Rob Tannenbaum | Rolling Stone

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39 items by Rob Tannenbaum

Recover EP | ALBUM REVIEW

By posting two fantastic synthpop songs, "Lies" and then "The Mother We Share," to the Internet last year, Chvrches became blog big shots and Passion Pit's opening act. Their EP lacks those two songs, which are still...
March 26, 2013 12:10 AM ET
Rifts | ALBUM REVIEW

It's unclear whether he likes John Tesh and Yanni, but Daniel Lopatin is likely the first bearded Brooklynite to defend the ginger-infused balm of New Age music. An heir of Brian Eno, Lopatin records as Oneohtrix Point...
February 20, 2013 11:10 AM ET
Global Warming | ALBUM REVIEW

Last year, Pitbull became a dance-pop monarch with the chart-topping "Give Me Everything," and his seventh LP tries to keep that crossover elasticity rolling: "I ain't greedy, sharin' is carin'/Especially when it's with Sharon and Karen,"...
November 20, 2012 10:10 AM ET
Band to Watch: Django Django | VIDEO

Hometown: Edinburgh, Scotland Backstory: The bandmates met at art school, where they bonded over a shared love of Monty Python. Smocking Out: Django once played a show in medieval smocks, horrifying their new record label. They were unapologetic: "You...
October 22, 2012 7:20 AM ET
"My Road Now" | SONG REVIEW

The first Westerberg song in a while plays like a songwriter's card trick. It starts as a tender piano-ballad portrayal of an outsider, until the reveal comes at the chorus; Westerberg turns ornery, ordering the song's subject,...
October 10, 2012 10:15 AM ET
"Everything Burns" | SONG REVIEW

Breakneck, brief and free of any unnecessary detailing, "Everything Burns" carries remnants of Ceremony's decade-old origins in severe California hardcore. But, appropriately, this shout-along alarm about the inevitability of change is also the catchiest song they've recorded.
October 10, 2012 10:00 AM ET
Q&A: Paul Westerberg on the Replacements Reunion and Being a Middle-Aged Rocker | ARTICLE

When Paul Westerberg called Rolling Stone last week from his home in Minneapolis, the plan was to discuss "My Road Now" (right-click to download), a slippery piano ballad he recently released. But Westerberg also had some...
October 9, 2012 2:49 PM ET
Kaleidoscope Dream | ALBUM REVIEW

Just when you thought there were no new ways to say "I love you," here comes Miguel Pimentel: "I'm gonna do you like drugs tonight." With this pledge, Miguel proves that he is, easily, uninhibited enough to...
October 5, 2012 10:05 AM ET
The Replacements Reunite for Covers EP | ARTICLE

For the first time since 2006, the Replacements have recorded new songs. In late September, singer Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson spent a day in a Minneapolis studio and cut four cover songs that will...
October 3, 2012 4:38 PM ET
"No More Girls" | SONG REVIEW

Synth-rockers in T-shirts are always dour. Synth-rockers in satin shirts are always gleeful. Maus Haus, a scruffy San Francisco band, reverse this gulf with "No More Girls," jumpy rock-tronica that's exuberant with distortion and la-lala's. Listen to "No...
September 25, 2012 4:20 PM ET
Q&A: 'The Daily Show''s John Oliver on Romney, Springsteen and Jon Stewart Naked | ARTICLE

John Oliver left his native England to join The Daily Show in 2006, fulfilling his ambition "to be both an entertainer and an irritant." Oliver has been juggling a stand-up career and a role on Community as...
September 7, 2012 11:50 AM ET
This Is PiL | ALBUM REVIEW

Since John Lydon last made an album, he reunited the Sex Pistols and appeared on TV as a Judge Judy litigant, a reality-show contestant and a spokesman for Country Life butter; in short, he's become the punk-rock...
June 18, 2012 12:15 PM ET
Live in Detroit, 1986 | ALBUM REVIEW

When Fela Kuti played this 1986 gig, he'd just spent 20 months in prison on charges brought by a Nigerian dictator. So the Afrobeat godfather's always-present indignation has particular bite on this live LP, as he...
June 18, 2012 12:05 PM ET
Old School | ALBUM REVIEW

Before he hit the road for Bruce Springsteen's latest tour, Nils Lofgren made this weird, funny, crabby LP about seemingly everything that annoys him: Congress, yoga, lattes, sexting, any teen "dressed like a whore." Lofgren...
May 23, 2012 12:00 AM ET
Not Your Kind of People | ALBUM REVIEW

Shirley Manson is an avenger. Since Garbage emerged in 1995, their albums have mixed aggressive digital rock with the lashings Manson gives to liars, conformists and other villains. She's a red-haired sister of vampire-slaying Buffy Summers, another...
May 22, 2012 12:20 AM ET
Strange Clouds | ALBUM REVIEW

With B.o.B, you have to take the good (Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj cameos) with the bad (Ryan Tedder, more Ryan Tedder). As on his first album, the Atlanta rapper has called in a crazy array of...
May 1, 2012 10:00 AM ET
Django Django | ALBUM REVIEW

Bands are rarely led by their drummers – there's too big a risk of 25-minute tom-tom solos. But David Maclean, mastermind of the delightful new group Django Django, is an exception. He and his band take a...
April 24, 2012 12:00 AM ET
First Serve | ALBUM REVIEW

Two accomplished New York rappers in their forties portray two newbie New York rappers in their twenties – that's the simplest way to explain this typically complex album from two members of De La Soul. Their tale...
April 19, 2012 10:10 AM ET
Shallow Bed | ALBUM REVIEW

Dry the River take their music so seriously, even Sting would giggle. The debut from this London five-piece, who've gotten loads of Mumford & Sons comparisons, shouts "We're intense!" at every moment – especially in the...
April 17, 2012 2:10 PM ET
MTV Unplugged | ALBUM REVIEW

Nothing minor happens in a Florence Welch song. While most of us worry about hangnails or roaming charges, her mind is gripped by images of blindness, despair, suicide and other symptoms of love. On Unplugged, she intensifies...
April 10, 2012 12:00 AM ET