Phoenix – review

Shepherd's Bush Empire, LondonMany bands like to insert an intimate, stripped-down segment into their sets but not after their second song. That's when something goes awry with Phoenix's drums, threatening to derail their first UK show in three years. But if frontman Thomas Mars is bothered then he doesn't show it, joining guitarist Christian Mazzalai in a beautiful rendition of Air's Playground Love. Then, while roadies continue to scurry anxiously, he descends into the front row to croon... [continue]

Imagine Dragons – review

ABC, GlasgowThere are two key plot points to the Imagine Dragons origin story. One is that the Las Vegas four-piece paid their dues by playing six-hour sets to uninterested gamblers in crummy casinos, like the Beatles in Hamburg but with less flattering lighting. The other is that "Imagine Dragons" is really a pseudonym, an anagram of their "real" name, known only to the band and their kin.Five months ago, they were playing UK shoeboxes. Now they're performing in front of teeming crowds that can... [continue]

Interactive filmmaker Chris Milk on the new frontier of the web

The filmmaker behind Arcade Fire's Wilderness Downtown project explains the thrill of interactivity, and why even the techiest project has to start with a storyHeartbreak weighs particularly heavy on the fragile teenage heart. The drama of those first experiences of love never seem that long ago, so all-consuming, and followed by a rejection that seems to define the world, until the next."I was 17, and going out with a girl I found out was cheating on me," Chris Milk recalls, leaning back on a... [continue]

Black Mirror decodes our modern dread of technology

The English have a coy euphemism for addiction: “moreish.” It summons the delightful anxiety in surrendering your control to something else, the ambivalent cocktail of desire and guilt. We feel it flickering in the periphery, and we feel our smartphones in the middle of a restaurant dinner. We live with the inability to fall asleep [...] [continue]

Avoiding Financial Armageddon at the Post Office

The USPS is an analog business being rapidly consumed by digitization. Here's a plan to update and rescue it. Reuters "Now it seems strange How we used to wait for letters to arrive But what's stranger still Is how something so small can keep you alive" --Arcade Fire, We Used to Wait It's election season. And since Candy Crowley didn't use my question in the second debate, I thought I'd ask it here: "President Obama and Governor Romney, the United States Postal Service is forecasted to lose \$5.5... [continue]

Mubadala Part of Group to Buy EMI Music Publishing

According to the press release, “An investor group comprised of Sony Corporation of America (“SCA”), in conjunction with the Estate of Michael Jackson; Mubadala Development Company PJSC; Jynwel Capital Limited; the Blackstone Group’s GSO Capital Partners LP; and David Geffen (the “Group”) announced today the execution of a definitive agreement, whereby the Group will acquire EMI Music Publishing from a wholly-owned subsidiary of Citigroup, Inc.... [continue]

The revival of vinyl: Back to black

ONE common trend in many Western countries, regardless of the health of their recorded-music markets, is clear: vinyl is back. Sales of LPs were up in both Britain and Germany last year. In America vinyl sales are running 39% above last year’s level (see chart). In Spain sales have risen from 16,000 in 2005 to 104,000 in 2010. That is an increase from a tiny base, but any rise in media sales in Spain’s ravaged market is noteworthy.This is a second revival for vinyl. The... [continue]

The revival of vinyl: Back to black

ONE common trend in many Western countries, regardless of the health of their recorded-music markets, is clear: vinyl is back. Sales of LPs were up in both Britain and Germany last year. In America vinyl sales are running 39% above last year’s level (see chart). In Spain sales have risen from 16,000 in 2005 to 104,000 in 2010. That is an increase from a tiny base, but any rise in media sales in Spain’s ravaged market is noteworthy.This is a second revival for vinyl. The... [continue]