In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: the first “cool” songs we ever liked.

Wavves’ Nathan Williams and Cloud Nothings’ Dylan Baldi have so closely treaded the same path that it’s a wonder they never tripped over each other along the way. Each began their band as a one-man project, writing prickly, lo-fi garage-pop songs about being bored and disaffected. As they scaled those projects into…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: the first “cool” songs we ever liked.

In the original liner notes to Neil Young’s 1977 anthology Decade, the singer-songwriter comments briefly about where his head was at after his multi-platinum 1972 country-rock album Harvest. “I was becoming more interested in an audio verité approach,” Young writes, explaining the bumpy path his music would take over…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: the first “cool” songs we ever liked.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: the first “cool” songs we ever liked.

“There are two types of people in this world,” Bill Murray’s Bob tells his therapist Leo (Richard Dreyfuss) in the 1991 movie What About Bob? “Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don’t.” Many of us here at The A.V. Club fall into that former camp, even though Diamond’s long career has definitely had its peaks…

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

If 2012’s Kaleidoscope Dream, and specifically its smash single “Adorn,” had people thinking Miguel was the latest incarnation of R. Kelly, Wildheart will certainly bring out the Prince comparisons. Wildheart is weirder and more ambitious than its predecessor, an R&B album inflected with bits of prog rock and charged…

Sweden’s Refused is rightly held in high regard for 1998’s The Shape Of Punk To Come, an undisputed classic that served as a rallying cry for bands longing to incorporate sounds from outside the walls of aggressive music. But it’s just as easy to forget that, prior to that album’s release, Refused was only ever a…

Few rappers sound less impressed by their own talent than Vince Staples. The 21-year-old Long Beach native raps with switchblade precision, in a contemptuous sneer that casts judgment on every word out of his mouth. He’s a born natural orator, yet he never plays up his best lyrics, or builds in pauses to allow…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: the first “cool” songs we ever liked.

Considering we’re only almost to July, 2015 has seen an abundance of musical riches so far. From new albums by old bands to great albums by new bands, there’s plenty of great material to queue up just from the past six months. Below, The A.V. Club runs down a bunch of our favorite stuff, from Sleater-Kinney to…

As the nation’s birthday approaches and we honor what makes this country great, save some attention for Neil Diamond. The favorite artist of moms everywhere has been making music for 50 years—including the indelible pro-USA jam “America”—and has affected pop culture in significant ways. Today we begin a two-part…

I was recently in Cleveland for the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, when I discovered a much more vital and enjoyable source of music: The three-block stretch on Waterloo Road that begins at 157th Street and ends at 161st Street. It begins with Beachland Ballroom, a spectacular music venue that also happens to serve some…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: We’re talking about songs we heard once and then had to seek out.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: We’re talking about songs we heard once and then had to seek out.

Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, there were few artists as in-demand as Giorgio Moroder, an Italian record producer who would go on to write a plethora of hits and win a handful of Oscars for his work in film, along with a couple of Grammys to boot. Moroder made his name in electronic dance music, producing and…

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.

You know what they say: A Deadhead is better than a cold neck! As any fan of The Grateful Dead knows, the band is embarking on a final five-day Fare Thee Well tour this summer, with two dates in Santa Clara and three in Chicago. Not only will the shows be a way to say goodbye to the legions of fans who’ve supported…