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PRESS HERE: M. Ward returns with his eighth solo album, More Rain, which will be released on March 4, 2016 via Merge Records. Ward’s new single, “Girl From Conejo Valley,” is a nostalgic trot through people he used to know and a place he used to be. Having spent the last decade-and-a-half based in the perennially damp Portland, Oregon, the singer-songwriter and producer has learned how to shine through the soggy gloom by simply embracing its inevitability. With his new album More Rain, Ward has made a true gotta-stay-indoors, rainy-season record that looks upwards through the weather while reflecting on […]

  BY BEN LEHMAN Breakout comedian Dan Soder recently talked with Phawker about his upcoming series Billions which stars legendary actor Paul Giamatti and having his own special on Comedy Central. Soder gave his thoughts on political correctness in comedy and how to make light of a difficult past. His resume already boasts a talk show on Comedy Central Radio with Big Jay Oakerson, along with appearances on MTV’s Guy Code and Conan. Dan Soder certainly is making his way up in the world of comedy. Philadelphia fans can catch Dan at the Trocadero on December 3rd when he films […]

  FRESH AIR Historian Mary Beard has spent her career working through the texts and source materials of ancient Rome. She has written several books on the subject — including her most recent work, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome — but she doesn’t feel like she’s close to being done with the topic. “One of the great things about history is that it sort of isn’t a done deal — ever,” Beard tells Fresh Air’s Dave Davies. “The historical texts and the historical evidence that you use is always somehow giving you different answers because you’re asking it different […]

From Painting With Animal Collective, the new album due out Feb. 19th.

  VIBE: The alluring and intriguing Erykah Badu never ceases to amaze us. After announcing on Twitter that her mixtape, But You Can’t Use My Phone, will be dropping at midnight, Fatbellybella gave out her phone number, but you have to look at the cover art for “Hotline (Remix),” “Phone Down” and But You Cain’t Use My Phone for clues on what to dial. The 11-track project makes reference to telephones. While guest appearances have been kept on the lock, we do know that her former lover and father of her son, Andre 3000, appears on “Hello,” which you can […]

HUFFINGTON POST: Hughes reflected on who lived and who died in the mayhem. “Several people hid in our dressing room and the killers were able to get in and kill everyone, except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket,” Hughes said. “A great reason so many were killed was because so many people wouldn’t leave their friends.” Nick Alexander, the band’s merchandise manager, died while protecting someone else. He “bled out because he didn’t want anyone else to get hurt,” Hughes said, beginning to cry. Homme showed two pieces of paper on which he has been writing […]

You had us at Terrence Malick. Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman. Looks like The Tree Of Life with tawdry sex, drugs, fear and loathing in Babylon.The official synopsis goes like this: Rick is a slave to the Hollywood system. He is addicted to success but simultaneously despairs at the emptiness of his life. He is at home in a world of illusions but seeks real life. Like the tarot card of the title, Rick is easily bored and needs outside stimulation. But the Knight of Cups is also an artist, a romantic and an adventurer. In Terrence […]

  FRESH AIR Sam Phillips, founder of the label Sun Records, didn’t care much about making flawless recordings. Instead, the man who discovered Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison and a host of others rejected perfection in favor of spontaneity and individuality. “Sam would say, ‘I hate that word, perfection. It should be banned from the English language,’” music writer Peter Guralnick tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “He didn’t care about the mistakes; he cared about the feel.” In his new book, Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll, Guralnick chronicles […]

  “When the Know-Nothings get control, it [the Declaration of Independence] will read: ‘All men are created equal except negroes, foreigners and Catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.” — ABRAHAM LINCOLN