The spectrum of "pop" has broadened considerably in recent years. Affix the word "indie" with a hyphen and you've effectively categorized about 30% of contemporary music. Given the size of this aural subset, pop musicians wishing to be heard above the general din...

Michael Tyrell lives in Brooklyn and teaches at NYU. His poems have appeared in Agni, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Paris Review, among
many other journals. The Wanted is his first book of poems....

Four weeks ago, on the night before I drove 2,500 miles west to begin studying poetry at the University of Oregon, I was fortunate enough to interview Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy) for a second time. At the moment the phone rang, I had no idea that our discussion would...

Ever since I was sixteen, the music of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones has consistently served as my summer soundtrack. Now, with an extensive tour in progress and the recent release of their latest album, Rocket Science, Béla and his Flecktones are back to work delighting listeners with the sweet...

A few years ago it was announced that Justin Cronin's next project would be a vampire novel. In some literary circles this revelation was tantamount to that of Bob Dylan going electric in '65. Having achieved considerable distinction amongst the literati with his Pen/Hemingway award-winning novel Mary and O'Neil in...

Ambient and dreamlike are words often used to describe the music of the San Francisco band Papercuts; yet to place those labels on their fourth album, Fading Parade, seems to undervalue the sharp vision behind it. With Fading Parade, chief singer and songwriter Jason Quever has crafted a cohesive collection...

These are some truly choice answers taken from an audio interview I recently did with Canadian actor John Dunsworth, who played Mr. Jim Lahey in the famed Trailer Park Boys TV/movie franchise. Slipping in and out of character, Dunsworth commented hilariously (and intelligently) on liquor, the state of contemporary American...

Baltimore two-piece Wye Oak's new album Civilian could easily be just another balloon floating (briefly) up to further crowd the skies of indie rock. Yet, it isn't. Lead singer and guitarist Jenn Wasner's voice simply won't allow it to be. Wasner's thick, spectral vocals haunt every crevice of Civilian, swelling...

Over the past thirty years, actor Jeff Daniels has established a reputation for versatility on the big screen -- he has played everything from a burnt-out author (The Squid and the Whale), to a Civil War colonel (Gettysburg, Gods and Generals), to a derelict pet groomer (Dumb and Dumber) --...

WASHINGTON — Failed U.S. Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell said Thursday that accusations she misspent campaign funds are politically motivated and stoked by disgruntled former campaign workers.

The Delaware Republican appeared on several network morning shows to defend herself a day after The Associated Press reported federal authorities have launched a...

Since the release of their first album, Deer Apartments, in 1998, matt pond PA has witnessed several incarnations and a largely transformed music industry. Yet, throughout all the change, the band's eponymous founder continued to write his songs of reflection and redemption, and this past April, released one of his...

WILMINGTON, Del. — Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.

The exchange came in a debate before an audience...

Over the past thirty-five years few authors have written with the skill, consistency, and imagination of Peter Carey. The Australian-born novelists' ability to weave disciplined research and compelling prose, coupled with his sheer brilliance as a storyteller, has twice garnered him...

Working with bands and songwriters from Portland over the past year I've discovered what a vibrant musical haven the city has become. Bands practice on front lawns, shows are well attended, everyone knows everyone and collaboration is abundant. I've also noticed a common element in the records coming out of...

To capture the voice of a city as immense and diverse as New York, to write its essence, is a challenge taken on by many resident literati. This aspiration is evidenced upon any stroll through Brooklyn, where it's difficult to go half a block without seeing a coffee shop novelist,...

"I go back to that ghost of a grin on Rick's face and find I must read into it a note of resignation as well as that appearance of contentment; submission to a state of affairs as implacably out of reach of human exertion as the shift of wind that...

It is rare one steps out of a film with a $200 million dollar budget feeling intellectually sated, but Christopher Nolan is a cunning chef and Inception is his finest dish yet. Preposterously ambitious, Nolan actually pulls off a cohesive, panoramic exposition of the human subconscious, the likes of which...

One of my dearest friends, a talented filmmaker whom I have known since kindergarten, recently threatened to discontinue work on our latest project; a commercial featuring NYC poets and musicians promoting our new printed collection of art and literature, Fogged Clarity 1. He felt the aesthetic of the...

As the digitization of modern music continues, vocal prowess and lyrical substance tend more and more to be afterthoughts. Yet, as a genre, folk still places a premium on both.

Because most folk music relies little on complex orchestration, lyrical inadequacy is difficult to conceal, and a greater responsibility...

It's easy to get mired in subjectivity when attempting to define art. Yet, to not do so invites fraud and devaluation of the concept. A fraud and devaluation which seem more prevalent than ever in popular American music and cinema.

To even speak of "art" as a single entity borders...