Jim O'Rourke

Latest Articles

Sunderland smoothies

Field Music are ready to soft-rock
"We're two brothers trying to entertain ourselves and have a laugh in the studio," says Peter Bowens. "We have to pretend to be rock musicians."
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | March 17, 2010

Review: Fennesz - Black Sea

Touch
In the music of Christian Fennesz, there's a fine line between what's being done for you as a listener and what's being done to you.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 17, 2008

Max Tundra | Parallax Error Beheads You

Domino (2008)
It begins with a MIDI organ and Tundra singing like Little Orphan Annie: “I landed in somebody’s lap, between the iPod and yellow trucker cap.”
By DEVIN KING | November 11, 2008

Sonic sculptors

Neptune’s metal machine music
For more than a decade, local noise-rockers Neptune have cultivated a loyal fan base on the fringes of the Boston rock scene.
By SUSANNA BOLLE | February 12, 2008

The Joanna Newsom leak

Right-click and steal!
It was the music-nerd equivalent of Katrina-style looting
By CAMILLE DODERO | September 13, 2006

On the racks: June 13

Joan Jett, Futureheads, Hot Chip, Sonic Youth, Matthew Sweet, and more. Sonic Youth, "Incinerate" (mp3)
By MATT ASHARE | June 14, 2006

Vocal musings

Beth Orton finds her comfort zone
“My voice is a bit like a piano with a dodgy key on it or something,” Beth Orton chuckles quietly over the phone as her tour bus rumbles toward the Canadian border.
By MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG | April 04, 2006

Drum talk

Wilco’s Glenn Kotche and Loose Fur
Glenn Kotche is not under the illusion that solo percussion albums have a built-in audience. So who might buy his new Mobile (Nonesuch)?
By MIKAEL WOOD | March 28, 2006

Big business

The majors gear up for a promising spring
Now that the music biz has licked its wounds from a nasty 2005, things are finally starting to heat up, and an indie-heavy winter is giving way to a more major spring.
By MATT ASHARE | March 10, 2006

Spring break

The best of what's to come in March, April & May
Spring rules
By WILL SPITZ | March 09, 2006

Beth Orton

COMFORT OF STRANGERS | Astralwerks
Over the past decade, British songstress Beth Orton slowly shed the electronic ornaments that marked her early collaborations with big-beat biggies like William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers.
By SIMON W. VOZICK-LEVINSON | February 22, 2006