Wilson McBee

Features

Horses for Courses: Virgin Mobile Festival 2008, Part Two

Sandwiched between Lil Wayne’s lyrical wizardry and Kanye West’s globetrotting techno-populism, Bob Dylan gave one of the festival’s rare encores on a day when nearly every band deserved one. [29 August 2008]

Horses for Courses: Virgin Mobile Festival 2008, Part One

With a line-up that read like a quick scroll through an FM radio dial, the Virgin Mobile Festival attempted to please every faction of the musical market and had more successes (Rodrigo y Gabriela, Sharon Jones, Wilco) than shortcomings (The Offspring). [28 August 2008]

Reviews

Bob Dylan + Willie Nelson + John Mellencamp: 28 July 2009 - Durham, NC

Who would deny the appeal of the Willie Nelson/John Mellencamp/Bob Dylan ballpark tour, even after we agree that Mellencamp doesn't belong with such a distinguished duo? [11 September 2009]

Clues: 15 June 2009 - Washington, DC

It's rare to see a band on its first nationwide tour playing its material with such a combination of muscle and comfort. [16 July 2009]

Bruce Springsteen: 8 May 2009 - Washington, DC

If this is indeed America's funeral, she is going out with a bang, and Bruce Springsteen is the grand marshal for death's parade. [1 June 2009]

Wu-Tang Clan

As the fanboy goosebumps receded, and the Wu-Tang Clan settled into their jobs, the excitement in the room began to dissipate slowly and steadily [27 January 2009]

The Letters of Allen Ginsberg

Ginsberg was hyperaware of the frequent charge that Beat poetry was little more than improvised mumbo jumbo baked from jazz records and marijuana smoke. [2 December 2008]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

It’s become a well-known fact that at a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show, the energy of the audience had better be in inverse proportion to that of the band, or else people will be falling asleep. [7 November 2008]

Black Kids

While Black Kids' performance was filled with giddy euphoria, it felt more like witnessing the peak of a passing fad than it did the start of something great. [16 October 2008]

Silver Jews

Through the common combination of love, spirituality, and patience, David Berman has stumbled upon what might be mistaken as a happy ending but instead should be properly described as a new beginning. [24 September 2008]

The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon

With its unflinching portraits of American hypocrisy and the harsh truths of warfare, this is the sort of novel that is difficult to forget. [27 June 2008]

Islands

Former Unicorn and Islands bandleader Nick “Diamonds” Thorburn has unearthed a Byzantine treasure chest from a subterranean pop goldmine, full of weird death-dreams and bloody sagas... [18 June 2008]

DeVotchka

The stage is aglow with red lighting, and DeVotchka’s four-member core, dressed as if for the funeral of a 19th-century vaudevillian, enters accompanied by loudspeakers playing a classical waltz and a scantily clad circus-type dancer who tosses rose petals into the crowd. [16 June 2008]

A Nation of Wimps by Hara Estroff Marano

Longtime journalist and Editor-at-large at Psychology Today, Marano chronicles the psychological pitfalls of the current child-rearing environment. [12 June 2008]

But Didn’t We Have Fun? by Peter Morris

Early baseballers were sticklers for ritual and rules, handing out fines for profanity and frowning upon competitiveness that grew too heated. Can you imagine? [16 May 2008]

Vandaveer

Vandaveer admitted he hadn’t picked up a guitar in a week, which was not evident from his sure-handed acoustic riffing. But he did seem unpracticed at alcohol consumption. [8 May 2008]

Sons and Daughters + Holy Fuck + A Place to Bury Strangers

After experiencing two opening acts defined by imagination and verve, what a downer it was to hear the rote rockisms of Sons and Daughters. [23 April 2008]

Born Ruffians + Cadence Weapon

Nationality aside, these acts share very little. Born Ruffians create tight, yelping guitar pop, while Cadence Weapon is a music-critic-turned-rapper whose beats boast a lot of vintage synth and video game bleeps. [8 April 2008]