That's dedication right there.

​As the baseball season nears, the announcements of the season's schedule of promotions steadily increases, and over the weekend the Mets announced that for their 50th anniversary they'd be throwing a three-show postgame concert series in 2012. The lineup: the hesher-pop outfit REO Speedwagon (June 15), powerpop titans Cheap Trick (July 20), and the religious post-grunge outfit MercyMe (August 10). The bands are from Champaign, Illinois; Rockford, Illinois; and Greenville, Texas, respectively. That's right—there are no New York bands on the bill, which seems quite silly given that this city is crawling with musically inclined fans of the team and even has a DIY venue named after the Mets' former home. To that end, here are six New York-based acts who might not mind having the 2012 version of the Metropolitans as their opening act. Perhaps those of us who feel passionate enough about this issue can organize a trip to this season's triumphant return of Banner Day (May 27!) in order to lobby for one or all or these choices?

More >>

​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.

More >>

Surely some enterprising writer can find a way to link these three records.

​20. Tom Petty, Into The Great Wide Open

19. Skid Row, Slave To The Grind

18. Teenage Fanclub, Bandwagonesque

17. Prince & The New Power Generation, Diamonds & Pearls

More >>

There is always a relevant Unrest video.
Sure, autumn isn't exactly the season that your typical clichés associate with love ünd romance, but the chances that you might wind up seeing music with someone you fancy do exist! And despite the gloom and the cacophony of freakouts over Facebook becoming even more whiplash-inducing I'm feeling sorta optimistic for the coming season on this first day of fall, so in the interest of helping you all find happiness while not irritating the people in your immediate vicinity—particularly if you are at a crowded show surrounded by people who might not be as romantically lucky as you are—here is the one cardinal rule of being on a date at a general admission concert that I would like to present to all of you:

More >>

Mmm. wingy.

​A week from tonight, four titans of heavy metal--Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer--will come together at Yankee Stadium for The Big 4's East Coast concert. It's going to be great! The Bronx is pretty excited about the impending metal invasion, too, as evidenced by the missive from its tourism board SOTC received today. In addition to noting that a radio station from Baltimore will be simulcasting live from the Bronx as part of the festivities (guess no NYC station could fit metal into its format? sigh), it includes the following news: "In the build up to the concert, the Bronx Tourism Council at BOEDC is spearheading the Metal Heads Welcome promotion, which spotlights the businesses in the 161st Street neighborhood surrounding the stadium. Restaurants and bars will offer choices like 'Metallica Martinis' and 'Metal Mayhem Meatball' specials and pipe in music by the world-famous bands." Dining establishments are still putting together their lists of specials, so there's still time for them to add some--or all!--of the following 10 menu items named after iconic moments from each of the Big 4 bands!

More >>

Late yesterday I was psyched enough to find ASAP Rocky's new video for "Peso" (which you can download here) that I decided to craft a video primer on the up-and-coming MC. He reps Harlem pretty hard, but his beats are so chopped and screwed you'd think he was a student of Mike Jones. Also, he seems to be bringing back grills. (This is not a complaint.) And he's even got a co-sign from Drake!

More >>