As part of our continuing drive toward journalistic excellence, we have discovered the private blog of director Chris Applebaum, in which he discusses his work on Paris Hilton’s new music video, “Stars Are Blind.” May 4, 2006, 7:49 a.m.: WHAT HAVE I DONE? Remember that Carl’s Jr. ad, the one…

Two days before the start of Rainer Maria’s most recent tour, singer/bassist Caithlin De Marrais is at home in Brooklyn, enjoying what will be her last days there for several weeks. The band’s latest Catastrophe Keeps Us Together is yet another evolutionary climb for the band, shedding whatever remained of…

Two Gallants’ second album What the Toll Tells opens with a robust and bluesy foot-stomper a la Jack White’s most infectious work called “Las Cruces Jail.” While this two-piece band out of San Francisco share some of the Stripes’ spare, lo-fi sound, they consistently get right what the Stripes like…

Six years ago, Shooter Jennings, son of outlaw-country legend Waylon, ditched Nashville for Los Angeles and rock-and-roll dreams with his band, Stargunn. It wasn’t long before the past caught up with him; recent years have seen Jennings reclaim his country roots, which he says has as much to do with…

Ben Gibbard just woke up, and he’s in no mood to be talking to anyone, let alone a reporter, let alone a reporter asking about a certain TV show/pop-cultural icon with which his band, Death Cab for Cutie, has become permanently tied. The last thing you’d want to do at…

Brooklyn-based We Are Scientists are not scientists, even though they play the part of the geeky, lab-coat type; their complete lack of self-importance, in fact, makes their dance-punk rise above what their loftier peers churn out. Compare them to the Bravery or the Killers if you want–everyone else does–but they’re…

She wants revenge, or so claim DJs Justin Warfield and Adam 12. If you ask her, the reasons are pretty clear too. See, she always hated Joy Division, ever since her first boyfriend killed himself high on their post-punk misery. Two decades later, along comes Interpol and memories come rushing…

Craig Finn is wandering around outside his Brooklyn apartment, praying his cell phone’s reception holds while admiring the rare winter sun that’s put a little kick in his step today. His post-punk rock band, the Hold Steady, have become local celebrities since he moved here four years ago; even the…

With their 1998 debut, the boys and girls of Nashville Pussy declared Let Them Eat Pussy. Seven years later, they’re still all about the muff. Their latest album, Get Some!, opens with the holler, “Well, all right, who wants some pussy?” The quartet’s two superhot, supercrass female members, guitarist Ruyter…