Rob Harvilla

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The Other F Word: Punks Are All Grown Up

By Rob Harvilla
Nov 17, 2011

Flea almost cries. Twice. There's your four-word summation of The Other F Word, a half-poignant, half-absurd documentary on punk-rocker dads, self-described as "a coming of middle-age story" that thrills to the sight of, say, Rancid's Lars Frederiksen, who looks like a tattoo parlor and a Claire's fell on him simultaneously,...
Year in Music: Phoenix, Passion Pit, Neko Case, and the Rest of the Village Voice Music Editor's Rob Harvilla’s Records of the Year

By Rob Harvilla
Jan 7, 2010

Yeah, pal, that's "college rock," scare quotes very much included. Look, it's a meaningless term. As are "indie," "alternative," "hipster," etc., etc. Let's not overthink this: Here we have 10 splendid records with an amorphous rock 'n' roll designation, albeit in a perhaps slightly more experimental and thoughtful vein than...
No Sleep for Brooklyn

Guest star day

By Rob Harvilla
May 17, 2007

"I really don't like looking at the back of a record and seeing the word featuring a million times," says Brooklyn rapper/producer/label overlord El-P. Incidentally, his new album, I'll Sleep When You're Dead, features cameos from members of the Mars Volta, TV on the Radio, and Yo La Tengo, not...
Eight-Bit Symphonies

Who's responsible for the best music of the 1980s? Nintendo. Who's finally discovering it? Everyone

By Rob Harvilla
Feb 9, 2006

Bach. Beethoven. Brahms. Mozart. Mario. The five pillars of classical music. And while those first four dudes had a good run, it's that last guy who enraptures us now: a Japanese-born yet ostensibly Italian plumber in a bright red jumpsuit who, in the mid-'80s, warp-zoned his way into 60 million...
Happy Returns

The cult of Neutral Milk Hotel should perhaps prepare for a second coming

By Rob Harvilla
Jan 26, 2006

The most influential indie-rock record of the past decade reverently declares I love you Jesus Christ, features the songs "Two-Headed Boy" (parts one and two) and "The King of Carrot Flowers" (part one, then parts two and three combined), uses semen as a lyrical motif, crushes heavily on Anne Frank,...

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