Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club is Nathan Rabin’s ongoing exploration of books involving show business, with a special emphasis on the very bad and the very sleazy.

At this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, The A.V. Club gave artists a challenge: Draw a name from a deck of cards, then spend $20 on a gift for that person at either the on-site record fair or craft expo. In this video, The Hotelier’s Christian Holden goes above and beyond, kicking in some of his own money to pick up…

At this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, The A.V. Club gave artists a challenge: Draw a name from a deck of cards, then spend $20 on a gift for that person at either the on-site record fair or craft expo. In this video, Aaron Maine picks out records that he could enjoy with his grandma.

At this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, The A.V. Club gave artists a challenge: Draw a name from a deck of cards, then spend $20 on a gift for that person at either the on-site record fair or craft expo. In this video, Alan Palomo picks a record that will make you the weirdest freshman in the whole high school.

At this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, The A.V. Club gave artists a challenge: Draw a name from a deck of cards, then spend $20 on a gift for that person at either the on-site record fair or craft expo. In this video Cadien Lake James from Twin Peaks gives a time traveler from 1916 some insight on modern music.

Kristin Hersh: The first song on Kristin Hersh’s first solo album is one of my favorite tracks ever, and yet I have little interest in anything after “Your Ghost.” It’s all good, but it never lives up to the Michael Stipe-assisted haunter. You should listen to that song, though. Over and over. Keeping one, purging one.

In Under The Influence, The A.V. Club asks a musician to pair three of their songs with a non-musical influence.

At this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, The A.V. Club gave artists a challenge: Draw a name from a deck of cards, then spend $20 on a gift for that person at either the on-site record fair or craft expo. In this video Whitney picks out some gifts for Pee-Wee Herman.

At this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, The A.V. Club gave artists a challenge: Draw a name from a deck of cards, then spend $20 on a gift for that person at either the on-site record fair or craft expo. In this video BJ The Chicago Kid goes on the hunt for the perfect gift for Michael Jordan and finds a photo by Joe…

The Pitchfork Music Festival has been holding court in Chicago’s Union Park for a decade now, and the 2016 edition saw the fest’s eclectic tastes on full display. The A.V. Club was there once again but, this time around, we opted to do something a little different. This year we filmed videos with many of the weekend’s…

A lot of American bands, intentionally or not, eventually wind up showcasing a star member: in the parlance of Almost Famous, a frontman or a “guitarist with mystique.” Beloved ’00s indie rockers Rilo Kiley represent both the exception and the rule. The band’s work was often greater than the sum of its parts, yet…

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of Amanda And Jack Palmer’s covers album, we’re picking some of our favorite cover songs.

Good Charlotte (Photo: MDDN)

“Leave it up to Clams / He got us,” Lil B intones at the beginning of Clams Casino’s full-length major-label debut, the first genuine album from cultishly revered producer Mike Volpe. It’s a statement that speaks not only to Lil B’s trust that Volpe will come through—as he has on all his best tracks—but to his…

The vintage vibes of Michael Kiwanuka’s 2012 folk-soul-jazz debut album, Home Again, struck a cross-generational chord. Its follow-up, Love & Hate, keeps what was best about those classic dusty sounds, updating them under the direction of deft modern-day producers Danger Mouse (Portugal. The Man, Gorillaz) in the…

The melancholy, muddied psych rock of Heliotropes’ debut A Constant Sea was an unconventional fusion of husky grunge riffs, layered female harmonies, and droning shoegaze intervals—a bog of musical relics dating back to the doo-wop era. Rather than dig around the muck for new sounds to exhibit on follow-up Over There…

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of Amanda And Jack Palmer’s covers album, we’re picking some of our favorite cover songs.

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of Amanda And Jack Palmer’s covers album, we’re picking some of our favorite cover songs.

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of Amanda And Jack Palmer’s covers album, we’re picking some of our favorite cover songs.

Galaxie 500: I came to Galaxie 500 via Luna, the band started by Dean Wareham after the semi-legendary Galaxie broke up in 1991. I’m pretty sure it was actually Luna’s relative commercial success that brought Galaxie 500 back from obscurity; for a while, its three albums were out of print—a concept that today’s…