Damon Albarn

Coachella 2013: Blur, Phoenix, Red Hot Chili Peppers to headline

Last year the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival used technological trickery to make it look as if Tupac Shakur had been brought back to life. So what do you do for an encore to one of pop music’s biggest magic shows? Coachella organizers have...

Tags: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Social Distortion (music group), Entertainment, Music, New York City

Top concerts of 2012

Here are my favorite concerts from 2012: 1. Neutral Milk Hotel at Athenaeum Theatre, Feb. 6: After releasing two acclaimed albums in the ‘90s, Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum drifted away for more than a decade. His return stacked up as...

Tags: Grant Park, Pitchfork Music Festival, Crazy Horse (music group), Mary J. Blige, Entertainment Events

Live review: Yeah Yeah Yeahs are positively explosive

This post has been updated. See below for details. A number of factors contributed to the power of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' show in Pomona on Friday night. Among them: the fans, the venue, the spirit, the sound, the moshing, the opening band, the headliners...

Tags: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, David Lynch, Concerts, Madonna, Where the Wild Things Are (movie)

2012 in review: Pop music's most memorable moments

Pop & Hiss weighs in on the most notable music moments of the year. L.A. owns 2012: Our fair city never lacks for great rising artists, but rarely have two locals so dominated the national conversation with groundbreaking, major-label albums. Kendrick...

Tags: Mariachi el Bronx (music group), Music Industry, Rihanna, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Axl Rose

Bobby Womack says he has Alzheimer's disease

Tags: Music, Symptoms, BBC, Diseases and Illnesses, Live Nation

Operas and orgasms -- did ENO go too far with 'Don Giovanni' ad?

In 2010, the English National Opera in London generated some debate over its modern staging of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" that featured a couple of scenes of sexual assault, including one of a gang rape of a woman. This season, the company is once again...

Tags: Music, Sex Crimes, Terry Gilliam, Opera (genre), Blur (music group)

Menomena's Deceptively Hooky Pop Arrives at Pearl Street in Northampton on Oct. 14

There's already a handy narrative available to guide you through the schizophrenic Moms, the fifth album by Portland, Ore.’s Menomena. Shortly after the 2010 release of Mines, the group parted ways with co-founder Brent Knopf in January of 2011....

Tags: Music, Menomena (music group), Blur (music group), Entertainment, Gorillaz (music group)

Concert review: Bobby Womack at Brilliant Corners festival

Bobby Womack doesn’t like to be rushed. “Can I do it right for you tonight? he asked Sunday on the closing night of the Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusements fall showcase at the Riverfront Theatre. “I like to do it right and take my...

Tags: Religion and Belief, Tyrone Davis, Philosophy, Cancer, Sam Cooke

Bobby Womack interview: 'I wonder why I'm still here'

Bobby Womack picks up the phone, and speaks what’s on his mind in a voice made of gravel. “I know a lot of people who are not here anymore,” the R&B great says, “and I wonder why I’m still here. … Not a day goes by...

Tags: Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Music Industry, Don Cornelius, Cancer

Dan the Automator, Dogfish concoct a beer/music mash-up

Album review: Bobby Womack, 'The Bravest Man in the Universe'

3 stars (out of 4) At 68, Bobby Womack has a resume steeped in greatness: a gospel singer who worked with Sam Cooke, a gifted session guitarist who played with everyone from Elvis Presley to Sly Stone, a songwriter covered by the Rolling Stones, and...

Tags: Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones (music group), Bobby Womack, Gorillaz (music group)

Happy Pills: Exploring 12 shades of heartbreak with Norah Jones and Brian Burton

Everyone, it seems, works with Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse), eventually: Damon Albarn (in Gorillaz and the Good, the Bad and the Queen), the Rapture, the Black Keys, Beck, Cee-Lo Green (in Gnarls Barkley), the Shins' James Mercer (as Broken Bells), and...

Tags: Music, The Black Keys (music group), Norah Jones, Gnarls Barkley, Brooklyn (New York City)