The day before British warhorses James re-launch their career with Hey Ma, the group's 11th LP, due Sept. 16 via Decca, they will kick off their first live dates since 2001, beginning in Boston.

Tech fiends and music nerds unite, as the U.K.-based Download 2008 event arrives stateside for the fourth year in a row, boasting the best of the old and new, led by performances from reunited legends like shoegaze trailblazers the Jesus and Mary Chain and dance-punk godfa

After soldiering around the Northwest's dingiest club corners, indie rockers Blitzen Trapper have finally graduated as they prep the release of their Sub Pop debut, Furr, due September 23.

What? When an artist's debut ends up a genre-defining classic, expectations never fade, and though steeped in quality entries like the furious Stillmatic and sleeper hit Street's Disciple, Nas' catalog still craved another manifesto.

The fifth annual PDX Pop Now!

"They cannot see me / They are like Stevie," Lil Wayne once boasted. And with the heights our favorite rasping martian and his syrup-fueled spaceship have reached recently, he's absolutely right. Larger than life, but too high to see (in more ways than one), the Young Carter has again peaked at No.