In memoir, likeability helps, and Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy is an easy guy to like. His music is heavy on hurt and…

For morbid kicks, it’s hard to beat the acknowledgments of the bizarre oddity Fat, Drunk, & Stupid: The Inside Story…

James Brown was a lot of things, even beyond the many stage nicknames he bestowed upon himself: The Hardest-Working…

As the most widely discussed, analyzed, and debated pop star to emerge since the 1960s, Madonna is a hard person to…

In 1966, playing his first show in Dakar, Senegal, Duke Ellington told the audience, “After writing African music…

Every year, The A.V. Club embarks upon elaborate voting rituals to determine the sorta-consensus best films, albums,…

Prince is notoriously tight with press access, disallowing interviewers from recording or even taking notes.…

The ’70s New York memoir really has become its own literary category. James Wolcott was a staff writer for The Villag…

For someone who stressed the active first-person in her criticism, Pauline Kael wasn’t prone to writing much about…

Scrappy British indie-pop outfit Comet Gain still sounds completely psyched to be making records, which can’t be…

1. Sex Pistols
Ask the average Joe to name the first punk band that comes to mind, and he’ll most likely say “Sex…

DJ Shadow’s albums have always functioned like stylistically far-flung mix-tapes pieced together with an internal…

It’s been nearly five decades since The Rolling Stones helped upend the social order in England and America—so much…

The knock on essay or review collections is that they read like patchworks, not like books. That isn’t always a bad…

1-2. 30 Rock and Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (2006)
Nearly every TV season sees two or three new series that were…

Originally released in Europe in 2008, Grace Jones’ 10th album—her first since 1989—presents her as even more of a…

1. Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)
The fourth entry in the Leprechaun franchise retains little beyond the concept of a…

“The chitlin’ circuit” has been a much-used phrase in music writing, referring to the linked chain of black, largely…

1-2. Juno/Jennifer’s Body
There’s a reason why writers of films and television shows about young people love slang:…

1. Iggy Pop, “Nightclubbing”
For a song about hitting hot spot after hot spot with David Bowie, learning new dances…