John Tarpley has been a contributor and voice of critical dissent at Diffuser.fm since Spring 2012. In the last few years, he has served as the music editor of a fine, Southern alt-weekly; fronted a band that one of Tarpley's musical heroes has said, in so many words, was better than the Beatles; and moderated discussions and lectured on music at a small handful of particularly intimidating schools and universities. He tweets about music, Premier League soccer, and writing at @jttarpley.
Since breaking through into the mainstream with their last release, the critically-acclaimed 'Before Today,' Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are set to release their followup album, 'Mature Themes,' on Aug. 21.
San Francisco's Treasure Island--and yes, that's a real, waterlocked island--is set to host another installment of the annual weekend-long Treasure Island Music Festival on Oct. 13-14.
Following last week's announcement that Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill and wife/model Lily Aldridge welcomed their first child, daughter Dixie Pearl, into the world, drummer Nathan Followill announced via Twitter that he and wife, singer-songwriter Jessie Baylin, are expecting their first child this December.
Mumford & Sons has seen its ascent to superstardom accelerate at an almost unheard of pace over the last three years. After the success of their breakthrough single, 'Little Lion Man,' the British folk-rockers have found themselves going multi-platinum while wading kneedeep in awards and award nominations (including racking up six Grammy nods over the last two years).
After taking a detour for steely-eyed cultural criticism with their last two albums, 'American Idiot' and '21st Century Breakdown,' the grown-up pop-punkers in Green Day are returning to their hookier, scrappier roots with their upcoming trilogy of '¡Uno!,' "¡Dos!,' and "¡Tre!,' described by Billie Joe Armstrong as "somewhere between AC/DC and the early Beatles."
The Shins are no stranger to releasing a Big Event Music Video. (Beautiful case in point: the 3-D, stop-motion video for 'The Rifle's Spiral,' released for the Nintendo DS.) Nor are they strangers to hamming it up for the camera. (See: James Mercer's slapstick-y turn for the comic in a Funny or Die sketch.) But the bedroom rockers are at their best when the camera is aimed at them without any gimmicks, flash, pretenses or hoo-hah at large.
So many free music downloads, so little time. There’s certainly a lot of great music being given away these days on MP3.com, but who has the time to track it all down? We do! Each and every week, Diffuser
Since getting a co-sign from freaking Canada with the 2008 Juno Award for New Group of the Year, Nova Scotian indie rockers Wintersleep have seen their reputation as erstwhile underdogs replaced with an internationally-televised performance on 'The Late Show with Letterman,' an opening spot for Paul McCartney and a fair deal of critical shine from their fellow countrymen.
