11.15.2011

The gift of Los Campesinos! has always been pairing bleak, biting lyrics with catchy, upbeat melodies. Strings swell and the glockenspiels twinkle with exuberance behind words both vitriolic and...

It took Twilight to get Jennifer O’Connor back in the studio. The Florida-born, New York-based indie folksinger had been dropped by her label and had considered giving up on music when she was invited...

Hometown: Los AngelesMembers: Christian Zucconi (vocals/guitars), Hannah Hooper (vocals/keyboards), Andrew Wessen (guitars), Sean Gadd (bass), Ryan Rabin (drums)Album: Never Trust a Happy SongFor Fans...

After launching the first beta issue of Paste’s online magazine five months ago, we celebrate the release of the 20th issue today. To put that in perspective, it took four years for the print magazine...

As people, Tegan and Sara Quin, seem to be well-adjusted or simply considerate to the inequity of the human heart. They seem to be cheerful—if self-deprecating on occasion, ribbing themselves about...

On his last two albums, Sam Beam, the genius behind the folk band Iron & Wine, has introduced noise. Contrary to the first half of his career, when many songs contained vocals, a guitar and little...

Man, why does every black actor have to rap some? / I don’t know – all I know is I’m the best one Those lines from Childish Gambino’s “Bonfire,” the first single off of his first release on Glassnote,...

The attractive members of U.K. duo Summer Camp are precocious, but not overly precious—that is, their boy-girl harmonies and synth-pop innocence are less grating than one might assume. In fact, Summer...

To call John Dwyer prolific is a bit like calling The Beatles “like the best band ever.” It’s been said before. But regardless of the statement’s lack of originality, it isn’t any less accurate or...

“I was born in a cloud,” sighs art-rock sorceress Kate Bush on her mesmerizing 10th studio album. “Cloud-like” is a fairly fitting adjective for 50 Words of Snow, which blooms into your headphones...

Freeclouds shows Carter Tanton exploring his sound on his debut solo album, but the varied approaches don’t stem from indecisiveness so much as from a wealth of ideas. Since his previous band Tulsa...

The title would be a great joke about typical anthology bullshit, if it was actually a joke. The problem is R.E.M.’s career contains more than two discs worth of truth and heart—know many bands with...

Take Shelter, the new film by Jeff Nichols, opens with an ominous dream. Though the exact cause of the threat is veiled, its manifestations are not—the wind blows, a massive storm front approaches and...

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black follows up his Oscar-winning script for Milk, the profile of the short-lived, openly gay California politician, with a companion piece of sorts: a biopic of Milk’s...

Into the Abyss, the latest work from acclaimed documentarian Werner Herzog, lives up to its weighty title. The captivating film takes us into the endless depths of the human soul as it explores life,...

“‘Yeah, but you’ve got to kill Bono!’ chuckled Bono. This notion seemed to amuse him greatly. ‘That’s it! You’ve got to kill me,’ he laughed. ‘It’s for your own good! And mine!’” —Neil McCormick,...

If you talk to someone that’s been to a Sigur Rós show, they’ll probably say it was an experience that either was, or had potential to be, nearly religious. Yeah, their albums are beautiful, and their...

The kind of people who would buy a Tegan and Sara DVD are probably already unswayable in their opinion that they are going to like it. Seriously, it could be two hours of the twins shopping for...

The cold opening to this week’s Up All Night features Reagan and Chris making out numerous times, but always getting interrupted by a crying Amy. They decided tonight’s the night to have sex, but...

Unfortunately, there’s no Chupacabra in this week’s deceptively titled episode of The Walking Dead. But mythical goat-sucking creatures aside, since it does start with a flashback, let’s play the...

Last week I predicted that the next episode of How I Met Your Mother would be one of the most important episodes not only of this season, but of the entire series. The Ted-Robin-Barney triangle has...

“Studies in Modern Movement” was one of those episodes that helps illustrate how much Community can do within the old-fashioned sitcom format. The episode centers around Annie moving apartments, and...

At its best, Boardwalk Empire feels like there are so many conspiracies and machinations going on that all of the cogs required to keep Atlantic City’s machine of vice running are out of control....

This week, The League dropped back-to-back episodes as the season inches closer towards the Super Bowl and the finale, and all the usual lineup mainstays were there: Kevin reaching new levels of...

Junk JackPlatform: iOSDeveloper: PixbitsPublisher: PixbitsRelease Date: Nov. 7Price: $2.99 Minecraft clones and lookalikes have been popping up all over the indie gaming world ever since the open...

Dennis Cooper’s fictional world is a treacherous slope of time-shifting narratives and secret mental passageways, designed to seduce and then ensnare readers. Groping around his existential darkness...

Donald Glover seems to have made it his personal mission to permeate every form of popular culture imaginable. From his humble beginnings with internet-based comedy troupe Derrick Comedy, Glover has...

Watch Thee Oh Sees perform ten songs during their 2009 Noise Pop Set at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco,...

On his latest album, White Wilderness, John Vanderslice’s soft, high-pitched croon was surrounded by a 20-person orchestra, lending the music a transcendent quality that lifted it from the veteran...

Atlanta orch-pop ensemble Oryx and Crake found a sweet spot through their combination of traditional pop songwriting, orchestral arrangements and sound-design techniques back in August 2010 when they...

Laura Gibson’s forthcoming album La Grande draws its name from a northeastern Oregon town where she wrote this collection of songs. Gibson, a native Oregonian, found that La Grande inspired her,...

Watch psychedelic-rock pioneer Roky Erickson perform his classic 13th Floor Elevators song “You’re Gonna Miss Me” at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco,...