Kristian Embdal

Hurling beers and spitting on bands while they perform is, generally speaking, frowned upon. Shows have been stopped for less.

Pfft. Kid's stuff. Doug Smith Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, singer and guitarist of Copenhagen's Iceage, didn't even flinch when a fan decided to let off a Roman Candle in his face at the band's January show at 285 Kent in Brooklyn. "We get fireworks and beer cans thrown at us every night. If it's there, it's there and we're still going to continue," dismisses Rønnenfelt, almost bored.

See also:
- Photos: Iceage at "Other Music" Record Store (6/23/11)
- Live: Iceage and Dirty Beaches Wage Sonic War On (Le) Poisson Rouge, 7/23/12

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A work of art's true meaning can take a while to be uncovered.

Think of the rich veins of wisdom, long threaded through our cultural bedrocks, that we mere mortals stumbled upon years, after their authors first brought them into the world: the economic allegory at the heart of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz; the homosexual yearning embedded in the chords of Schubert's music; that extremely tiny penis drawn into the lower-left corner of the Mona Lisa (don't you fucking act like you can't see it).

It is with these things in mind that we look to Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights, that seminal debut which Matador Records is reissuing this month.

See Also:
- Interpol's Our Love to Admire: Gorgeous, menacing nursery rhymes for insincere clubbers
- Live: Interpol, Cat Power at MSG, 09.14.07

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After their much-anticipated 2010 reunion at Matador Records' 21st birthday party in Las Vegas, lo-fi rockers Guided by Voices buckled up and went on a two-year bender of tour dates and recent album releases. Now, with an art exhibition called The Big Hat & Toy Show, frontmen Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout showcase their visual art. The exhibit, which is described as a "menagerie of installations," can be seen at the headquarters of Brooklyn band the Library is On Fire.

TLIOF frontman Steve Five (who is a GbV fan and fellow Ohioan) presents the two-day "interactive conceptual installation" in Bushwick where he has curated other events with his band at this performance space.

Pollard and Sprout aren't strangers to exhibiting their visual work. So why is their latest offering presented at a DIY space, as opposed to a trendy Chelsea gallery? We caught up with Five to discuss the art show, and what fans/art lovers can expect from tonight's art opening. Apparently, Pollard likes the "non traditional environment that a space like this provides" and "It's a lot more fun." Read on.More »

Better go get this now.

If you want a one-URL "major" vs. "indie" battleground -- what defines and/or divides them, which lifestyle brand the discerning-legal-downloader demographic really prefers -- you could do far worse than eMusic, the excellent monthly-subscription MP3 service (which employs several of our colleagues and friends) that's both continually growing and continually enduring growing pains. The latter today, mostly: This week the site is adding 250,000 tracks (including the entire Universal Music Group catalog) but losing the mega-indie labels -- Matador, Merge, Domino -- that continually top its download charts.

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Seriously. (We think.) Happening October 1-3 in Sin City. There's a mailing list and everything. Liz Phair at Luxor? Pavement at Treasure Island? Interpol at New York, New York? The New Pornographers meet actual pornographers? Book your tickets now, kids -- we're, like, 80 percent sure this isn't a hoax.