Columbia’s current favorite sons, Vampire Weekend, seem to be doing pretty well for themselves lately. With their full-length album coming out in three days and two sold-out shows at Bowery Ballroom kicking off a national tour next week. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” was Rolling Stone‘s 67th best song of the year, and a snarky Pitchfork […]

Bwog freelancer Stephanie Quan isn’t a classical music buff, but she got interested in virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell when she heard about this experiment in a D.C. metro station. Eight months later, she snagged a phone interview with the Strad-playing celebrity, and quizzed him on childhood habits and favorite dead people. Bwog: Hi.   Joshua […]

With all the ballots in and the numbers thoroughly crunched, Bwog proudly presents its second annual Music Critics(ish) Poll. Like last year, we’ve collected lists of favorite albums and singles from various on campus critics, musicians, and radio programmers. Unlike last year, we’ve devised a formula (not a very complicated one) in order to create […]

In Rainbows–a frequenter on this year’s top ten lists–is now complete with the release of Disc 2 about a week ago. Bwog’s newest music critic Michael Molina provides his assessment. As of December 10th, Radiohead’s In Rainbows is no longer available to download online, but will be sold on CD and vinyl starting January 1st […]

Did you need a reason to come back to school? Look no further–R&B rock star John Legend will be playing Alfred Lerner Hall at 6:00 PM on Monday, January 28, as part of Show Me: The Poverty Action Tour. Never one to miss a party, sustainability guru Jeff Sachs will be joining Mr. Legend onstage, […]

On Tuesday night, Bwogger Jamie Johns braved the mosh pits to see Battles perform. Battles have been together since 2003. Before that they played in groups like Helmet, Don Caballero, Lynx, Storm and Stress, Tomahawk. Their latest record, Mirrored, could be described as experimental, techno, new music, math rock, jazz and yet none of this […]

Bwog’s not sure what it thinks about noise music. After all, what separates it from, well, normal noise? Music correspondent Jamie Johns tries to get at the mystery in this e-mail exchange with Carlos Giffoni. Since the early 2000s, Carlos Giffoni has been at the center of a burgeoning noise scene in New York as […]

Way back when, Ashraya Gupta, Bwog’s Blue Notebooks correspondent, attended a BN-sponsored conversation with music critic Alex Ross. Even a series of technical (and editorial) snafus couldn’t keep her report from reaching the masses. At the most recent Blue Notebooks event, The New Yorker critic and recent author of The Rest Is Noise, expounded on […]

Brandon Wolfeld, Bwog’s newest Arts correspondent, provides an optimistic roundup of his Saturday CMJ experience. (Photos by Armin Rosen.) What brings six bands from as far away as Kansas to a seemingly abandoned lot in Brooklyn? The answer: the College Music Journal’s CMJ festival, an annual 5-day orgy of everything indie. The venue, the Yard […]

Even though M.I.A.’s latest release Kala has been out for half a year, she still managed to sell out new venue Terminal 5. Bwog staffer Lucy Tang treks to the boondocks of midtown and finds that some artists are worth a 2-hour wait. M.I.A. makes me feel less of a woman. Artist, singer, dancer, political […]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of Vampire Weekend. Whether you saw them at ADP or Saint A’s or read the Bwog interview (their first, I think), these four boys were definitely in the business of invigorating the (almost nonexistent) campus music scene. So here we are, just a little more than […]

Fresh off the release of Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective brought their orchestra of electronics to Webster Hall on both Sunday and Monday. Bwog correspondent Lucy Tang explains why you should never see a band you love at Webster Hall. Considering that Strawberry Jam is one of my favorite releases of the year, I was very […]

Working its way up from the Warehouse in Winston-Salem to Webster Hall, Okkervil River has cemented its place among the best in hyper-literate indie rock. Bwog correspondent Max Friedman chronicles his personal journey with Okkervil River. When I first saw Okkervil River play, four years ago, it was at a small, artsy venue in my […]

Jeremy Sean and Celtic Warriors brought their own electro-acoustic Celtic pop to the Lower East Side’s 169 Bar last night. The band, led by Jeremy Blackman, C’09, tore through a half-hour set of sweet, succinct pop tunes. The rhythm section, comprised of Jacob Brunner, C’09, and Coleman Moore, C’10, lived up to their name as […]

What happens when you mix dirrrrty, sexxxy hip-hop with Apple computers? One crazy dance party. Bwog staffer Hannah Goldfield elaborates (photos by Hannah Goldfield and Merrell Hambleton). I first heard Spank Rock while nodding off in the backseat of a friend’s car. Someone had added a few bonus tracks to the end of an otherwise […]