Ryan Foley

Shane MacGowan once said The Pogues were his way of overcoming guilt for not laying down his life for Ireland with the IRA. He was probably shit-faced at the time. Despite their punk leanings, the sodden violence that often accompanies gigs, and MacGowan's Brendan Behan-influenced — and sometimes radical —...

Shane MacGowan once said the Pogues were his way of overcoming guilt for not laying down his life for Ireland with the IRA. He was probably shit-faced at the time. Despite their punk leanings, the sodden violence that often accompanies gigs, and MacGowan's Brendan Behan–influenced — sometimes radical — freethinking,...

Call it an amendment to Godwin's Law: As reviews of Vampire Weekend's self-titled disc accumulate, the probability they'll mention Paul Simon's Graceland approaches 100 percent. It's a lazy game of connect the dots, really. Graceland traces an MOR-shattering pilgrimage wherein Simon spent 17 days recording in South Africa, cheesing off...

Some Native Americans believe peyote puts them in touch with divine powers. "The white man goes into his church and talks about Jesus," says Quanah Parker, founder of the Native American Church Movement. "The Indian goes into his tipi and talks with Jesus." Mescaline, the engineer behind such holy chitchats,...

Despite An Abstract Love Story's playfully ribald themes, orgasmic vocal snippets, and big-person talk of wine and toking cabbage, one just can't shake a rather juvenile image: that indecisive protagonist from childhood cartoons, the voices of heavenly reason and deviltry whispering in each of his ears. On one shoulder there's...