2.22.2012

“I’m just really sick of being cryptic about the impetus of things,” says Chris Thile, mandolin virtuoso and frontman for the head-turning progressive bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers. He speaks with...

Everybody has their favorite old song, the one that still commands their attention and affection even after hearing it a million times on the radio. For Trent Dabbs and Amy Stroup, who make up the...

Hometown: San FranciscoAlbum: BHIMANFor Fans of: Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Steve Winwood “It’s very much about the characters,” reflects San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Bhi Bhiman. “It’s not...

I love books about people getting wasted, so I sat down to write my own. My aim was for it to be funny, haunted, and strange, not a tale of he-man debauchery. I was shooting for black comedy. My...

It’s easy to be skeptical about the PlayStation Vita. “Vita” means life, which is an optimistic name for Sony’s new handheld gaming system. You don’t need to crunch any numbers to see how smartphones...

I try to go to Louisiana at least once a year—either for Mardi Gras or Jazzfest. On the years that I opt for Mardi Gras, my fellow music obsessives are always aghast. “How can you give up all that...

We catch ourselves feeling our head shake fairly often. We will just be sitting there, awake and watching, seeing or hearing something and we think aloud or internally, “What the fuck is going on? I...

As a member of the Wolfgang’s Vault family, Paste has access to a rich archive of historic audio interviews from a variety of sources. Many of these interviews have never existed in text form. Our new...

The shrieking, granular distortion that earmarked Sleigh Bells’ 2010 debut Treats was a novelty of such alarm that even those of us who hailed it as a relief that new noises could still be squeezed...

The Chieftains operate under the idea that most American popular music descends from Irish traditions brought across the Atlantic by generations of immigrants, up to and including the band members...

Cursive’s always been a band rooted in concepts that were bigger than any of their single songs. It started in 2000 with Domestica, a divorce-inspired concept album that had bitter, convincing lines...

For her second solo album, this one without the Outs, Frankie Rose seems to be reintroducing herself to the world. No longer just a musician who’s played with Crystal Stilts and various Girls (Vivian,...

Far more immaculate than illicit. As charged with ritual significance and promise as the basic art form may be, it’s actually hard to find good modern blues records. Cheap production values with too...

Despite being a mainstay on the New York folk scene in the early 1960s and a friend of Bob Dylan, Fred Neil and Tim Hardin, Karen Dalton didn’t leave an extensive catalog of music. In her lifetime,...

Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival, the second feature film from filmmaker Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) is a quiet, mature and beautifully shot coming-of...

In an industry where animation has begun to all look and feel the same—thanks partly to the standard set by Pixar—The Secret World of Arrietty arrives...

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, a reviewer on the stuck-in-limbo PBS show Ebert Presents At the Movies, stated on one of the last episodes that with film, context is everything. What one knows about a...

The one animated feature nominated for an Academy Award this year that does not center on an animal and is decidedly not for kids is Chico & Rita, a Spanish-language collaboration between Fernando...

For the first time in a long time Up All Night failed to impress on such a high level. Sure, there were laughs here and there, but it just didn’t do anything special. Guest star Alanis Morissette, who...

In last week’s disappointing episode, “Drift Problem,” Archer experienced its first bump in an otherwise great third season. But Archer more than makes up for that with “Lo Scandalo,” an episode that...

This week’s Modern Family focused on the issue of surrogate mothers vs. adoption for gay parents. Thankfully, the episode didn’t fall into the trappings of A Very Special Blossom… or an after-school...

For New Girl, Valentine’s Day represents change. Jess wants to have a one-night stand since it has been a while since she has spent Feb. 14 alone. Nick and Julia, two people who have never cared about...

The return of Louis C.K.‘s character Dave helps Parks and Recreaction’s world feel more real, more cohesive and continuous in a way that I’ve been writing a lot about for the past few weeks. It’s...

In last week’s return of The Walking Dead, we learned a little more about the fate of the rest of the country: Ft. Benning is overrun with zombies. D.C. is as bad as Atlanta. And rumors remain about...

Kenny “La Flama Blanca” Powers returns in the third season premiere.Yesterday I explained why everybody should be watching Eastbound & Down. Tonight’s season three premiere is a strong start to what...

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant didn’t create cringe comedy, but with the original Office they might have perfected it. The two return to America with Life’s Too Short, their third live action...

One strongly recurring theme (or a constant — after all, I haven’t seen every series yet) of characters in HBO shows is that their character arcs have downward trajectories. They enter the series...

Wait, so Ivy really didn’t realize she got the role of Marilyn because she slept with the director? Of course that’s the reason she edged out Karen for the role. Her daftness is also one of the many,...

After Ted told Robin he loves her in last week’s episode I think we all groaned out loud in fear that How I Met Your Mother was going down that path again. But then I reminded everyone that the show...

This week’s episode of Portlandia opens with a hippie gathering in a field, set to the sounds of Joanna Newsom strumming the harp and Fleet Foxes lead singer Robin Pecknold joining Carrie Brownstein,...

This week’s episode of Alcatraz, “Johnny McKee” doesn’t start off with a bang like the rest have. We start with Dr. Banerjee still in a coma and Dr. Beauregard suggesting that Hauser read her a story....

Capcom took a weird turn when marketing Resident Evil: Revelations.“Classic survival horror returns!” they proclaimed, wheeling out trailers and a...

Oil Rush is a counter-argument to the idea that real-time strategy games don’t have enough strategy. It attempts to simplify the style by slightly relaxing player control and adding in tower defense...

While Astronautalis (née Charles Andrew Bothwell) may not be a household name yet, it’ll only be a matter of time before his clever lyrics, impeccable flow and high-energy performances catch on with a...

Chicago-based piano rockers Santah originally played their around their hometown area simply as “Santa.” They didn’t add the ‘h’ until recording commenced, deciding it’d be best to blatantly...

The Lighthouse and the Whaler—it’s a Cleveland, Ohio band that was inspired by the epic theme of Moby Dick. The group was started by Michael LoPresti...

Rubblebucket will release a CD/DVD package for a live performance titled Live in Chicago this March. The concert was filmed at Chicago’s Double Door during one of the band’s longest tours. The live...

“Even though I had a name and a platinum-selling record in Mexico or whatever, coming here you start from scratch basically,” Ximena Sariñana told us last summer. “It was like having to prove myself...

If there is one band in the history of British culture that reeks of controversy and influence, it’s the Sex Pistols. Despite their short lifespan, punk music is still reeling from the impact of this...