Jon Brion

Latest Articles

Nervous guy

Rhett Miller’s anxious and irresistible pop songs
In his better solo songs and the majority of the material he’s made with the alt-country band Old 97’s, Rhett Miller is a big-mouthed wannabe playboy on the verge of collapse.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 24, 2010

Shoot the piano player

Robert Stillman returns with Master Box
Robert Stillman's music is like an anachronistic, sepia-toned spin on the fanciful film scores of Jon Brion (Punch-Drunk Love, I Heart Huckabees). Both make fleet-footed, extremely visual piano songs with trotting melodies, a natural fit for an old silent short.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 22, 2009

Papercuts | You Can Have What You Want

Gnomonsong (2009)
Hidden under reverb and aggressive analog production, the first sung lyrics on You Can Have What You Want belie what seems to be a cheery record title: "Once we walked in the sunlight three years ago this July."
By DEVIN KING | April 14, 2009

The Big Hurt: More bad news in brief

DMX spits, Lou spills, Kelly leaks, Keane sucks
Police pulled over Snoop Dogg’s tour bus and — gasp! — smelled marijuana!
By DAVID THORPE | August 13, 2008

Old 97's

Blame It on Gravity | New West
The guitars ring clear and true, the backbeat is snare-tight, the harmonies are heavenly, and the Old 97’s are back.
By MIKE MILIARD | June 03, 2008

Eels

Meet the Eels: Essential Eels, Vol. 1: 1996–2006 | Geffen
Has Mark Oliver Everett ever tasted the agony of writer’s block?
By MIKAEL WOOD | January 14, 2008

Chairmen of the boards

Our critics pick the 14 producers with the fattest, meanest beats
Not unlike Swedish, Tagalog, and Esperanto, music is a language, with its own conjugations and (lewdly) dangling participles.
By PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | October 18, 2007

Britt pop

The spare magic of Spoon
It’s like the Anti–Wall of Sound.
By WILL SPITZ | October 09, 2007

War of the words

50 Cent versus Kanye West
50 Cent has a long history of initiating beefs before he releases a new album.
By RICHARD BECK | September 12, 2007

Boston music news: March 30, 2007

Notes on the Everyday Visuals and Brett Rosenberg
Drummer Billy Beard saw a young band called the Everyday Visuals at the Lizard Lounge last year and was knocked out.
By JIM SULLIVAN | March 27, 2007

Forward into the past!

Oldies and more in the season’s CD releases
Could it be just a coincidence that as I sit here writing this, a grizzled Bob Seger is gearing up for the release of Face the Promise , the Detroit rocker’s first proper studio album in, oh, forever and a day? The Lemonheads, "No Backbone" (mp3)
By MATT ASHARE | September 14, 2006

Hip-pop redux

Hip-hopped-up hits from Deborah Harry to Gwen Stefani
Nelly Furtado’s not the first pop diva to embark on a lucrative hip-hop detour.
By KEN MICALLEF | June 20, 2006

Rhett Miller

THE BELIEVER | Verve Forecast
Four years after his solo debut, it’s still hard to reconcile the image of the new Rhett Miller — romantically velvet-suited and chilling with his guitar — with the cowboy-shirted Rhett Miller of Old 97’s.
By REBECCA MILZOFF | March 27, 2006