Is Bon Iver Bon Over? Last night, Justin Vernon answered the question of what’s next for his acclaimed, Grammy-winning band on Minnesota Public Radio, by saying he was “winding it down.” “I look at it like a faucet,” said Vernon. “I have to turn it off and walk away from it because so much of [...]

The Staves (Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor) are a UK sibling act who were discovered by producers Glyn and Ethan Johns (The Rolling Stones, Ray LaMontagne). After opening for The Civil Wars, the three sisters landed a slot supporting Bon Iver during his recent U.S. tour. Their trek included stops at Bonnaroo and Sasquatch. Read [...]

“I’m not waiting anymore,” Christopher Porterfield sings with stern conviction on his band Field Report’s song of the same name, with zero doubt that these words hold the truth. Those words have been lurking in the minds of Porterfield and his bandmates for some time. For Porterfield, his journey has gone from doubting his path [...]

Bonnaroo is less than two weeks away, and the fans aren’t the only one’s gearing up for the event. American Songwriter Magazine sat in on a conference call Wednesday with Alice Cooper, Leslie Feist and Jack Antonoff of fun., where the artists talked about their plans for the festival. Cooper said that he is excited [...]

(Wayne Coyne at this year’s Hangout Music Fest) 2012 has been a particularly experimental year for The Flaming Lips. Never wanting to play it safe, the band surprised fans this year by releasing everything from a 24-hour song to music packaged in gummy fetuses. Frontman Wayne Coyne said that taking the band in such an [...]

This has opened my eyes to what it’s going to take to do this band the way I really dream it could be. It’s going to take changing bandmates, changing sounds, changing instruments, changing voices, growing into myself, making tough decisions, taking the time to make tough creative decisions about what songs you play on [...]

(Photos: Paul Zollo) LOS ANGELES. It was Adele’s night, as the world already knows well, but darkened greatly by the death the night before of Whitney Houston. And when one of the music world’s own most beloved stars dies, the Grammys rise to the occasion, as this did on this night and with great grace [...]

Last night’s Grammy Awards featured a number of surprises, one of which was how often the show’s producers were willing to go back to the same well; Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters and Chris Brown each performed twice over the show’s three-and-a-half hours. The Beach Boys reunion was decent, although Brian Wilson looked a little freaked [...]

Kathleen Edwards Voyageur (Zoë/Rounder) Rating: It’s against my feminist nature to define a singer-songwriter in the shadow of her boyfriend, so I’m pleased to report I’m not the biggest Bon Iver fan. Nevertheless, Kathleen Edwards and Justin Vernon brought out the best in each other this year. I’m going to credit his sleeping with the [...]

Update (1/9/12): Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is launching his own label, Chigliak Records. As the presence of major labels has begun to dwindle, a surge in independent, artist-owned labels and publishing houses has taken place to fill in the missing piece still needed to fulfill the many tasks and operations involved in releasing a record. [...]

“This is our first basketball arena,” Justin Vernon announced early in Bon Iver’s set on Friday at UIC Pavilion, which hosts more hoops than jams. He seemed bemused by the setting, introducing “Towers” as “a song about college basketball” and toasting the guys selling beer in the aisles. At times the show had the feel [...]