Pat Graham was roommates with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock when Brock was still a weird kid scratching at his guitar and shouting into his microphone. (He still does that, I guess.) Graham tagged along for the scrappy early Modest Mouse tours, and his gorgeous book of photographs documents the days of broken-down…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of all the horrors, we’re picking our favorite songs about death.

The mixer: A longtime manager of London’s venerable Rough Trade Records and the organizer of Record Store Day in the U.K., Spencer Hickman combined that passion for collecting vinyl with his lifelong zeal for horror movies by founding Death Waltz Recording Company, a label that has quickly established itself as the…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of all the horrors, we’re picking our favorite songs about death.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of all the horrors, we’re picking our favorite songs about death.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of all the horrors, we’re picking our favorite songs about death.

It’s been a bit since Cat Stevens—who seems to be going by Yusuf, sans the Islam, now—released an album. And 2009’s Roadsinger sounded exactly like it should’ve, with catchy folk singles featuring his signature voice. In the same vein, Tell ’Em I’m Gone, Yusuf’s concentrated foray into blues territory, sounds much…

Much has been made about Taylor Swift’s gradual transition from country songbird to pop star, and make no mistake, 1989 is a straight-up pop record. But even on her earliest and most countrified tracks, like 2006’s “Tim McGraw,” Swift still seemed more like a pop star than a tractor-drivin’, boot-wearin’ backwoods…

Nearly two decades after rocking the underground realm with Funcrusher Plus, El-P has cut down on his dense cultural references and mile-a-minute musical approach to make way for accessibility. This gave Killer Mike enough room to slip in and form the much lauded bad-guy duo Run The Jewels. Instead of hustling to…

At this point in its career Rancid is essentially the modern-day equivalent of Social Distortion in the sense that it isn’t so much a punk band anymore as it is an institution to be occasionally revisited. People go to the group’s shows to hear hits like “Salvation” and “Ruby Soho,” and newer songs are more of a…

Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of all the horrors, we’re picking our favorite songs about death.

In Set List, we talk to veteran musicians about some of their most famous songs, learning about their lives and careers, and maybe hearing a good backstage anecdote or two in the process.

Regular readers of this feature might know that I have a thing for unusual stringed instruments. Last month, I found myself listening to an awful lot of music performed on the Portuguese guitar, a 12-string instrument with a rounded body that plays in integral role in creating the sound known as fado. There are two…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re picking some of our favorite songs about cowboys.

I’m not the world’s biggest Pearl Jam fan, nor do I really like huge crowds. But I will never pass up the opportunity to commune with the band and their diehards in concert, both because Pearl Jam is absolutely, unstoppably fantastic live, and because its attitude and relationship with fans is so admirable. I’ve never…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re picking some of our favorite songs about cowboys.

In HateSong, we ask our favorite musicians, writers, comedians, actors, and so forth to expound on the one song they hate most in the world.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re picking some of our favorite songs about cowboys.

If Kanye West never became the era-defining artist he is, he would still be known and celebrated for his role as the man who pushed Jay Z back to the top of the mountain. In 2000 after a decent track record of success supplying beats for the likes of Foxy Brown and Goodie Mob, West was brought in as an in-house…