The deal:

It’s possible that over the past several weeks you’ve noticed the reviews slow to a trickle around these parts. We had our reasons! Cookies weren’t involved! Okay, maybe they were! All of us at Tripwire HQ are pleased to introduce to you today a new chapter in our “take” on music criticism—by handing over the keys. Starting this week and every Tuesday hereafter, we’ll be posting a full album stream through our friends over at LaLa. What we’d like you to do is lend us your brainwaves and tweet whatever crosses your mind while listening. Maybe there’s a riff you can’t get out of your head. A lyric? A moment? An image? If you’re feeling ambitious, spend your 124 characters reviewing the record as a whole. Just toss those tweets over to us at @thetripwire and by the end of the week, we’ll cobble together and share the beautiful mess of a madlib it creates. Or, if you’re a complete Luddite/TwitterHater, you can just leave a review in the comments section. We’re flexible. You’re the boss now.

After releasing a string of fantastic singles, New Jersey lo-fi standouts Real Estate have just debuted their first proper full-length. See why we think it rules and then see if you agree.

When The Swell Season played LA’s Wiltern Theater Wednesday night, Apatow acolyte and our favorite lug Jason Segel, took over the piano bench for a song he penned himself. After watching a few dozen times, we’d be down for a “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” sequel right now—much more so than that Russell Brand-Jonah Hill spin-off currently in production anyway. Way better vampire jams than those flying into theaters today, no doubt.

Story by Adam Daniels

Photography by Dorothy Hong

“Do you need a drink?”
”Yes, I need four double whiskeys and four PBRs.”

It was Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s record release show at Williamsburg’s Union Pool one year ago, and while he was among a roomful of friends, he was not at ease. Robinson’s former fiancé obliged the request, assuming it was on behalf of the entire band. This was not the case.

Robinson wasn’t a household name in indie rock at the time. But he had a lot of the pieces in place to be one. He had all but conquered Brooklyn through marathon-style touring. There was a close-up of his mug on the cover of FADER magazine, and a camera crew from SPIN was at the record release show waiting to document the event. What transpired after those four double whiskeys could only adequately be described as a shitshow.

He spilled beer on equipment. He picked a fight with a heckler who called him out for singing his songs not all like they appeared on the album, insisting on dedicating every subsequent song to him thereafter. Robinson blacked out just before the third song. This was the beginning of the end of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. And the funny thing is, if it wasn’t for the occasion, that particular evening at Union Pool would have only qualified as a mere footnote in his story.

The scene is a giant, rock n’ roll cliché. No one knows this more than Robinson. He practically grew up on them, an ardent student of rock biographies while coming of age in Portland. One of the first things Robinson mentions when explaining the issue with the way his own story has been written thus far was the way one of his musical idols created part of his own mythology. “Kurt Cobain never really lived under a bridge you know,” he says. “He made that up himself.”

Cobain and the muddy distortion of 90s alt rock represent just one half of the tones that show up in his music today. The relationship that much more directly spawned Robinson’s just-released second album, Summer Of Fear, was his love affair with classic rock. A heady homage to the golden sounds of Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac, it’s also a record in which Robinson might have created the youngest divorce rock album ever, devoting much time to the struggles and eventual failure of his engagement to his former fiancé and girlfriend of six years.

But the divorce theme is rarely all that direct in Robinson’s lyrics. Rather, it’s underlying layer of melancholy that tugs at the album’s narrator as he tells various stories. By way of his eponymous self-titled debut, these stories filled the bar last summer in Williamsburg, songs he’d fleshed out while befriending near half the bartenders of North Brooklyn, diving headlong into piles of drugs, sleeping in parks, and wrestling with a heavy brand of cynicism as handed down by his stand-up comedian father. These things came together through Robinson’s compulsive addiction to songwriting, a gift in which a lot of people saw a lot of potential. One such song was “Buriedfed,” a folk explosion similar to Robinson’s relationship with music as a whole: part link to the demons in his own life and part introduction to a string of characters and the way they cope with their own mortality, depression and simple daily existence. The song served as the closest thing to Robinson’s autobiographical introduction. Interestingly, a line from that song more closely resembled the crowd at Union Pool’s introduction to Robinson that night. “Didn’t like people much at all, tasted better with alcohol, you know how that one goes,” he states. That’s who he was that night: the asshole that baited the crowd to call him on it while he used alcohol to cope with expectations. It resulted in a theatrical breakdown. But that breakdown was part of a self-destruct mission Robinson had been stumbling to almost the entire time he’d lived in New York.

By age 16, Robinson felt compelled to move to the city. At 17, his acceptance to NYU made this a reality. At that point, his idea of the city was carved out much more by those same rock biographies.

“I was reading (Legs McNeil’s) “Please Kill Me” and all this stuff about ’70s New York and you know like Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, The Ramones, just like really sort of wanting to bask in that,” Robinson remembers. “Not even really understanding that New York in the ’90s and 2000 was going to be a very, very different place. I think I literally still thought it was going to be like 1979 when I got here.” But the punk scenes of ’70s era New York are little more than legends whose visual cues had been replaced by condos and food chains by the time Robinson moved in 2000. However, the New York City Robinson stumbled upon had its own bubbling scene.

Within weeks, Robinson found himself in attendance at some of the very first Strokes shows. So while the New York scene Robinson envisioned may not have existed, luck and timing gave him a front seat to the first relevant one in rock n’ roll the city had seen since.”I just had like a very zeitgeist-y kind of a, experience, the whole time I’ve been here,” he says.

A few years later he would happen upon a sort of invitation to the city’s next cultural vanguard: the indie music scene developing in and around Williamsburg. On his way to a Grizzly Bear show he stopped in a thrift store and ended up running into and befriending TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone. They went to the show together, and within a few months he was hanging out with not only Kyp, but the band they had paid to see. Eventually, both would play a vital role in Robinson’s music, initially helping turn his tales and words into actual musical landscapes and then more literally with Kyp on the production side and the Grizzly Bear guys backing him instrumentally.

But even while all this was going on, Robinson lived day-to-day life in a state of near-depression, seeming almost un-phased by the encouraging signs in both his musical and personal life. “I treat good things the way other people treat traumas,” he says. “I kind of push them down and try to get over it, you know?” Throughout his time at NYU, Robinson worked and played as hard as he could. Though he ignored class, he wrote songs and dove into pools of drugs and alcohol with equal abandon. He did it all with youthful abandon, albeit with a much larger arc in mind. Romantic only by rock ‘n roll standards, it was encapsulated further by one pivotal chapter in Robinson’s life and legend: a summer of near-homelessness, carrying a duffle bag and a guitar around while rotating between friends’ couches and strung out nights in Washington Square Park and on Coney Island benches. He likens this much more to being a bit of a troubadour than any sort of dire circumstances, but he also admits he “was getting pretty fucked up all the time then, too.”

But eventually, that all changed. “I went back (to school), ended meeting somebody who sort of helped me get cleaned up and stuff,” he says. That someone was his eventual fiancé. Soon after meeting and falling in love, the two found an apartment in Williamsburg. For a moment, he was on the verge of feeling like he had it all figured out before 25, on the verge of letting himself be happy for a bit without overthinking it.

And then it all fell apart: his relationship and in turn his sobriety. Everything he thought he’d figured out was called into question. Out of this was born Summer Of Fear: a celebration of relapse, depressions and reaffirmed self-doubt.

The concept of Summer of Fear actually began as a screenplay, a running joke between Robinson and friend Christopher Bear, drummer for Grizzly Bear, in which the questionable choices they made each night could be written off as part of a movie rather than some reality rife with consequence. However, somewhat ironically, it is this album born out of the clichés, born out of making yourself a character in your own life, that has the opportunity to finally separate Robinson from his own. It is this album that charts out the personal failures that gave Robinson a second chance to play an active role in his own successes.

Whatever comes next, the Robinson that looks back at you on stage these days is an entirely different creature than the one that created a spectacle that night at Union Pool. While Robinson admits he still knows a few too many bartenders, he no longer drinks at his shows. Headlining a CMJ showcase concert at Le Poisson Rouge the same week Summer Of Fear was released, Robinson could barely get a big goofy grin off his face long enough to look properly solemn to sing about self destruction. He played off of his band, played on his back in three feet of the ground. There’s no denying that he was having fun on stage, a notion even he seemed surprised by when he noted, a few songs in, that he was taking a sip of beer for the first time that night.

This man much more closely resembled the one you imagine when you hear his cries and wails on the first record, a man who despite the demons living in his closet is absolutely at peace within music. The more you talk to him the more you realize this may be the only place he is truly at peace.  And while his music seems almost painfully tied to these demons, maybe the fact that he can now own them on stage is but one triumph. Whatever it has become, it’s forcing the world that already knew him to break the box that contained Robinson before.

Regardless, for now Robinson will go out and relentlessly tour behind an album that champions his own failures and past misadventures. If he can make it through the experience, it might even let his music finally catch up to him. For years now, he’s been singing about traumas that have been replaced over so many times in his life they feel like reopening old scars. But who knows, maybe this time next year Robinson will be testing out some happy songs. Whatever those would sound like. The “Ocean’s 11” line he supplied un-ironically to sum up his day-to-day existence makes it seem like he might slowly be coming around on his own story, one he’s chosen to retell in the third person every night on stage.

“Are you suicidal?”

“Only in the mornings.”

The Pixies are currently in the throes of the North American leg of their Doolittle tour, a wormhole of a trek we’ve been quick to spill much digi-ink over in these parts recently. Via an e-mail from the band’s publicist, we’ve just learned that the band will sandwich in an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon next week when they come to New York for four sold-out nights at Hammerstein Ballroom. So if watching Fallon get goofy is your thing, check your DVR of tonight’s show come tomorrow morning. He’s planning to announce the following: while The Pixies will be kicking things off with “Debaser,” fans/you guys now have the opportunity to choose their Doolittle second jam via Twitter. Fire those in Fallon’s direction (@jimmyfallon) and maybe make it “Hey.” Just an idea.

In just a few days, on November 23rd, there will be a new Animal Collective release upon us. And although we’ve only heard snippets of the Fall Be Kind EP in all it’s polyphonic glory, we’d like to think that the sparkle and carnival whirring of “Graze” is a good indicator that nothing—save for maybe Bob Dylan’s psychotic new Christmas album—is going to able get that sucker out of our hi-fi until the holidays have finally wound down. Check it out above. (via Stereogum)

What do you think the chances are that Robert Pattinson wooed Kristen Stewart with a Bon Iver-powered mixtape? Or wait. MAYBE IT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND, YOU GUYS.

Pre-enhancement/leak.

On Monday morning, we reported that pop seamstress Amy Winehouse had taken a quick trip to the hospital after an unfortunate collision between some cold and prescription medications she was taking at the time. Amy’s outspoken father Mitch Winehouse, who has already been quite vocal about his enthusiasm for his daughter’s recent breast enhancements, revealed via his television program that the hospital visit was needed to remedy a leak in said breasts instead. “It wasn’t because she had a cold.” he said. “She’s fine, she just had a little (Mitch points to his chest) leaky something or other.” (via MTV UK)

For their punked-out new single “Cousins,” the men of Vampy Weeks shot an equally frenetic clip in a city alley. The Garth Jennings-directed clip is above, the single’s out digitally right now and on vinyl December 7th courtesy of XL. And oh yeah, not sure if you knew this, but their sophomore full-length, Contra, is out January 20th. Stay tuned until tomorrow for yet another update on the Road To The Next Vampire Weekend Record.

Recently reunited grunge godfathers Alice in Chains have been making a go at the Billboard charts in the past few weeks behind their new album Black Gives Way To Blue, the comeback effort entering at No. 5 when it dropped a few weeks back. Though they’re headbanging their way through Europe (check their Jools Holland appearance above) at the moment, they’ve just announced lengthy trek through North American venues in coming months. See a complete list of dates below.

11.20 Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix Zaal
11.21 Wiesbaden, Germany @ Schlachthof
11.23 Dortmund, Germany @ FZW
11.24 Prague, Czech Rep. @ Lucerna
11.25 Warsaw, Poland @ Stodola
11.27 Budapest, Hungary @ Petofi Csarnok
11.29 Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer
12.30 Munich, Germany @ Thearterfabrick
12.02 Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
12.03 Fribourg, Switzerland @ Fri-Son
12.04 Paris, France @ Bataclan
12.06 Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
12.07 London, UK @ Brixton Academy
12.11 Las Vegas, NV @ The Joint (KXTE radio show)
02.12 Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheatre (KROQ Acoustic Xmas)
02.02 Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre
02.04 Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
02.06 Salem, OR @ Salem Armory
02.11 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre
02.17 Phoenix, AZ @ Dodge Theatre
02.19 Denver, CO @ Fillmore
02.21 Kansas City, MO @ Midland
02.22 St. Louis, MO @ Pageant
02.23 Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace
02.25 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
02.27 Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues
03.01 Nashville, TN @ Municipal Auditorium
03.02 Charlotte, NC @ Fillmore
03.03 Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall
03.05 Richmond, VA @ The National
03.06 Mashantucket, CT @ Foxwoods
03.08 New York, NY @ Terminal 5
03.12 Atlantic, City, NJ @ Borgata
03.13 Philadelphia, PA @ Tower Theatre
03.14 Boston, MA @ Orpheum
03.16 Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
03.17 Toronto, ONT @ Sound Academy
03.19 Detroit, MI @ Fillmore State Theatre
03.20 Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
03.21 St. Paul, MN @ Roy Wilkens Auditorium

You may remember reading about the Twitter-riffic dissolution of Jay Reatard’s band a few weeks back or even about the time he asked the Cola Freaks to join him shortly after that. Though we heard whispers about this in a bar late last week but were quickly distracted by a beer, Pitchfork reported yesterday that Wavves’ Nathan Williams has recently adopted a new backing band: bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes, formerly the rhythm section behind Reatard. Please note: these two are not to be confused with members of Reatard’s earlier band The Reatards. They are however, featured prominently in audiovisual evidence up top, a recent YouTube clip of the new three-piece shaking the stage at a recent show in Mexico City.

The vacancy in Williams’ lineup came as former drummer/wild man Zach Hill mangled his hand while playing drums recently. If you’ve ever seen dude hit a drum, that should make some sense. From his mouth to your brain:

so last week in los angeles at wavves practice i somehow mangled/broke/exploded my left hand while playing drums.it was immediately apparent that my injury was a little serious. after stopping practice i was unable to make a fist and my lacerations wouldnt stop bleeding. i visited a clinic and found i had two small fractures. one to the knuckles and one on my pointer finger plus some tweaked ligaments(unable to grip). this isnt a first for me but unfortunately the timing of its forced me to NOT be joining nate on the upcoming european wavves tour. bummer! the entire wavves tour will still go down as scheduled with some friends filling in and backing nate. they’re gonna handle it! hit up the shows! on the upside i should be straight in the hands within a few weeks and will be spending this period working on the new marnie stern album and finishing up my next solo release etc,etc,etc! PEACY P

Photography by Stacey Fuller
Haiku by Andy Cohn

john rocks the beacon
Guitar face in full effect
Had his own napkins

In an interview that went live on New York Magazine’s Vulture blog late yesterday, film director (and Tripwire fave) David Lynch revealed that his next project will be a documentary-style look at famed guru Maharishi Mahesh. If for whatever reason you describe yourself as Beatles-obsessed, that name may already ring many bells: the now deceased Mahesh gained renown in the 60s as many Western musicians, namely the Fab Four, attended his meditation courses in Rishikesh, holy city to the Hindus and Indian gateway to the Himalayas. Lynch says he’s planning on beginning production next month, though according to NME, has not confirmed the inclusion of any of the surviving Beatles. The filmmaker, who has recently been campaigning for the introduction of meditation in schools “worldwide,” did however promise the project will “hold a lot of abstractions.”

Having been strapped pretty tightly to our seats during the King Khan and BBQ’d Shrooms saga this week, we ‘d feel remiss if we didn’t inform you of the band’s recent statement, one they issued just after the cancelation of shows in St. Louis and Lawrence, Kansas. And oh yeah, after they bumped heads with law enforcement in Kentucky over some hallucinogenic contraband.

On November 16, 2009 Kristin Klein entered a guilty plea to 2nd degree possession of a controlled substance in Christian County, Kentucky. Ms Klein was driving a rental vehicle that was randomly stopped at a safety checkpoint. Officers located a controlled substance in the cab of the vehicle. Ms Klein was unaware of the contraband and the validity of her license was indeterminable at time of arrest. Under KY law a driver of a vehicle is responsible for its contents. Therefore, Ms Klein entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to appear on April 2, 2010 to provide proof of her valid license.

King Khan & BBQ Show are driving through the night to make their Los Angeles show at Troubadour tomorrow. Tonight’s show in Phoenix is cancelled, but all further west coast dates and will to be honored. Kristin Klein is safe with the band and continuing her tenure as tour manager.

Via the band’s website, Anton Newcombe’s BJM vehicle has announced a date for the forthcoming New Year’s Day release of Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? Judging by that title, it will probably sound like something you’ve already heard before, as fetishized, reheated and filtered through the braincanals of well, Newcombe. Take that as you will. Streaming for the moment as well is “Tempo 116.7 (Reaching for Dangerous Levels of Sobriety)” a forgettable cut from their Smoking Acid EP, one that somehow escaped our radar this year.

We posted a now defunct Vanity Fair video yesterday in which those dirty dogs in Vampire Weekend gave you a piece of their worldview. Though we’ve already shared some 4,457 Vampy Weeks tour dates with you in the past few weeks, we feel obliged to also inform you that the band will be performing the West Coast holiday show circuit next month in addition to a free show in Sydney next week AND a slew of shows in their native New York around the January 10 release of their deliriously excellent new LP, Contra. People can call them classists or say their music is wussy, but you’d have to be a Class A bonehead to suggest these dudes don’t grind. Cover art above, tour dates below.

11.23 Sydney, Australia @ Notes on Enmore

12.10 Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom (94.7FM “A December To Remember” concert series)
12.11 Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena (Live 105 “Not So Silent Night 2009”)
12.12 La Jolla, CA @ RIMAC Arena/UC San Diego (FM949 “Holiday Hootenanny”)
12.13 Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheater (KROQ “Acoustic Christmas)
12.15 Seattle, WA @ WaMu Theater (KNDD The End’s “Deck The Hall Ball ‘09”)

01.12 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theater
01.17 New York, NY United Palace Theater
01.18 New York, NY Webster Hall
01.19 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom

The men of Vampire Weekend sat down recently with whom we can only presume was a cameraperson and an interviewer (just a guess!), tackling questions of great existential and philosophical weight in Vanity Fair’s “Proust Questionnaire.” Their new album Contra drops January 12th. They’re touring like wild men. And they are, as we’ve known and the above video further suggests, very thoughtful.

Behind their latest and greatest, Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo are currently winding their way through nearly every European city you’re currently daydreaming about. When they’re done smelling the flowers over there, they’re planning on playing some more dates in Japan, perhaps another spot more glamorous then the desk chair to which you/we’re glued. Life is tough. And while that tour may be massive and cosmopolitan, it does overlook a cities in Middle America still thirsting to hear new Yo La Tengo songs stretched out in a live setting. So that’s where they’re going come January, at which point they’ll head off on a tour down the center of our country and, in an even more thoughtful move, play shows that’ll require no additional surcharges when you buy a ticket at local record stores of their choosing. You can get all additional info here as well as see that aforementioned stretch of European and Japanese dates here.

Yo La Tengo Tour The Heartland:

01.22 Pontiac MI @ Crofoot Ballroom
01.23 Madison, WI @ Barrymore Theatre
01.24 St Louis, MO @The Pageant
01.26 Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theatre
01.28 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
01.29 Austin, TX @ Antone’s
01.30 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre

NME is reporting that one-time chanteuse Amy Winehouse was hospitalized last night in London after some cold medicine she was taking interacted harshly with prescription medication she’s currently using for her “recovery,” that which a source told the Daily Mirror she is expected to make in full. No official word yet on whether her career might do the same! Zing! Sorry. No seriously, it’s early and that was a little too corny. Get well soon, Amy.

It’s also a little bit insane. But then again, that’s one of the simpler ways of explaining one’s love for Animal Collective. Dave “Avey Tare” Portner’s sister Abby Portner did the directing honors and she hit this one out of the park, maybe the atmosphere. It’s warm, it’s playful, it’s great. Check it out for yourself above.

Just kidding, Soft Packers! We’ll be dropping a White Denim feature on your shiny heads sometime in the near future, a 4900 word treatise on why they might just be the third best rock ‘n roll band on American soil right now. Before that story starts flashing on our homepage, treat yourself to the snappy new video for single “I Start To Run.” Their new full-length, Fits, is out right now courtesy of Downtown.

In a press junket video interview with Pop Sugar, perpetually tousled heartthrob Robert Pattinson did the unthinkable: he smoldered. Just kidding! He always does that! When asked just before the 1:40 mark if he’s got a favorite song on his new Twilight film’s soundtrack, he goes with “Roslyn,” the Bon Iver-St. Vincent collaboration/heartbreaker you can stream below if you’d like. We swoon.

Photo: Fabio Lovino

Liverpudlians rejoice. Remember that Liverpool Echo Arena show Moz abruptly/rightfully walked out on after being struck in the head with a flying cup of beer the other day? It’s in the process of being rescheduled! According to NME, the concert’s promoters are working overtime to put things back together again. “Event organisers are working with the artists representatives to explore all ways of restaging the abandoned concert,” the statement says. “Everyone involved in the show is deeply upset that the actions of one individual have spoiled the evening for the thousands of genuine fans and for Morrissey himself.

We’ve made no secret of our affections for San Francisco pop duo Girls over the past few months, their self-titled debut lodged in our hi-fi at the moment. They just announced some brand new dates for the forthcoming new year/decade via the Matablog, a string of winter shows that has them wandering into the Midwest before turning and heading straight home to California where the weather’s more forgiving that time of year.

Tour dates:

11.12 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
11.13 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
11.14 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
11.17 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
11.18 Portland, OR @ Jackpot Records (in-store)
11.18 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
11.20 San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
11.21 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
12.04 San Diego, CA @ The Loft
12.05 Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
12.06 Santa Barbara, CA @ Muddy Waters

New dates!

01.25 Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
01.26 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
01.27 Albuquerque, NM @ The Launchpad
01.29 Austin, TX @ The Parish
01.30 Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
01.31 Houston, TX @ Walter’s on Washington
02.02 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
02.04 Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree
02.05 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
02.06 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
02.07 St. Louis, MO @ The Gargoyle
02.08 Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note
02.10 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
02.12 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
02.14 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall

In a blog post entitled “nuclear power no thanks,” Thom Yorke dropped a few s-bombs on the British government last night. And by s-bomb we mean sarcasm, not shit! Har.

nuclear power no thanks
under pressure from the CBI
and under the confused assumption that we can carry on consuming power as we do now into the future
and too afraid to think out of their own isolated political fuzzy cloud
the british government is commiting to build a new round of nuclear power stations
for which we dont have the money.
great.
just perfect.
well done fellas.
you’ve really thought about this haven’t you?

Then, just as he might at the end of a Radiohead show or perhaps an awkward conversation with a stranger on the street, Mr. Yorke made his exit quietly and too soon. He did however leave the following image in his wake. We love him all the more for it.

Rammstein’s new full-length Liebe ist Für Alle Da has been banned from public display by the German government, a ruling that is to take effect tomorrow, November 11th. According to Billboard, depictions of sadism and masochism found on the album’s cover artwork as well as in its lyrical content were cause for concern,  the public announcement of Petra Maier, the deputy president of the German Federal Office for the Examination of Media Harmful to Young People (much longer in German,) citing song “Ich tue Dir Weh” (or “I Want to Hurt You”) as one such example. Having recently been forced to watch the music video/incredibly loud porn segment for the band’s lively new single “Pussy,” a clip in which members of the band seem to perform various sexual acts as well as encourage unprotected sex, the GFOEMHYP’s ruling doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. This would have given Tipper Gore fits back in the day and to be honest, just thinking about passing it along in this post feels NSFW. Google at your own risk!

Rammstein, who despite touching on “such subjects as sadomasochism, homosexuality, incest, abuse, necrophilia, pyromania, cannibalism and sexual violence,” have never had an album banned in their native Germany. Liebe ist Für Alle is currently at Number Two in the European Billboard Chart and their upcoming, 50-date European tour is already sold out according to the Billboard report. The band declared the following via their Facebook page.

The new Rammstein album has been placed on the restricted list at the instigation of the Ministry of Family Affairs led by Minister Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen. This means that the album is now only available under the counter. If you want to buy the album, make sure that you take proof of your age with you when you go to the retailer of your trust.

Not salty at all, right?

Your mission:

It’s possible that over the past several weeks you’ve noticed the reviews slow to a trickle around these parts. We had our reasons! Cookies weren’t involved! Okay, maybe they were! All of us at Tripwire HQ are pleased to introduce to you today a new chapter in our “take” on music criticism—by handing over the keys. Starting this week and every Tuesday hereafter, we’ll be posting a full album stream through our friends over at LaLa. What we’d like you to do is lend us your brainwaves and tweet whatever crosses your mind while listening. Maybe there’s a riff you can’t get out of your head. A lyric? A moment? An image? If you’re feeling ambitious, spend your 124 characters reviewing the record as a whole. Just toss those tweets over to us at @thetripwire and by the end of the week, we’ll cobble together and share the beautiful mess of a madlib it creates. Or, if you’re a complete Luddite/TwitterHater, you can just leave a review in the comments section. We’re flexible. You’re the boss now.

On the fortieth anniversary of the group’s Motown debut comes I Want You Back!, a gleaming collection of 12 unreleased tracks taken straight out of that storied label’s vault.

Them Crooked Vultures, that arena rock hydra/supergroup of sometimes frightening proportions, is now streaming their debut album in its entirety. The trio of Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters,) Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin, will be releasing the album digitally and physically next Tuesday. Until then, enjoy the jams below.

Photo: Gail Butensky

Unless you surf the Web over the weekend (weirdo) or peruse other indie rock websites (stop that!) you may have heard that Pavement, kings of this Fall’s newsfeed, are set to headline Sasquatch! next May at the Gorge Amphitheater in Quincy, WA. That’ll be taking place again this year over Memorial Day Weekend (29-31,) though which night Pavement will take the stage has has not yet been ascertained/divulged. And while the rest of the lineup will be announced come mid-February, we’re hoping we can report on more stateside reunion dates before then. Coachella, make it happen.

Director Stephanie di Guiusto made good use of Jarvis Cocker’s string cheese build when she shot the below clip for the former Pulp frontman’s “Further Complications” video. The song’s got an awfully jagged edge, but the visual is as goofily understated as one might hope. Check it out.

The New York Post reported yesterday that Gerhardt “Jerry” Fuchs, drummer for !!!, Maserati, Juan McLean and Turing Machine, died late Saturday night after a fall down an elevator shaft in Brooklyn. After attending a Williamsburg benefit to raise money for women in India, Fuchs and a friend became trapped in an elevator stuck between floors. When the two opened the elevator doors and attempted to jump to the nearest floor, Fuchs didn’t make it across successfully. He was 34 years was old.

NME is reporting that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are set to perform their 2003 debut masterstroke in its entirety this December  11-13 at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in Minehead, England. According to report, the performance will be exclusive to the event and comprise the “first part of their show.”  This is all seems a little early and rushed. We could maybe get behind the Strokes uncaging Is This It in it’s entirety right about now, but even that feels like it needs some more time to age.

Producer Hudson Mohawke recently revealed to BBC Radio1Xtra that Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke is currently working on a solo album. “It hasn’t been finalised yet, but I’m doing a bit of stuff for Kele from Bloc Party’s solo album,” Mohawke explained. “He’s doing a record with one of the guys from Spank Rock.” Makes sense. Kinda. Since releasing Intimacy last year, Bloc Party have been chewing up the road ever since, a grueling schedule that has drummer Matt Tong questioning whether or not he wants to stick with the band. That plus this equals impending hiatus, guys. (via Spinner)

There was a time long ago when Kings of Leon dressed just like even shaggier versions of you or I. But as the Followills’ profile has risen over the past few years, their pants have become increasingly tight and their sleeves equally scarce. They’ve begun wearing the sort of thing you see on the Lower East Side or in a Miracle Whip commercial (totes jks) more than you would their home in Nashville. It was inevitable then that as their appetite for corny jewelry and Dior began to grow, they’d share their sartorial vision with the world on a somewhat larger scale: with the help of Parisian boutique design studio Surface to Air, they’ve developed a line of clothing to be sold exclusively in small batches at Paris Texas in Copenhagen. Check the pieces out at that shop’s blog here. (via NME)

Dev Hynes has announced the release of Lightspeed Champion’s sophomore full-length, a sixteen track, double intermission-y upper entitled Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You. If his more straightforward pop tunes under the Lightspeed Champion moniker don’t ring a or your bell, you might may recognize him as one part of punk bombardiers Test Icicles or a guest on the lovely new Basement Jaxx record. In any event, Hynes’ new output will be arriving on February 1 in the UK, February 16th in North America as confirmed by Hynes’ label Domino. Tracklist below:

Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You

01 Dead Head Blues
02 Marlene
03 There’s Nothing Underwater
04 Intermission
05 Faculty Of Fears
06 The Big Guns Of Highsmith
07 Romart
08 I Don’t Want To Wake Up Alone
09 Madame Van Damme
10 Smooth Day (At The Library)
11 Intermission 2
12 Sweetheart
13 Etude Op.3
14 Goodnight Michalek
15 Middle Of The Dark
16 A Bridge And A Goodbye

We miss Dead Moon, but they never really left. Fred and Toody Cole retired that band in 2006 and sure enough, up sprouted Pierced Arrows in its place months later. Word from our inbox is that the Coles, along with new drummer Kelly Halliburton, have opted to release the Arrows’ sophomore set of crusty punk tunes through Vice. Indeed, the label plans to share Descending Shadows on February 2nd, an effort the trio recorded at Portland’s Buzz or Howl Studios and according to the press release, “mastered to vinyl lacquer per tradition at Fred and Toody’s home.” Some things never change.

Bruce Springsteen has announced via his website that when he and his E Street Band set up shop this coming weekend at Madsion Square Garden, they’ll be playing two more albums in their entirety:  1973’s The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle on Saturday the 7th, and 1980’s epic The River on Sunday the 8th. The Boss has been revisiting full albums an event this tour, having already performed Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Born in the USA cover to cover. If anyone has an extra ticket to Sunday’s show, please feel free to leave your contact info in the comments section. We pay in beer and hugs.

You are surely aware by now that Vampire Weekend are preparing to unsheathe Contra on the world January 12, 2010. If for whatever reason, you’ve had the pleasure of exploring and drinking in this fine indie rock web site on the regular, you’ll also be familiar with the equally rich taste of new mpfree “Horchata.” Those four guys have been taking care of business over the past few weeks both in Europe and on the West Coast, playing new material of which the folks over at Pitchfork have collected video footage. In addition to borrowing that from zee Fork, we’re also sharing the new VW UK tour dates they lifted from NME. The Internet is so weird!

Dates below

11.05 Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
11.07 Lafayette, CA @ Town Hall Theatre
11.08 Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst
11.09 Visalia, CA @ The Cellar Door
11.10 San Luis Obispo, CA @ Downtown Brew
11.12 Bakersfield, CA @ Chencho’s
11.14 Lomita, CA @ VFW Hall
11.17 Tokyo, Japan @ Tokyo Unit
11.21 Sydney, Australia @ Oxford Art Factory
02.07 Cambridge, England @ Cambridge Corn Exchange
02.08 Manchester, England @ Manchester Apollo
02.09 Leeds, England @ O2 Academy
02.10 Birmingham, England @ O2 Academy
02.12 Newcastle, England @ O2 Academy
02.13 Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowlands
02.14 Edinburgh, Scotland @ Picture House
02.16 London, England @ O2 Academy Brixton

“Run”

“Holiday”

Of the many adjectives that have been used to describe Julian Casablancas this decade, “corny” isn’t one we’ve ever allowed someone use in our midst. Casablancas, who just released his first solo full-length today, is planning on releasing a cover of Saturday Night Live jingle “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” as a single on the 21st of next month. The reasoning is simple. “It was a fun thing to do,” Casablancas told NME. “Everyone seems to do a Christmas song at some point, so I always said to myself I’d do that song. I now checked that off the list of things to do!” We’ve got a feeling Casablancas’ bro/SNL wild man Andy Samberg is going to end up on that recording. We’ll make some “calls” and let you know.

Interview by Samuel Duke

Photography by John Francis Peters

On a rooftop high up above Hell’s Kitchen at dusk, the Horrors are sprawled across rotten deck furniture, a lonesome scene for what some presume to be The World’s Bleakest Band. And though they look the part— dressed in mostly black apart from the rare sliver of white oxford shirt here or there—they are hardly morose. When they talk at length about records and sound and people they’ve been blessed to work with, they do so with the earnestness of kids who spent a lot time alone in their rooms, reading thick books and listening to music no one else seemed to understand. Maybe the Horrors are instead one of the world’s most misunderstood bands, a bunch of former outcasts who’ve finally punked their former tormentors and, in turn, the music industry itself.

Because who doesn’t love a band that looks cool and who doesn’t love to simultaneously tear a band like that apart? Bestowed an NME cover before they’d even released an album, the Horrors were basically ready-made martyrs (or targets) for Britain’s most fleetingly obsessive/premature ejaculatory music journos. After a few insanely promising debut singles and a splotchy first album, they decamped to their London rehearsal space and wrote Primary Colours in three months. It’s an album best described as the sound of demons making love: guitars like huge, red curtains being torn in half; organ flourishes that float supernaturally; unending oceans of delicately controlled reverb. In a live setting, it sounds just as overwhelmingly massive, the foursome rarely even looking at one another other. But back to the roof, where we caught up with singer Faris Badwan and guitarist Josh Hayward before they were set to play their last show as hand-picked openers for Nine Inch Nails. We talked about making Primary Colours, sound, and the intersection of music and fashion. It went deep, but it was never scary.

So, how did you get on these shows? Did the Nine Inch Nails people reach out to you?

Faris Badwan: I think the first we heard of it was when something had been posted on [Trent Reznor's] social networking thing. And then sort of weeks later we got asked to do these dates.

Were you familiar with their stuff?

FB: We’ve worked with a lot of people–Alan Moulder, for example, or when we played with The [Jesus &] Mary Chain–and both of them, actually, have big Nine Inch Nails connections. We’ve met a lot of people who are really into them, people whose opinions we really respect.

Josh Hayward: And we were probably a bit too young when they came around the first time to experience it first hand.

How old are you guys?

FB: We’re all around 20. I’m 22 and Josh is 19.

JH: I remember, when I was working with Moulder, I went in to do some sound effects or something, and he was like, “That’s what I always used to do with Trent.” Like, “We’d do that every week.” That album that took like two years [The Fragile]. If you work with somebody for two years, and really enjoy it at the end, there must be something pretty cool.

FB: And Alan is like one of the coolest guys we’ve ever met. Just like fucking great. Just in terms of how straight he is and how great of a guy he is, besides being one of the best mixers in the world. But, I did take the time to listen to a bit of Nine Inch Nails just before–it was actually after I heard they were into us. And it’s definitely the instrumental stuff that I really love, the atmosphere or whatever. That sonic exploration element is really great. It’s something we really focus on as well.

How did you guys originally meet?

FB: Me and Josh met in this club called White Heat in London. We really spent the majority of our time getting to know each other in the South End, around a club that Rhys ran called The Junk Club. And that was sort of new wave and garage and all sorts. We’d go to the garage clubs in London, where there pretty much weren’t any young people there. So we just got to know each other through that.

And are you guys all originally from London?

JH: I’m from just outside London, and got out there as quick as I could. Just didn’t like the South End.

How did the band form from that? Was it as simple as, “Let’s start a band.”

FB: Yeah, basically. When you really like listening to music, eventually…it’s quite common that you want to start making your own. And we started by playing garage covers and there was certainly a kind of un-schooled, noisy element to them. And that developed into a no wave influence, and [things] just gradually developed from there.

This is your second record, on a different label…Does it feel at all like a rebirth of sorts?

FB: Well, we haven’t really noticed a great bit of different from having to switch labels, apart from…

JH: They’ve both treated us exactly the same. On the first label, the person that we had, our A&R guy, he really liked us, and was just like, “Go off and make a record.” And then we went to this label, and the bloke went, “Go off and make a record.” We’ve always just been left to our own devices, [which is] probably why it’s always developed, ’cause we haven’t had anyone else telling us what to do. We’re just doing it ourselves. You should develop. If you’re not, you’re in the wrong game, really.

FB: It’s kind of why so many bands really don’t change from record to record, ’cause they have people suggesting they shouldn’t. I don’t know, it just seems totally stifling to me, the idea of that. We’ve been really lucky.

And you worked with Geoff Barrow from Portishead and Chris Cunningham…

JH: And a bloke called Craig Silvey, who never gets mentioned at all but has an incredible approach to sound.

Is he Geoff’s engineer?

FB: He works a lot with Geoff. Craig’s sort of been written out of history a little bit, but he actually worked on it a lot more than Geoff did. And Geoff would be the first to admit it. ‘Cause really, when Geoff heard our demos, he sort of said, “We don’t really need to change these. We just want to capture what you recorded, just record it better.”

And you guys were working mostly with Geoff and Craig.

FB: We did two songs with Chris. He would’ve done more on the album, but he was working on two feature films, writing them.

Had he recorded music before?

JH: He hadn’t worked with a band before

FB: Yeah, but I think at the moment he’s doing something with Grace Jones. It sounds amazing. He’s got really brilliant, cinematic ideas, which makes sense, since he’s mainly known for his film stuff. His approach to sound and exploring sound is definitely something we wanted to take on board. But he couldn’t do it, so the only other person who we really thought around that has that as well was Geoff. I mean, Portishead just have a sound that is so timeless and unique, and we felt like that could be something great to incorporate. Turned out he just wanted us to be as we were, which was quite fun.

JH: He’s a bit like the hip-hop Steve Albini, Geoff Barrow.

FB: He just wanted to capture the sound of the band rather than mold them, which is what we want. We don’t really want a label molding us, we don’t want a producer molding us.

So, all the songs were written and arranged before you went into the studio?

JH: Yeah, like around that time we bought a desk and learned to record. And he liked how we produced it as well. He was saying, “That’s what we should do.”

Interesting. Are you guys gearheads? Did you know what you were doing?

JH: Yeah. We each got better at it over time. We each got our heads around it a lot more.

FB: That was the most important thing about making this album, we re-learned that we don’t actually need–and it goes back to what Geoff was saying to us as well–we don’t need any one else at all to make our records. We can just record them in our rehearsal room if we want and mix them elsewhere. And I think it’s going to make for a very cheap third record.

JH: The really long track on that album, “I Only Think Of You” —that’s our recording we did in the rehearsal room. It had the best feel. And that was done with like a shit mix, not set up properly.

All you guys playing together at the same time?

JH: Yeah.

That’s impressive. So, how did you guys meet Chris Cunningham originally? I know he directed the “Sheena Is A Parasite” video.

FB: He came to see us at White Heat, actually, which is where Josh and I met. We were playing and I don’t know how he got in touch with our label or went through one of our friends, but he just turned up at the show. The single was out and had already been released, but he was really desperate to make the video for that song. He’s been doing these “live sets” recently at festivals, so he’s done this eleven-minute remix of that from the original parts and bits that didn’t make the video. It’s fucking weird.

I think the first time I heard about you guys was before the first record, and it was actually just a photo. Do you guys feel like the visual side of what you do is important?

FB: It’s not as important as sound, obviously, but…

JH: It’s a result of the process. When you think of any band that had a specific sound, they looked a bit like that. It’s cause that’s what they were doing. It’s like, if you play golf, you’ll look like a golfer. It appears at the moment, you have to wear jeans and t-shirts nowadays to be taken seriously…it’s a bit weird, isn’t it?

FB: I have to say, it’s almost like the first decade that that’s been the case. I mean, you look back to Nirvana, to the garage bands, to Robert Johnson–they looked the way they sound. At least, a lot of bands do, and it’s important, because your identity just reflects the things that you are interested in, and it’s not like we’ve just decided this is what the band should look like, this is just really elements of our favorite bands, taken into whatever, like, when you’re a kid you dress up like a cowboy or whatever. Like John Wayne.

But was it something you guys talked about and thought about?

JH: No, no, no, it was simply a result of it.

FB: There’s loads of kids at Junk who look like we do. That was it, really.

Do you guys like playing in the States?

FB: It’s my favorite country to tour in. ‘Cause it’s just really rewarding to drive around. I don’t know, it’s funny ’cause the States is one of those countries where I just really enjoy seeing the diners and the highways and stuff like that. I find that really interesting for whatever reason.

Is that iconography stuff you were into growing up?

FB: I guess so, yeah. A lot of the songs I like, like “California Dreaming,” by the Mamas And The Papas, that imagery is so evocative and I don’t know, I’ve always had a connection with it.

Did you grow up around music?

JH: No, not really, I didn’t. My parents were never really into it.

FB: The only thing I can think of that my parents used to play that I like now, is that Fleetwood Mac album Rumours. They used to just play it to death in the car, and that album–I haven’t really listened to the other stuff–but that album I think is totally amazing. My parents were into the Bay City Rollers and Bread and stuff I don’t like at all.

So when did you start developing your own tastes?

FB: I remember at the end of term, when I was eleven or twelve, we each had to bring in a CD or cassette to play at the end of term party. And everyone was bringing in like Now 28 or whatever and I brought in Sounds Of The Seventies and it has this fucking amazing song called, “Can You Feel The Force.” It’s like an early disco song, I can’t remember who it’s by [The Real Thing], I should really look it up and remember it , ’cause it’s really weird now when you listen it, it’s really scary, really ahead of it’s time. But, it’s just a pop song. But I tried to play that and everyone fucking hated it.

JH: It was weird for me, ’cause anyone who listened to guitar music was considered a horrible, disgusting person that you should spit at, so I never really did. I listened to jungle or whatever on the radio. Then I found American guitar music, and went to buy a Sonic Youth album and the lady was like, “Don’t buy that one, it’s too weird.” I took it home and fell in love with it. I had to grow up with it in isolation ’cause none of my friends got it or understood it. They didn’t like it. And then it went back to the no wave stuff in the seventies…

Were you playing guitar at that point?

JH: I’d started ages ago in an argument with a friend who played bass, to play a song so that it was better, and then I just didn’t pick it up again until I joined the Horrors and started playing a lot. All in good fun.

A lot about your band–the sound, the way you look–seems rooted in a love of older things. Do you guys have a passion for that kind of stuff?

FB: Not at all. It’s just like, contemporary music at the moment is quite boring, and it’s the fault of the labels and the industry and in turn the way bands think they should be. I don’t know, you just get fed such rubbish that you can’t help but sort of regurgitate it. It’s just really frustrating ’cause it’s so rare that you come across a band that you actually think, “This is as good as the old records that I love.” But there are a few. Maybe it’s just ’cause we’re in it–maybe you can’t really tell how good something is until you have hindsight.

JH: I’m really scared of looking back on this decade. So scared. You know how you look back on decades for music shifts? This one is going to be, like, autotune.

FB: I mean, you forget that it’s been ten yeahrs since 2000 and nothing’s really happened. There’s the odd band. Or even producers. You look back and every decade has had a few really brilliant producers that have really had a sound–Martin Hannnett in the eighties, or Phil Spector, or Joe Meek, and now we’ve got this decade. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s just really fucking boring.

Do you guys listen to new music at all?

FB: Yeah! There’s a band called Hate Rock I really like. There’s a band called Wooden Shjips that we actually asked to support us on our forthcoming tour. They might be on a few West Coast dates. But that’s what I mean. They are around, but they’re few and far between.

Is The Horrors like a brotherhood for you guys?

FB: Well it’s just really…It’s hard enough to find people that you want to be friends with on a daily basis, let alone work with. So I think we really don’t have a choice anymore.

JH: We’re stuck with each other.

So what’s next after the touring.

FB: We’re touring till the end of February, and then hopefully, it won’t take us long, but we just have to have… we really work best when we’ve got all our gear and we set up and just have a block of writing time, and then we’re really productive. So that’s what we’re going to do, once we get that time.

And you all live in London.

JH/FB: I live in Camden. Everyone else lives East.

Are there any bands that you like from there?

No, there are not many bands that I want to go and see. There aren’t really many people that I feel any affinity to and I don’t really feel like there are many bands that I feel an affinity towards either. So, I don’t think there’s like a scene in London that we’re apart of or that we like.

Could you imagine the Horrors anywhere else?

JH: I really like London ’cause I think it’s got the best work ethic in the world. In London, everyone’s really cynical and everyone hates everything, so no matter what you do, someone’s gonna go, “Shit, I just heard that yesterday.” It just makes you work harder. Everyone’s always trying to outdo each other, which I think is good. No one celebrates anything.

FB: There are a lot of bands, as well. Whether you like them or not, at least you’re surrounded by people that are working.

JH: There’s a lot of promise, but they never seem to get anywhere.

Are you guys you pretty diligent in the way you work?

FB: As a band, we work really hard. There’s so many people in bands that give off the impression that they go of and get drunk all the time. We work really hard and we don’t have any days off, to be honest.

How do you guys write?

FB: We just all write together. We’ve never really done it any other way.

JH: We’ve found coming in with a complete idea is pointless. Just come up with it there.

FB: ‘Cause no one gets excited about anything unless they were there for the beginning.

When you guys were jamming during soundcheck, is that how stuff builds?

JH: Yeah maybe. We were just testing the equipment. We might need a stronger idea to start with.

And do you write lyrics on the spot, Faris?

FB: I’ve got a lot of notebooks. I try to write all the time. But I don’t think you can ever actually finish stuff until you’re actually singing it. So I just have bits that I draw from.

Do you just carry around a notebook?

FB: Yeah. I like drawing a lot, so that’s what I spend a lot of my time doing. So yeah, I always have it.

Do you come from an interest in lyrics or poetry?

FB: I read a lot when I was a kid. But I don’t know, It’s so annoying how so many musicians or singers or whatever think they’re poets. It’s like, your work or what you’re drawing or your lyrics or whatever are good in context. I mean, obviously there are some, like Leonard Cohen, but I’m not trying to make myself out to be something better than I am. Really, I’m a musician, and even drawing–I love drawing, but I’m not a fucking bleeding artist.

The skinny:

It’s possible that over the past several weeks you’ve noticed the reviews slow to a trickle around these parts. We had our reasons! Cookies weren’t involved! Okay, maybe they were! All of us at Tripwire HQ are pleased to introduce to you today a new chapter in our “take” on music criticism—by handing over the keys. Starting this week and every Tuesday hereafter, we’ll be posting a full album stream through our friends over at LaLa. What we’d like you to do is lend us your brainwaves and tweet whatever crosses your mind while listening. Maybe there’s a riff you can’t get out of your head. A lyric? A moment? An image? If you’re feeling ambitious, spend your 124 characters reviewing the record as a whole. Just toss those tweets over to us at @thetripwire and by the end of the week, we’ll cobble together and share the beautiful mess of a madlib it creates. Or, if you’re a complete Luddite/TwitterHater, you can just leave a review in the comments section. We’re flexible. You’re the boss now.

This week’s album is Julian Casablancas’ Phrazes For the Young, the Strokes frontman’s first solo adventure.