Author Archives: David Greenwald

The Arcade Fire “Neon Bible” Merge Records Let’s start with the things that “Neon Bible” is not: a world-beating career album; an intensely personal look inward; dramatic without a “melo” preface. In short, it’s not “Funeral,” the Arcade Fire’s 2004 debut. Instead, “Neon Bible,” the second album from the Montreal group that took rock music […]

“Thunderbolts” No. 111 By Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato marvel comics “Thunderbolts” has always been a comic book about good intentions. Beginning as the story of former supervillains masquerading as heroes ““ and then choosing to embrace their new roles ““ the series has always tackled morality and ethics with intelligence and humanity. But now, […]

Field Music “Tones of Town” Memphis Industries Call it post-post-punk. In the wake of second-generation bands such as Bloc Party and Interpol, there’s been renewed interest in post-punk’s founding fathers: Gang of Four, Mission of Burma and Wire, who have all recently either made comebacks or at least reissued classic albums. But rather than skew […]

Following a year in which “Fishscale” somehow snowballed into New York rapper Ghostface Killah’s most acclaimed album, one would think the aptly titled “More Fish” could only be an afterthought. “Fishscale” was an album of big guns and high profiles: producers J Dilla, MF Doom and Pete Rock all contributed beats, and various Wu-Tang Clan […]

Pimp City Duckfeet Entertainment, LLC For the average college student, the scary, sexy world of pimps and prostitutes is far away (or at least across town over by USC). Likewise, board games are a pastime from childhood and family vacations. But now, “Pimp City” is bringing the two together. Like a sexed-up “Monopoly,” “Pimp City” […]

He’s been called the grand master of jazz guitar by Dizzy Gillespie and the greatest guitarist in the world by B.B. King. He was Duke Ellington’s favorite. And in the latter half of his 50-year career as a leading performer, he’s also been called “Professor” by innumerable UCLA students. The man is Kenny Burrell, the […]

Badly Drawn Boy “Born in the U.K.” ASTRALWERKS RECORDS Badly Drawn Boy used to have a fitting moniker. Now he’s working on winning it back. In 2000, the singer/songwriter (one Damon Gough) won the Mercury Prize and set himself high among his contemporaries with “The Hour of Bewilderbeast,” a messy, confusing rabbit hole of an […]