Adele saves the music industry (for this week, anyway)

Adele, the soulful British pop diva who’s had this coming for a long time, has the first blockbuster album of 2011 with 21. She’s atop the Billboard charts this week, having sold 350,000-odd copies. This is a welcome development no matter how you look at it: Take a tour through…

Trey Anastasio Band at the Ogden, 03/01/11

TREY ANASTASIO BAND 03.01.11 |Ogden Theatre Whenever I think of Phish singer/guitarist/composer Trey Anastasio’s most powerful solo work, my mind always turns to “orchestral funk” — the term Anthony Keidis used to describe the Talking Heads’ large-band era (with Adrian Belew on searing lead guitar) when inducting the art-rock legends…

Chris Brown is an ass who doesn’t deserve another chance

It’s been a big week in the inexcusable career resurgence of Chris Brown. Rihanna allowed her restraining order against him to be eased. Apparently someone sitting on some unreleased photos of the damage Brown inflicted on his former girlfriend thought this would be a good opportunity to share them; they…

Jayhawks founder Mark Olson on walking the line between folk and rock

A decade after starting the Jayhawks with Gary Louris, Mark Olson left the band in 1995, the same year Tomorrow the Green Grass was released, to look after his then-wife Victoria Williams, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. While the Jayhawks continued to tour without him until the band…

Michael Gira of Swans on the new album and his time as a bassist

Emerging from the no-wave scene in the New York underground in 1982, Swans became known for music that was forbidding, terrifyingly intense in its execution and lyrically uncompromising in its depiction of the darker side of human existence. Although an influence on industrial music and much of post-punk thereafter, Swans…

Churchill talks about finding an identity

Churchill is releasing its debut full-length, Happy/Sad, tonight at the hi-dive. It’s been a long time coming — the band has been around for more than two years, and this album has been in the works for half that time. The album, partially funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, is…

“Born This Way,” Lady Gaga’s glimmering, fabulous return

Lady Gaga’s back with “Born This Way,” which was officially released to much fanfare on her web site. It’s a ridiculous, home-run swing of a pop anthem, replete with about a thousand keyboard tracks and a full-choir chorus that gets an a capella breakdown the last time through. Gaga, somewhat…

Behold the awesome absurdity of Total Ghost

Snowy weather got you feeling glum? Yeah? We hear ya. Luckily, we’ve got just thing to turn that frown upside down. Meet Total Ghost. We don’t know where in the hell these dudes Chön and Biktor came from — they claim to be from Germany, but we suspect they’re about…