Michael Alan Goldberg

Back in September of 2010, noted music journalist (and former editor-in-chief of SPIN and Vibe magazines) Alan Light was among 4,000 people sitting in the Jacob Javitz Center for Yom Kippur services when the Congregation Beit Simchat Torah choir took the stage to conclude the solemn proceedings with a stirring...

For any musician, trying to come up with a foolproof formula for success is folly. Pick up your guitar one day, and everything flows effortlessly. The following day, nothing sounds right, no matter what you do. One album might utterly capture your musical essence; the next might fall flat. You...

Perhaps you've heard Boston electro-pop quintet Passion Pit's back-story: Two years ago, falsetto-voiced frontman Michael Angelakos—at the time, just a dude making tunes by himself in his bedroom—wrote a batch of fizzy love songs to give to his girlfriend as a Valentine's Day present. Those songs ended up as last...

I first happened upon the phenomenal Portland-via-Seattle-via-Colorado songwriter Laura Veirs maybe four years ago, after she'd already released a couple of albums. But 2005's dreamy, quirky, occasionally orchestral-poppy, sometimes biting Year of Meteors grabbed me and didn't let go of my ears (or my CD player) for ages. Her voice...

The New York City hardcore legends of Agnostic Front definitely still bring it: They're still as loud and confrontational as always, even with their wrinkles, gray hair and degenerating vision. Well-into-their-50s principals Roger Miret (vocals) and Vinnie Stigma (guitar)—who, inspired by the likes of Black Flag and Bad Brains, formed...