​This morning Chuck Klosterman took to his perch at the ESPN-gone-McSweeney's site Grantland and tried to figure out why tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l, a record that he wasn't familiar with (but, he noted, that was loved by his wife), won this year's Pazz & Jop albums poll. He gave the album a listen, wondered about what Merrill Garbus might have on her mind, and asserted that she "must validate other people's belief in her own brilliance" in order to live up to her win this year. The piece was a bit "Old Man Yells At Cloud That He Seems To Find Gender-Ambiguous," to be honest, complete with confused Wikipedia citations, notes about its "superficially indecipherable lyrics," and so on. There are also attempts to play pundit as far as her future success, with this perhaps being the most eyebrow-raising: "Garbus will end up with this bizarre 40-year-old life, where her singular claim to fame will be future people saying things like, 'Hey, remember that one winter when we all thought tUnE-yArDs was supposed to be brilliant? That fucking puppeteer? Were we all high at the same time? What was wrong with us?'" Sigh.

Most frustrating about the piece, written by one of the country's most celebrated music writers on a high-trafficked platform: It seems to have been the result of a listening session or two in a vacuum, with only Wikipedia and a couple of preconceived notions about Garbus being kind of "out there" as research assistance. To that end, I'd like to provide a couple of reading suggestions for those still confused by what tUnE-yArDs might be about. I'm not saying, "You have to like this record." I do, but I also know that it's pretty divisive—if you look at the numbers, it won on passion as much as it won on number of votes! Rather, I just want to provide a bibliography of sorts, especially since claiming that one is engaging with an album (or, really, any artistic product) while refusing to do so in actuality is really not all that good of a look.

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Merrill Garbus, your 2011 Pazz & Jop Albums Poll winner.

​Hooray and huzzah, the Pazz & Jop poll, calculated from the ballots of 700 critics around the globe, is up and running and ready for your perusal. Congratulations to Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, whose w h o k i l l walked away with the albums poll; and Adele, whose inescapable yet compelling even on umphundredth listen "Rolling In The Deep" dominated the singles vote. And there were essays! Oh boy were there essays. Check below.

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​In honor of Beyoncé's four-night run at Roseland, which continues with a sold-out show tonight, Sound of the City is celebrating the singer with a series of features. While she's a singular artist with her own way of handling tracks, it's fun to imagine what would happen if other artists tackled her catalog. This list was crafted with a very acute awareness that certain songs shouldn't be touched (cough, "1+1"), but know that the artist/track pairings we came up with pay homage to both B and her future tribute bands.

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tUnE-yArDs w/Austra
Pier 54 at Hudson River Park
Thursday, July 14

Better than: Standing around with your arms crossed.

"Everyone turn around and look at the moon," tUnE-yArDs mastermind Merrill Garbus instructed at the outset of tUnE-yArDs' set last night. She was asking people not just to marvel at its fullness, but to take a second for a bit of self-reflection; it was the last moment that the crowd would get a chance to pause until she exited the stage, a hail of fireworks celebrating her triumphant set on the Hudson River.

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DOM, in the haze.

​The openers for this summer's RiverRocks concert series—three free shows at Hudson River Park's Pier 54, taking place on Thursday evenings in July and August—have been announced: the darkelectro Toronto act Austra will support tUnE-yArDs at this season's July 14 opener; new new wavers Class Actress will open for Metronomy on July 28; and the gleeful deconstructionists DOM will perform with Deer Tick on August 11. All the shows have a 6 p.m. door and are free; videos from the new additions to the lineup below.

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Above, the ever-fierce Merrill Garbus (dba tUnE-yArDs) takes on Sonic Youth's "The Burning Spear" at last night's Our Band Could Be Your Concert, the multi-act musical tribute to the bridge between the DIY pioneers chronicled in Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life and indie acts of today. A few other clips from the evening--including a couple of Nirvana covers, in a nod to Azerrad's bio of the band--after the jump.

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​2011 marks the 13th summer that free shows will be presented at Pier 54 (located at the intersection of West Street and 13th Street) by the Hudson River Park's RiverRocks Series; this season's concerts will be headlined by tUnE-yArDs (July 14), Metronomy (July 28), and Deer Tick (August 11). The Hudson River Park Trust, which presents the shows, will announce opening acts over the coming weeks. For now, in case you want to whet your summer appetite, videos are after the jump--and be sure to read Mike Powell's Voice review of tUnE-yArDs' latest album, the stunning w h o k i l l.

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You don't have to go home, Tyler, but you can't stay here. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.

​Another SXSW is in the books, granting great relief to those of us who were just subjected to five straight days of partying-related Twitter updates, and great sorrow to those who became accustomed to the 80 degree weather and not getting snowed on in freezing cold New York City. But all things must come to an end, even for Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator, who had to go home to his mom's house like all the rest of Austin's expatriate population come Monday morning. Our recap of the actual festival is to follow; in the meantime, intrepid photographer Rebecca Smeyne was there and brought back photos. Many involve people breaking things in convention centers (or maybe that's just Das Racist?). Either way, her selected photos are below (you can see the rest in full at our at our slideshow):

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​Merrill Garbus, a/k/a the ukulele-strumming/drum-pounding/beatboxing/growling dervish known as tUnE-yArDs, is one of the best live acts going right now, a riot of energy, color, and (most importantly) volume, a loop-building and tonsil-flaring spectacle so joyous we're willing to tolerate the fact that her first record was titled BiRd-BrAiNs, and the follow-up, announced today and out April 19, has been christened w h o k i l l. It takes real charisma to convince people to fuck around with typography. As she explains to Pitchfork, this record will (slightly) more closely resemble her live show, but her live show will most probably remain the best way to take her in: Fortunately, she's also announced a full U.S. tour, including a stop at Music Hall of Williamsburg May 21. All shows are below, along with video evidence that'd you better make it to one:

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We have raved in this space about budding DIY r&b siren Merrill Garbus, a/k/a Tune Yards (or tUnE-YaRdS, if you prefer), whose 2008 full-length Bird-Brains is an excellent, almost uncomfortably intimate kitchen-table pop record, and whose live show is utterly stupendous, Garbus looping drums and her own braying voice to mesmerizing affect. Above, a clip from her recent live sessions for 4AD, her new label. Watch all of these ("Hatari" especially, for her deranged sounding GRRRRAHHHH GRRRAHHHs) and go see her whenever she wanders this way again. (That'd be the Bell House, February 4.)