Brooklyn Vegan — photos by David Andrako, words by Andrew Frisicano Jherek Bischoff & some of his guests It wasn't the marathon that opened the inaugural Ecstatic Music Fest in 2011, but this year's opening show on Saturday (2/4) had some of that... more info

Guardian Music — Singer considers 1986 album to be his greatest – and defends decision to record in South Africa during apartheid regimePaul Simon has said he considers his 1986 album Graceland his greatest musical achievement and has defended his decision to recor... more info

Guardian Music — Picking 12 acts to play A Room for London wasn't the hard part. For starters, how do you get a piano into a boat on a roof?The Roi des Belges began its life last summer in a barn in rural Sussex. A marriage of Plymouth steel and magenta-stained timbe... more info

LargeHeartedBoy — Studio 360 interviews David Byrne about the Talking Heads' early years. Talk of the Nation interviews author Elmore Leonard about writing fiction and television scripts. Drummer Wes Marskell of the Darcys talks to the Boston Globe about the band's fu... more info

Brooklyn Vegan — Mirah Mirah has two NYC shows coming up this February. First, she'll play as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival as one of the guest vocalists performing with Jherek Bischoff, which also includes David Byrne, Craig Wedren, Greg Saunier, and... more info

WFMU's Beware of the Blog — In conjunction with the release of their new EP Canyon Candy (on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label), Javelin with director Mike Anderson made this pretty great short film featuring lots of people getting shot. And in conjunction with that short... more info

Brooklyn Vegan — Anand Wilder with Yeasayer at Jones Beach in July (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin) The record label David Byrne started in 1988, Luaka Bop, has been curating the club John Zorn started, The Stone, since December 15. If you've been... more info

Guardian Music — Alexis Petridis is joined by Rebecca Nicholson and Dorian Lynskey this week to listen to Leonard Cohen's Show Me the Place; the Congolese rapper Baloji's track which features Konono No1, Karibu Ya Bintou; and J Cole and Trey Songz's Can't Get Enough.... more info

Stereogum — This Must Be The Place is the new movie where Sean Penn, seriously, plays an aging Robert-Smith-lookalike Nazi-hunter rock star. Obviously, we’re all going to watch the shit out of this movie. But if we needed any more reason to get amped, the soun... more info

Guardian Music — Music of refinement and learning, with a bossa nova twistThe many young Japanese in the audience confirmed the interest pianist and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto still prompts. He was idolised in the days of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, an electro-pop t... more info