Sure, there were all those Kickstarter supporters, but even with 63,416 fans, that's not enough to sustain a console in perpetuity.

In fact, when I was given the opportunity to speak with Julie Uhrman, Ouya's Founder, on June 25, the day that the console launched, that was one of the first thing I asked her.

"Core gamers are going to love Ouya. There's games that are exclusive to Ouya,...

If Ralph Steadman and Quentin Blake went to a concert together, we imagine their joint creation would resemble Todd Diciurcio's artwork.

The New York-based illustrator works in charcoal to bring his favorite rock legends from stage to paper, while keeping the momentum of the performance intact. Since drawing Guided By Voices in 1999, Diciurcio has gone on to capture the stage presence of The Rolling Stones, Cat Power, New Order, and more.

"My drawing process needs to be done strictly during performance, but not performance based," Diciurcio explained to the blog, Monster Children. "The goal is always to create a dialogue between mark making and the music."

Diciurcio's band drawings will show at P3 Studio Space at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas from April 17 until May 12.

Click:...

There were hints that the Guided By Voices classic line-up “reunion” was probably not just a touring thing after the band released three albums over the course of 2012. Now the band has announced a fourth record, English Little League, due April 30. Frontman Robert Pollard and Co. seem likely to keep up their current pace: The “plan” for the foreseeable future is for the band to release three new albums a year. It looks like Guided By Voices’ reunion will just go on forever, and while the output might be a little overwhelming, that's (probably) not a bad ...

After having already released two albums this year alone (Let's Go Eat The Factory and Class Clown Spots A UFO), lo-fi superstars Guided By Voices have announced that The Bears For Lunch will be released Nov. 13 through the band's own label, Gbv Inc. Ever-prolific frontman Robert Pollard has also released two solo LPs in 2012. At this rate, they can probably fit in five or six more before New Year's. A full tracklist is below. 'The Bears For Lunch' Tracklisting 01 King Arthur The Red 02 The Corners Are Glowing 03 Have A Jug 04 Hangover ...

Guided By Voices have stayed busy since reuniting in 2010. This year alone they’ve released two studio albums with a third one, Bears For Lunch, on the way. That’s pretty good for a band that manages to down roughly a handle of liquor during each show. The group's most recent studio effort, Class Clown Spots A UFO, is a reliably Robert Pollardian romp that manages to pack in 21 songs in under 40 minutes. Pollard and company are actually nowhere to be found in the video for “Keep It In Motion,” the band’s latest single. Instead ...

.Tora displays the depth to rally the masses with keenly written lyricsand expressive vocals...Billboard Of men, grief and love lost, the ability to reveal heartbreak dominates the new album by Tora, who is releasing her debut CD .Spilling Over. July 10th. The pop rock singer/songwriter Tora will perform at this year.s Cbgb Festival in New York City on Friday, July 6th, at 10pm at The Lit Lounge. She will join heavyweight artists Guided By Voices, Wyclef Jean, Redd Kross, Fishbone, David Johansen and many others who are part of the 2012 version of the infamous annual music festival that mixes new and emerging artists with performances by established talent. Tora returns to New York straight on...

Four years ago, when Steven Soderbergh was just beginning to entertain the idea of breaking the world record for most film projects completed in the time between announcing his imminent retirement and actually hitting the beach with a metal detector, one of his wildest pipe dreams was Cleo, a rock musical, in 3D, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones as Cleopatra, Hugh Jackman as Marc Antony, and Ray Winstone as Julius Caesar, with music from Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard. (Former Gbv bassist, novelist, and onetime Spin senior editor Jim Greer wrote the screenplay.) The project appeared to collapse when Jackman bailed ...

With a $30 million budget, a high-profile cast including Hugh Jackman and Ray Winstone, and music written by Guided By Voices' frontman Robert Pollard, Steven Soderbergh's 3D musical “Cleo” never faced an easy road to the big screen. The film was scheduled to shoot in spring of '09, but following Jackman's speedy departure, and then Soderbergh's own directorial issues with “Moneyball,” the project fall apart with faint hope of it being revived. The role of Cleopatra was always Catherine Zeta-Jones' though, and following our interview with Soderbergh about his musical's possible future onstage, the actress has recently echoed that intriguing possibility.

While promoting “Rock of Ages” on “The View” this past week, even amongst the inane babble surrounding her, Jones revealed her interest in Soderbergh's vision. "I just finished a movie with him ['The Bitter Pill' with Rooney Mara] and we have an idea -- actually it was for a movie -- to play Cleopatra,...

Hardcore fans of indie rock and Beltway trivia already know that White House press secretary Jay Carney is a mega-fan of the band Guided By Voices, but the rest of the nation got a taste of just how deeply Carney digs the lo-fi legends when he dropped a gratuitous compliment into his daily press briefing yesterday.

After announcing that President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were headed to Dayton, Ohio, for an Ncaa tournament play-in game, Carney gave in to the impulse to add, "As you probably know, Dayton is the home of the Wright Brothers, the Dayton Peace Accords, and Guided By Voices, the greatest rock 'n' roll band of the modern era, in my humble opinion."

The press corps just laughed.

The video was posted to the Facebook page of Guided By Voices founder and frontman Robert Pollard on Tuesday afternoon, inspiring the band's fiercely loyal...

When we interviewed Robert Pollard back in December about the recent Guided By Voices comeback LP Let's Go Eat The Factory, we shouldn't have been surprised when the famously prolific songwriter casually mentioned that Gbv had another album in the works for 2012. That album, Class Clown Spots A UFO, will be released in June, but the first single, "Keep It In Motion," comes out March 19 as a 7-inch with two other songs. "Keep It In Motion" is a fleet-footed pop song anchored by a hammering drum machine beat and sweetened by Tobin Sprout's backing vocals ...

'I saw a UFO and I have this feeling they are coming back. To probe me. They tend to do that'

Paddy Considine, 38, was born in Staffordshire. In 1999, he made his screen debut when his friend, the British film-maker Shane Meadows, cast him in A Room For Romeo Brass. He went on to star in Dead Man's Shoes, which he co-wrote with Meadows. His other films include 24 Hour Party People, In America, Hot Fuzz and The Bourne Ultimatum. His directorial debut, Dog Altogether, won the 2008 Bafta for best short film. His first feature, Tyrannosaur, has won more than 20 awards and is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.

What is your earliest memory?

Hanging from a window dressed as Superman, looking at the 20ft drop and feeling anything but super. My big brother Chubby rescued me.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Self-doubt – it's like an illness.

What was your most embarrassing moment?...

After a quick revamp thanks to Guided By Voices' cancellation, All Tomorrow's Parties' I’ll Be Your Mirror music festival has announced its revised 2012 lineup. Headlined by the reunited Afghan Whigs (whose frontman Greg Dulli is curating the festival), Louis C.K., and The Roots, the lineup boasts more than 35 acts. Other performers include Jose Gonzalez, the Mark Lanegan Band, Dirty Three, The Antlers, The Dirtbombs, The Make-Up, Hot Snakes, Scrawl, Sharon Van Etten, Emeralds, The Magic Band, Autolux, Vetiver, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Thee Oh Sees, Factory Floor, Death Grips, Questlove, Charles Bradley And The Extraordinaires ...

While Chicago's Lollapalooza is still more than five months away from taking over the city's Grant Park, an alleged lineup for the annual music festival has already emerged.

Anonymous Twitter account @lollaleaks on Saturday tweeted the Aug. 3-5 festival's supposed headliners -- Metallica, Beyonce, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers, Beck and Sonic Youth. On Wednesday, the tweeter claimed that Justice, Chromeo and Bassnectar would also be playing the festival's Perry's stage.

@lollaleaks was not the only supposed lineup "leaker." As The Sights and Sounds reports, @thelollaleaker released more supposed additions to the 2012 festival lineup including The Shins, M83, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Gotye, At The Drive-In, Garbage, Missy Elliott, Guided By Voices, Sleigh Bells, Passion Pit, Korn, Skrillex, M.I.A., Calvin Harris and about a dozen other acts.

The news enraged festival organizer Perry Farrell, who took to Twitter to berate @lollaleaks, calling the anonymous tweeter "a red tick,...

AudioPlayer.setup("http://www.nerve.com/files/players/audio/player.swf", { width: 350 }); Ranked: Every Guided By Voices Album from Worst to Best The venerable indie band returns, and we assess their massive catalog. by Joseph Martin With a reunited "classic" line-up (hello, Tobin Sprout!) and a new record, Guided By Voices has become the latest indie paragon to revive and hit the reunion-tour circuit. Their first record since 2004, Let's Go Eat The Factory, dropped this month on Fire Records and another, Class Clown Spots a UFO, is on deck for May. But what might seem like overkill for a less inspired band is just standard operating procedure for Gbv. From their lo-fi beginnings to their later work as Ric Ocasek-produced popsmiths, the band's always nursed an almost per annum album habit. So let's take a look back at their extensive — and influential — [...]...

The best of your comments on the latest films and music

Can a middle-aged, balding white man write about young black women rapping? Or should he write solely about other middle-aged, balding white men? That, incredibly, was what some of you felt was the main issue around the piece Paul Lester (he's the middle-aged, balding white man) wrote last week about Azealia Banks, Dominique Young Unique and Lady Leshurr (I'll let you work out which side of the equation they are). Even leaving aside the politics of race and gender, Feedback reckoned: "It's the equivalent of seeing your granny doing the macarena on the dancefloor. While it may give you a warm glow of affection, everyone else in the room is thinking: 'Who's that crazy old dingbat?'" To which we counter with untold's reaction: "There are thousands of bald, middle-aged, white hip hop heads. I sometimes think it's about half the global audience.

Patrick Carney was in more of an "Attack & Release" than a "Brothers" mood when his recent discussion with Rolling Stone turned to the current malaise prevailing over the music industry. Specifically, he had a few sour words for Nickelback.

"Rock & roll is dying because people became Ok with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world," he told the magazine. "So they became Ok with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be sh*t - therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. F*ck that! Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don't like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous shit. When people start lumping us into that kind of shit, it's like, 'F*ck you,' honestly."

The Black Keys...

There are dozens of guys out there who can claim to have spent time, however brief, in Guided By Voices. But it takes only a few seconds of hearing Let’s Go Eat The Factory to recognize the exact right combination of guys who recorded the band’s most beloved records. Saying Factory deserves to be placed in the vaunted company of 1994’s Bee Thousand and 1995’s Alien Lanes would be overselling it a bit. But Robert Pollard’s first album with the so-called “classic” line-up of Gbv—Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos, and Kevin Fennell—in ...

In what may be a promotion for their upcoming Freakout #5 New Year's Eve shows with Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band, acid rockers The Flaming Lips have recorded a cover of the Beatles' psychedelic nonsense gem, "I Am the Walrus." The tune, with its obscure, Lewis Carroll-and-lsd-inspired lyrics, has been covered many times by the likes of Frank Zappa, Guided By Voices, Oingo Boingo, Bono, etc. The Lips' bizarre version features Wayne Coyne tapping on, and singing through, a transparent, orange disc, Stephen Drozd shaking a maraca under a silver, reflective blanket, and an onslaught of distorted, fuzzed-out bass. They also change the outro lyrics to "Everybody smoke pot," which they apparently did (among other things) before recording the song. Personally, I don't think they do the original any favors, and would rather listen to their cover of "War [...]...

The "classic" lineup of mid-90s lo-fi gurus Guided By Voices apparently had so much fun reuniting last year with "a whole bunch of beer-drenched marathon shows," they couldn't call it quits. After playing what was supposed to be their final concert last year at Seattle's Hopscotch Festival, Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell are back with their first album since 1996: Let's Go Eat The Factory. It's due out in full New Years Day 2012, but for now we've got a snatch of one of the four B-sides (we're as confused on this as Stereogum) off the album's The Doughnut For A Snowman 7 " (which is out and available for download). "One, Two, Three, Four" joins a hallowed line of cheerful indie counting songs that are as fun for adults as kids. Take it on a long road trip with the family for some cool, responsible bonding.

The Afghan Whigs will play their first show in 13 years when the Greg Dulli-led band reunites for All Tomorrow’s Parties “I’ll Be Your Mirror” festival at London’s Alexandra Palace on May 27. The revered Cincinnati band are taking the slot that had been held by Guided By Voices, who cancelled because they broke up and have cancelled all 2012 (and we presume beyond that) bookings. Other performers during the May 25-27 festival, curated by Mogwai and Atp, include Slayer, Sleep, Mudhoney, Yuck, the Melvins, and a reunited Codeine. Newly added are The Archers of Loaf and Chavez, who reformed last...

Franz Ferdinand have announced their first official gig for 2012. The 'Take Me Out' band will play at the Primavera Sound event in Barcelona, which takes place from May 30 to June 3, 2012 at the Parc Del Forum in Barcelona. They have not played a full billed gig in the UK for nearly two years. The xx and Bjork have also been confirmed for the Spanish festival lineup, alongside the likes of Wilco, The Drums, Guided By Voices, (more)...

We Have A New Leprechaun World Record! Here’s 262 leprechauns gathering at the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin for 10 minutes to officially set the new Guinness World Record for the Most Leprechauns In One Place: The previous record-holder – and I’m not making this up – was actually Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, which one time apparently had 224 leprechauns on the show at once. It’s nice to see this prestigious title back in the hands of its rightful Anyone But Jay Leno. Although, if these really are leprechauns, allowing themselves to be photographed for 10 minutes probably means they’re not very good at being leprechauns? Also, not present: Warwick Davis. He’s still in the ‘hood. Four more leprechaun pics after the jump (click any for full size): Also, what an odd coincidence – “262 Leprechauns” is also the title of my favorite Guided By Voices song that hasn’t been written yet.

I'm still a little hot and bothered by the news of All Tomorrow's Parties London initial lineup for 2012: Slayer performing "Reign in Blood" in its entirety, the frequently afflicted Mogwai, Sleep (!!), the Melvins, newly reunited Guided By Voices and Yuck. (Fine, fine, and Mudhoney too. Whatever.) But included in that May 25-27 weekend will be a reunion of slow-core pioneers Codeine. That crew has put themselves back together for what might be a whole tour, in fact, with plans to released their three excellent Sub Pop records. "Frigid Stars" (1990), 1992's "Barely Real" Ep and 1994's "The White Birch" are...

On Nov. 22, Guided By Voices will release their first album from the "classic" lineup in 15 years. The first single from the set "Let's Go Eat the Factory," "The Unsinkable Fats Domino," has arrived, and will be bundled with another track "We Won't Apologize" as a 7" single, to be released same-day. "The Unsinkable Fats Domino" can be downloaded for free, via the band's label home Matador. It most certainly sounds like a Gbv song. This blog post lasts about as long as the song does.

It's been one hell of a week for '90s/rock-era news. R.E.M. split, Nirvana's "Nevermind" 20th anniversary is on Saturday, Guns N' Roses is touring America, Pearl Jam's rock doc and subsequent soundtrack is out and Radiohead is acting like Radiohead. On a smaller scale -- but significantly -- Guided By Voices have taken their reunion to the next step and are releasing the first album of new material from its "classic" lineup for the first time since 1996. (The band's final lineup split on New Year's Eve in 2004). Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell (circa...

With Tsr Buzz, you’ll find links to articles, videos and other random things that will help you waste your time just a little bit more.

A Dutch bank has released a commercial featuring George Clooney. It feels more like a “What Happens in Vegas” commercial, but it’s still great.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_8TGTKdrlY

Finally! Conclusive proof that Nicholas Cage is a vampire! This photo has to have been doctored, but it’s still funny. This video is brilliant. Conan is at his best in stupid moments like this.

The Shining has been cropping up in odd places lately. I posted the video that revealed how the hotel floor plan was warped by Kubrick and Dr. Who did an episode last week heavily influenced by the film. Now a theater in New York will be showing an uncut print of the film. Apparently, Kubrick cut it after the initial release.

You probably know by now that one of Steven Soderbergh's last pre-retirement films will be Magic Mike, written by Reid Carolin, a film about a male stripper that is partially based on actor Channing Tatum's experiences working as a young dancer and 'ab and ass' showman in Tampa, Fl. (And one which has been drawing comparisons in overall structure and tone to Saturday Night Fever.) The film has Alex Pettyfer set to play a young dancer mentored in the art of the hustle by the more experienced 'Magic Mike,' with Channing Tatum actually playing the title character. And now they'll be joined by Matthew McConaughey and Matt Bomer. Variety [1] says that Matthew McConaughey will be "Dallas, a former exotic dancer who now owns and operates Xquisite, the club where “Magic Mike” works." THR [2], meanwhile, says that Bomer will be "playing a stripper that is part of...

As good as Stranger Ballet is—and it’s one of the most pleasurable guitar-rock albums of the year—it isn’t an ideal introduction to The Poison Control Center. That would be seeing the infectious Iowa band in a small bar somewhere out on the road. No album can beat witnessing guitarists Patrick Tape Fleming and Devin Frank play scattershot solos while doing the splits or standing on their heads, or the feeling of being swept up in mass sing-alongs that seem half-remembered from long-lost Pavement and Guided By Voices shows. In a live setting, The Poison Control Center ...

Amid a classic Gbv lineup reunion, Robert Pollard’s recent well-received solo album Lord Of The Birdcage, and the justified suspicion about Uncle Bob’s side projects, Boston Spaceships has had a difficult time selling itself as the rightful heir to Guided By Voices. That certainly isn’t the fault of the group’s albums. Let It Beard continues Boston Spaceships’ winning streak, but more than that, it’s a surprisingly cohesive, consistent double LP from a songwriter not known for cohesion or consistency. Let It Beard’s 26 songs shoot a bleary-eyed glance at Gbv’s past with snatches ...

First, the guy from The Eagles gets into it with Chris Matthews, and now this. Maybe he was in a Purple Haze, but White House Press Secretary Jay Carney kicked off Wednesday's briefing by announcing that President Obama had spoken about the debt ceiling negotiations with several Congressional leaders, and...Mitch Mitchell. Carney quickly corrected himself, to laughs from reporters, and reminded them that Mitch Mitchell was not only the name of The Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer, but also a guitarist in Guided By Voices.

Danny Clinch Chris Cornell, front, and his fellow Soundgarden bandmates.

The list of unlikely rock reunions that have flourished in recent years—Pixies, Pavement, Guided By Voices—prove that most fans need only be patient until their nostalgia wishlists are fulfilled. Soundgarden seemed to prove that rule by reuniting for Lollapalooza 2010 after breaking up 12 years before. Since then, a group that helped embody the Seattle grunge boom, has recorded a new album (title and release date to be determined). Singer Chris Cornell,...

Robert Pollard was writing suitcases full of songs before he had an audience, and he’ll likely keep on churning them out even after the last hardcore Guided By Voices fan finally falls over from exhaustion. But while Pollard’s legendary prolificacy continues to amaze, his ability to group enough of his good songs into consistently strong records has diminished since Gbv’s 2004 breakup. Lord Of The Birdcage isn’t a full return to Pollard’s ’90s prime—the peak for Gbv and Pollard solo records like Not In My Airforce and Waved Out—but it’s one of ...

Getty Robbie Guertin of Radical Dads, seen in 2008.

Northside Festival, organized by The L Magazine, is back again, delivering four nights and three days worth of constant entertainment all over Greenpoint and Williamsburg. This year the event, which kicks off tomorrow, has some new bells and whistles.

Spread across more than 25 venues, 270 bands play at shows for which fans can purchase individual tickets, or acquire a badge for about $60 that grants access to all the shows–provided there’s room.

One of the strongest pillars of underground music during the ’90s—and part of the lo-fi holy trinity that also included Pavement and Guided By Voices—Sebadoh put its best foot forward in 1994 with Bakesale, giving frontman Lou Barlow vindication and validation after Dinosaur Jr. booted him five years earlier. With Eric Gaffney no longer part of the songwriting equation—he just plays drums on four tracks here—Barlow and Jason Loewenstein stepped up and delivered a steady stream of classic pensive indie rock and unhinged rockers, and it rightfully catapulted the band into the upper echelon of the ...

Your Highness

Directed by: David Gordon Green

Cast: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux

Plot: In keeping with a centuries old prophecy, the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux) must kidnap the virginal Belladonna (Deschanel) from the dashing Prince Fabious (Franco). Fabious sets out on a quest to rescue his bride-to-be and forces his insecure, laze-about brother Thadeous (McBride) to come along. En route, the two princes meet Isabel (Portman), a femme fatale vigilante out to avenge the death of her kin. The heroes join forces to kill the wizard, save the virgin, and keep the prophecy from coming to fruition.

He Said (Nick Allen) vs. She Said (Morrow McLaughlin)

Morrow (She) gave this month’s medieval comedy Your Highness an 8/10. I (He) would have given the film half that. And once I started talking trash to Morrow via email about her crazy score, it was time...

“Pop for perverts” is how Robert Christgau once described the lo-fi arena-rock of Guided By Voices, a band the venerated rock critic chided for being “too prudish and/or alienated to take their pleasure without a touch of pain.” Gbv has nothing on fellow Ohio outfit Times New Viking when it comes to crafting hooky songs that scrape eardrums raw; this is, after all, the band that supposedly turned in the master recording for 2009’s Born Again Revisited on a VHS tape. But on Dancer Equired, Times New Viking generously forsakes pain when doling out surprisingly sumptuous, big-sounding pop-rock ...

Summer is quickly approaching. While warm weather makes most of us think beach trips, ice cream, and drinking outside, to die-hard music fans, summer means one thing: Festivals. Here's a guide to some of the shows this summer.

April

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2011

Apr 15 - Apr 17, 2011

Indio, California (Empire Polo Grounds)

Line up Highlights: Arcade Fire, Kanye West, the Strokes, Animal Collective, Pj Harvey, the National, Bright Eyes, Robyn, Odd Future, Ariel Pink, Interpol, Cut Copy, Crystal Castles, Lauryn Hill, Sleigh Bells, Cee-Lo, Lightning Bolt, the reunited Big Audio Dynamite and Suede, Duran Duran, Erykah Badu, the Black Keys, Titus Andronicus, Best Coast, the Kills, the New Pornographers,

Official Website

May

Atp Curated by Animal Collective 2011

May 13 - May 15, 2011

Minehead, England (Butlins Holiday Centre)

Line up Highlights: Animal Collective, Gang Gang Dance, Lee Scratch Perry, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Broadcast, Black Dice, Meat Puppets, The Frogs.

Official Website

Sasquatch!

Of all the high profile rock reunions that went down in 2010 (including Soundgarden, Pavement, Faith No More and Guided By Voices), none of them was more low-key than the Strokes. Though they were once declared the saviors of American rock music, the group slouched back into existence after a four year hiatus to very little fanfare. It was somehow appropriate for the quintet, as they have always seemed to shrug off any sort of over-the-top buzz and get to the heart of the matter. While that particular character trait has probably prevented them from becoming a much bigger band, it has also kept them steady and focused on the music. It's probably also why people generally ignored the group's third (and at the moment final) album First Impressions of Earth, which was released on this day in 2006.

Thanks to a growing interest in other musical genres and the influence of...

When Guided By Voices and Pavement ran classic rock through a noisy, fucked-up filter in the early ’90s, it seemed like a statement against artists emulating their heroes too slavishly. Who could’ve guessed that lo-fi would itself become a form of classic rock feverishly studied by young pups like Seattle trio Idle Times? The clipped guitars, cardboard-box drums, and caterwauling vocals of “There You Go” sound less like happy accidents than like carefully conceived aesthetic choices inspired by countless prime-era four-track recordings. At least Idle Times can boast more than just a tinny, treble-heavy mix—the melodies hit almost ...

New York (AP) — MySpace is planning to live stream the three-day anniversary celebration of the indie label Matador Records. MySpace Music announced Monday that it will webcast much of "Matador 21: The Lost Weekend." The festival is taking place this weekend at the Palms Desert Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The concerts are to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Matador Records. Among the most anticipated shows at the event is a performance by the reunited band Guided By Voices. Also performing — and being streamed on MySpace — are Pavement, Spoon, Liz Phair and the New Pornographers. Copyright (2010)...

Robert Pollard’s recent promise to release five albums in 10 months was slightly ominous. The last two solo albums from the Guided By Voices frontman were dozy, crunchy affairs; Circus Devils’ stabs at spooky psychedelia have been touch-and-go; and Boston Spaceships—the collaboration with former Gbv’er and Takeovers multi-instrumentalist Chris Slusarenko and The Decemberists’ John Moen—still had some proving to do, even though the group’s latest albums were bristly enough to scrub off any lingering traces of Brown Submarine’s gunk. But Uncle Bob had the right idea when he promoted The Spaceships from one of ...

Stumbling down memory lane It’s been roughly two decades since the debut of Superchunk, Built to Spill, et al., but Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin nimbly carries their post-punk torch on their hook-laden third studio LP. Let It Sway is a feast of musical comfort food for the nostalgia-tripping slacker-chic children of the ’90s. Title track and lead single “Sink/Let It Sway” thrums and pops like vintage Guided By Voices, and “Banned (By the Man)” may as well be “Teenage FBI, Part 2,” including the muted guitar tones and pinched-throat vocals. The rest of the album slides downhill,...

When we learned that the ‘93-’96 line-up of Guided by Voices would be performing at Matador’s 21st birthday party in Las Vegas, we used no fewer than five exclamation points to break the news. Using this five-to-one rationale, we’d need 85 pointed punctuation marks for this announcement: Guided By Voices is embarking on a full-fledged, 16-date reunion tour this fall (plus a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)....