Robert Christgau

Marc Ribot Isn't Trying To Comfort Anyone

Robert Christgau — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:52:00 +0000

After six years as a sideman for many soul veterans, Marc Ribot made his name in 1985 with Rain Dogs, the album that marked Tom Waits' permanent transition from eccentric singer-songwriter to truly weird singer-songwriter. Ribot has held down straight gigs since then, but his work has tended toward the avant-garde.

Jonny Fritz: A Country Jester Gets Personal

Robert Christgau — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:28:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2_RIg0vZPQ

By This 'Beak And Claw,' A Trio Shall Synthesize

Robert Christgau — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Sufjan Stevens is a classically trained singer-songwriter whose recent work has leaned symphonic. Son Lux is a classically trained beatmaker whose solo albums do indeed evoke luxury. Serengeti is a self-trained rapper who creates voices for a panoply of full-fledged characters who range from scufflers to yuppies.

Jeffrey Lewis: Cosmic And Tongue-In-Cheek 'Dream-Songs'

Robert Christgau — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:36:00 +0000

Jeffrey Lewis is my homeboy. The prolific anti-folk singer-songwriter has lived less than a mile from where I live on the Lower East Side since he was born in 1975. Difference is, I moved to Avenue B as an adult, while he's a native — his dad is a Brooklyn-born motorcycle mechanic who hung with local politicos and musicians.

As a hereditary hippie, Lewis has always dug songs that drift off in vaguely Buddhist notions of existential displacement and eternal recurrence.