The Inquisition: Glen Campbell
The Rhinestone Cowboy's new album features covers of Green Day, U2, and Foo Fighters, among others. Find out why.
By David Marchese 08.05.08 12:35 PM
Music has always come easy for Glen Campbell -- his gift for ballads ("Wichita Lineman") and rodeo-bar staples ("Rhinestone Cowboy") made him the king of country pop, but it's away from the mic where life's been hard -- drug abuse, divorces, a much-ridiculed mug shot from a 2003 DUI arrest.
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The Spin Interview: Q-Tip
After Q-Tip transformed hip-hop with A Tribe Called Quest, he endured solo exile and ran the celebrity gauntlet. Will he now be accepted back as an MC elder? He's prepared, regardless. "I take what I do seriously," he says, "But it's a lighthearted seriousness."
By Thomas Golianopoulos 08.04.08 4:28 PM
Kamaal "Q-Tip" Fareed is the leader of Queens, New York–based group A Tribe Called Quest, whose innovative first three albums are perhaps hip-hop's most universally beloved -- by both fans and critics. Tensions plagued 1996's disappointing fourth, Beats, Rhymes and Life, and the trio split in 1998.
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Oxford Collapse, 'Bits' (Sub Pop)
Diligent Brooklyn rock vets make unexpected great leap forward.
By Steve Kandell 08.04.08 10:38 AM
Your town probably has an Oxford Collapse -- a tightly coiled indie act, smart-but-not-too-smart, hard-working, well-respected purveyors of shout-along choruses who've never quite broken from the increasingly crowded pack of same.
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Jamey Johnson, 'That Lonesome Song' (Mercury)
Gruff-voiced storyteller gives hellacious tour of hard life.
By Chuck Eddy 08.04.08 10:31 AM
Opening with clanking prison doors, then taking off with "High Cost of Living," a nearly six-minute, drugs-nullifying-life drone that's as close as 2008 will get to its own "Heroin," this honky-tonkin' ex-Marine's first album since Sony booted him turns a cracked mirror on Nashville triumphalism.
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The Faint, 'Fasciinatiion' (Blank.Wav)
The retro synth-wave bash climaxes with a chaotic crash.
By Barry Walters 08.04.08 10:28 AM
At first it just sounds like a bunch of ugly computer-mangled noises battling each other -- arrangements so crammed with discord that the tracks practically deconstruct themselves, plus lyrics about pointless arguments, equally senseless wars, and other evils.
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Duffy: Girl From the North Country
Life in a wee Welsh village may not seem like ideal preparation for the pressures of breakout retro-pop stardom. But so far, Duffy's handling it better than last year's model.
By Amanda Petrusich 08.01.08 3:32 PM
The drive from Cardiff to Nefyn, a remote fishing village on north Wales' Llyn Peninsula, is only about 160 miles, but it takes me nearly seven hours.
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