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

It’s been three years since the release of The Mountain Goats’ last full-length album, Transcendental Youth. In that time, Mountain Goats’ mastermind John Darnielle became a father, published his first novel, and stockpiled songs inspired by a youthful fascination with professional wrestling. The squared circle is a…

This month, The Sonics will release This Is The Sonics—the legendary garage-rock band’s first studio album of entirely new material in nearly 50 years. That’s one hell of a hiatus. At the same time, it makes a weird sort of sense. Garage rock may have originated as a strictly teenage phenomenon in the ’60s, but since…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re talking about songs that were originally created by men but were better covered by women.

This week’s question comes from reader Jason Gross:
“I’m biting the bullet to see two bands that I don’t really like (Mötley Crüe and Barenaked Ladies) only because I really want to see the opening bands: Alice Cooper and Violent Femmes. I’m open to the possibility that I might actually like Crüe and the Ladies but…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re talking about songs that were originally created by men but were better covered by women.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re talking about songs that were originally created by men but were better covered by women.

Going to live shows can be amazing, but it’s rare that a live version of a song is better than whatever a particular artist has already laid down on tape. (Production takes weeks, costs fortunes, and requires producers for a reason.) It happens, though, and when it does—when a live song surpasses its original…

In 11 Questions, The A.V. Club asks interesting people 11 interesting questions—and then asks them to suggest one for our next interviewee.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re talking about songs that were originally created by men but were better covered by women.

In 2013 it seemed as if just about the only person not buying into the Earl Sweatshirt myth was Earl himself. The prodigal young rapper had just reemerged from his mysterious disappearance—turns out he’d been sent to a school for at-risk boys in Samoa—and the music press was eagerly scouring his every verse,…

Short Movie is the sound of Laura Marling’s identity crisis. It’s her first album that actually sounds comfortable, and like Marling herself, might not be fully comfortable with that fact. Once I Was An Eagle was a towering record, an intimate yet epic album full of lush, bombastic songs and vocals often feverish in…

The praise that Australian songwriter Courtney Barnett received for her early EPs—repackaged for American release after resoundingly successful 2013 CMJ performances —tended to settle on her unique portrayals of everyday life. What’s become clear on Barnett’s proper debut album is how her ability to convey those…

With the dissolution of the group, The Go! Team is no longer much of a team, but the sole remaining teammate has crafted the group’s best album since the release of Thunder, Lightning, Strike back in 2004. Ian Parton has always been the Svengali of the group, singlehandedly creating the first record, and composing the…

Liturgy mastermind/whipping boy Hunter Hunt-Hendrix has attracted acclaim from critics and disdain from metal purists ever since his “transcendental black metal” band first crawled out of the gentrified hamlet of Brooklyn in 2008. Now, after releasing two albums that toyed with the parameters of black metal, Liturgy…

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, we’re talking about songs that were originally created by men but were better covered by women.

For the 29th year, thousands of artists, industry types, music bloggers, drunk kids, and corporations who would love to profit from all of them descended on Austin for the annual South By Southwest festival. And for at least the 10th year, give or take two we can’t really remember, The A.V. Club was among them,…

Gather ‘round, kids, and let me tell you about a time when the most important band in the world was a four-piece from Seattle that wouldn’t do any interviews or take press photos, and whose mesmerizing music resulted in just two albums before things imploded. That band: Sunny Day Real Estate, circa 1992-1995. They…