By Mark GuarinoAfter 12 years of making albums, Matthew Caws had one goal in mind when starting his newest: “not to blow it.”Not likely. Lucky (Barsuk), the latest from Brooklyn pop trio Nada Surf, follows the band’s second coming that should never have happened. The band’s [...]

By Mark GuarinoAlison Goldfrapp used to wear massive heels, slather on face paint and dress in showgirl regalia and perform to a backline of bikini-clad dancers with horse heads. In other words, subtlety and the music of Goldfrapp was a partnership that was doomed.“I remember being [...]

By Mark GuarinoOh, to remember those innocent days of Lilith Fair when an all-day slate of women performers could fill an amphitheater without one of them having to lip sync, shave their head in a pill-induced haze, helicopter to rehab or prepare pre-trial testimony against their [...]

By Mark GuarinoMoby became America’s favorite DJ thanks to Play, a 1999 smash he followed up with albums that spanned electro-pop to strummed singer-songwriter fare. On the sample-heavy dancefloor blues and chilled techno of Last Night (Mute) he steps inside the DJ booth again.For Last Night, [...]

By Mark GuarinoPut yourself in Ben Gibbard’s shoes. You, a bookish-looking fellow and amiable guy, are responsible for writing songs for a band named Death Cab for Cutie, a band burdened with the word “cutie” in its name. Legions of fans, the blogosphere and media creatures [...]

By Mark GuarinoHigh on the list of Things You Did Not Know About KT Tunstall:She is a Deadhead.Blame Vermont. Tunstall was 17 when she left St. Andrews and her “little provincial house by the sea” and arrived in Connecticut to spend her senior year at Kent [...]

By Mark Guarino“I smell patchouli.”With those opening words, singer Maynard Keenan of Tool neatly summed up Friday at Bonnaroo, the annual neo-hippie festival held each June in Manchester, Tennessee. Indeed, a wide spectrum of scents wafted through the acres of rolling farmland — microbiologists would say [...]

By Mark GuarinoBonnaroo fans turned on the red light. And blue. And green. These were the colors of glo-sticks crisscrossing the air signaling the return of The Police, the British power trio reuniting before 80,000 fans Saturday night. The band’s 100-minute, 17-song set was designed as [...]

By Mark GuarinoBonnaroo 2007 ended with a bang and a scare Sunday. The ending day of the four-day festival in middle Tennessee spun the furthest away from its long-earned reputation as a jam-band blowout. On this day, concertgoers — by now dusty, wired and not caring [...]

By Mark GuarinoRufus Wainwright really, really, really, really, really, really, really wanted to make a simple album. Stripped down. Back to basics. Barebones. Minimal. An “Inside the inner sanctum of Rufus kind of thing,” he said.He swears this is true.He did not make that album.That album [...]