Various Artists Rave On Buddy Holly (Hear Music) Rating: During the late ‘50s, Buddy Holly helped pioneer a new kind of music – rock and roll, a country/R&B hybrid driven by shuffling backbeats and electric guitars – that became the definitive art form of an entire century. He would’ve turned 75 this September. Unfortunately, Holly’s [...]

On June 28, Fantasy/Concord will release Rave On Buddy Holly, a tribute to the late ’50s rock icon who wrote “Peggy Sue,” That’ll Be The Day,” “Every Day” and more. It turns out Weezer aren’t the only band obsessed with the bespectacled rocker. An eclectic cast of artists have banded together to toast Holly, including [...]

Fran Healy “If you write a good enough melody, then it’s almost like a magnet that attracts certain phrases, or certain words, towards it. And then the next stage is the easy part, which is like doing a medium-difficulty crossword from The Guardian. You’ve just got to fill in blanks and it writes itself.” Sean [...]

Skip Matheny— currently a songwriter in the band Roman Candle and former bartender in a retirement community — caught up with Julian Casablancas before his recent show at the Cannery in Nashville, Tennessee. What’s your favorite drink? [Looks over at the green room hospitality table] Gasoline, No, absinthe… No. My favorite drink? I don’t know — [...]

Dark Night of the Soul Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present Capitol Rating: Dark Night of the Soul arrives with a spooky, haunting mystique worthy of “Gloomy Sunday,” the Depression-Era Hungarian ballad that supposedly drove its listeners to suicide. This Danger Mouse (Brian Burton)/Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous) collaboration was supposed to come out last year, but a [...]

Bob Dylan turns 69 this year. To celebrate his birthday, the popular and offbeat online radio show Atomic Cocktail will present It Ain’t Him, Babe, “an hour’s worth of the best tracks from four decades of Dylan clones and sound-alikes. Alongside cuts by artists you know like Simon & Garfunkel, Sonny Bono, Michael Nesmith, Barry McGuire and [...]

Cover songs; every time you turn around, there’s a new one. Ben Folds cheers up Elliott Smith’s “Say Yes” as part of The AV Club’s ongoing Undercovers project; Folds wrote “Late,” off 2005′s Songs For Silverman, in Smith’s honor. Ben Folds covers Elliott Smith Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas steps into Bruce Springsteen’s shoes for this [...]

From a distance, the show Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas puts on might seem to be a bore, all stiff and doe-eyed with no movement. Last night, when he took the stage in some eye-searingly red pants at the Cannery Ballroom, it became clear that this isn’t the case. Something about him in the flesh, simply [...]

All stars for converse…