Following last year's triumphant Pavement reunion, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks will release their latest, Beck-produced album, Mirror Traffic in two weeks. The very positive early reviews have focused on the melodic aspects to the new record, and suggest that, despite being recorded just prior to the reunion, Mirror Traffic harkens back to Malkmus' former band's sound more than any of his other solo albums—BBC calls it "one of those records that’ll tempt fair-weather fans back to the Malkmus name." And Malkmus will celebrate the release with two rare NYC record store appearances. more ›

In a recent interview with Spin magazine, Stephen Malkmus—who lives with his family in Portland, Oregon—talked about his old stomping grounds of New York (where he used to be a security guard at the Whitney!). Unlike his Pavement bandmate, Mark Ibold (who you can find behind the bar at Great Jones Cafe), he has no plans to return... especially not to Park Slope. Malkmus declares: more ›

As you've wandered around the city on foot, trying to avoid the gum and the poop, have you noticed any blue and orange tokens paved into the ground? A tipster pointed them out to us, and wondered what they might be. They wrote: "I've seen them all over the city, and they seem to be permanent and not related to construction. This photo was taken on 65 and bway on the NE corner. The tokens have a number in the center and then a larger number on the surrounding ring, which looks to be an ID number." Could they be clues to some grand Freemasons-like conspiracy? more ›

Last night '90s alt rockers Pavement played the first of many anticipated reunion shows in NYC. When the band's reunion was first announced a year ago, it initially seemed that the band would play just one gig, scheduled for Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. The first show immediately sold out, and so another date was added, and then another and another, and now Malkmus & Co. is cashing in with a five night stand, which kicked off last night at The Williamsburg Waterfront. Were you there? Or were you supposed to go but couldn't remember where you stashed the tickets you bought a year ago? Last week, The New Yorker reported that Pavement fans of a certain age were struggling to remember where they put the damn tickets: more ›

There are some classic indie bands all of us take for granted, bands who've been around so long they seem like institutions. Maybe it's because they don't put out records very often anymore, and they've fallen off the what's-in blog radar, or maybe it's because some of them are more consistently excellent than they are challenging at times. They're still some of the best bands performing today, bands such as Yo La Tengo, Lambchop, Super Furry Animals, and especially, Superchunk. more ›

Click through to read about Pavement's reunion show in Central Park, Deerhoof's show at Le Poisson Rouge, and Pela's break-up. more ›