Spike Jonze has directed some of the best music videos of all time— “Sabotage,” “Buddy Holly,” “Praise You,” “Get Back.” There’s a sort of goofy exuberance to all of them that seems to come from a place of permanent, childlike (but never childish) playfulness. He’s continued to direct music videos over the years, even…
Every year, American composer Philip Glass curates an eclectic lineup for the one-night-only Tibet House Benefit Concert, a special gala event supporting Tibet House U.S. The event returns to Carnegie Hall on February 22nd for its 26th annual iteration, with another amazing collection of artists set to perform,…
Boots first attracted attention as the producer of Beyoncé’s “Haunted”—a factoid that unfortunately or not precedes his every artistic move. The swollen, echoing beats of that track are often cited as the perfect example of his style in the same way that Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” is considered a hallmark of…
MTV Cribs never did much for me; the sleek contemporary penthouses generally favored by the rich and famous always look like the kind of place where you’d be afraid to sit on the couch. But I’m not immune to the kitschy charms of a floating fireplace, which is why the home magazine Atomic Ranch is my aspirational…
British trip-hopper FKA Twigs (née Tahliah Debrett Barnett) has a new, 5-song EP catchily titled M3LL155X, which is garnering respectable if not rhapsodic reviews. The title, by the way, is pronounced “Melissa.” Duh. It’s the name of the Twigs’ alter ego. Or maybe not. It’s complicated. In any event, to promote the…
It never rained on Lollapalooza, but that didn’t stop the fest’s organizers, C3, from both evacuating the whole fest Sunday afternoon under threat of thunderstorms and then, later that night, shutting down the festival’s closers 30 minutes early. That kind of rainy speculation put a damper on the annual event, which…
As part of its ongoing battle to become something more than the place where that guy you were roommates with back in college posts his weird DJ mixes (while also hopefully not abandoning that super-hip, Millennial-positive identity), SoundCloud announced this week that it’s signed a licensing deal with more than…
There are only so many ways to put together words, especially if those words are just “the” and a plural noun. Thus, there are a finite number of band names. Fortunately, the Internet has figured out a way to help fledgling artists suss out whether a band name is available before they’re forced to change it. That way…
Our main list of the year’s best albums doesn’t just appear out of thin air. It’s tallied from ballots by a group of writers, each of whom list their top 15 in order, with their favorite getting 15 points, their next pick getting 14, and so on. Below are the individual ballots, plus some personal commentary on discs…
Every year, The A.V. Club invites our regular music writers and staff to pick their favorite albums of the past 12 months. This year, we asked writers to pick their 15 favorite albums, with no. 1 earning 15 points, no. 2 earning 14, and so on. We tallied up the results to arrive at our final best-of list. (In the…
Tahliah Barnett, better known as FKA Twigs, certainly has the pedigree of someone who makes woozy R&B. She’s called Gloucestershire and London home, has familial roots in Jamaica and Spain, and has been an artistic force in dance and vocals from an early age. Now 26 years old, she’s released her first full-length, and…