It was not for nothing that Bluebrain ended up in our Best of D.C. issue: Inspired by the New York avant-garde composter composer Phil Kline, the participatory boombox performance the duo staged in Dupont Circle last year—a 40-minute work for several dozen cassettes—was arresting and perfectly chaotic; the debut album Bluebrain dropped in February, meanwhile, [...]

Hello! Pazz & Jop! The annual critics' poll organized by the Village Voice went online yesterday, and nothing about the main lists should surprise you: Animal Collective and Phoenix topped the albums list; Jay-Z (and Animal Collective and Phoenix) topped the single list. A number of City Paper staffers and contributers submitted Pazz & Jop ballots. [...]

Good morning! Looks like Jay Leno's moving back to 11:35 p.m.—possibly in a half-hour show. What does that means for Conan O'Brien, Leno's Tonight Show replacement? Who knows? But O'Brien can't possibly be happy.
- Local rapper Don Juan is live—right now.
- The Smithsonian had 30 million visits in 2009, the Washington Post reports.
- City Paper contributor [...]

When Space Tigers spoke with Washington City Paper in July, the band was all giggles—understandable, really, given that its music spills over with childish glee. The group makes stripped-down art folk that could come from another dimension, the sort of playful, repetitive songs that Animal Collective wrote before its ambitions ballooned to underwater-amphitheater scale. At times, [...]

Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Domino
I'm pretty sure I tried to call Merriweather Post Pavilion "Record of the year" back in January, when I reviewed it, but City Paper managing editor Andrew Beaujon argued that this statement might be a tad premature, given that '09 still had 11 months left to go. But here we are in [...]

After reading my critique of Pitchfork’s P2K: The Decade in Music list in City Paper's Music in Review issue, a friend commented that “sometimes I don't know what's more cliché: reading Pitchfork or complaining about Pitchfork.” Reductionist arguments like that are easy swipes, but they speak to the incessant griping, legitimate or [...]

Music fans paid close attention when the influential review Web site Pitchfork dropped its P2K: The Decade in Music list this August. But readers shouldn't put too much stock in it, writes Matt Siblo in our Music in Review issue. The list, he says, merely reaffirms the site's clout and critical authority:
A glance at the [...]

Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City is one of the best books of the year. So sayeth me; so sayeth the sage critterpoos at the New York Times, who include Lethem's eighth novel in their holiday gift guide. (Speaking of guides, check out ours!) While a good friend of mine alleges that Chronic City, which is about [...]

Elvis Costello: "The Crooked Line"
It's hard to tell what's more shocking here: the twangy vibe, or the fact that Elvis Costello is singing about love without sounding poisonous and bitter. "The Crooked Line," snatched from his upcoming record Secret, Profane, & Sucarcane, finds Costello going full-on country for the first time since King of America [...]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Zero (Animal Collective Remix)"
Animal Collective takes a whack at Yeah Yeah Yeah’s latest single and, surprise, it’s out with the synthesizer and in with the rainstick. Strangely enough, it works: The remix strays so far from Yeah Yeah Yeah’s original vision that it takes on a new, Discovery Store-approved, life of its [...]