Chicago is my favorite place in the world. I feel so lucky to be able to wake up in this city every day. Of course, I don’t mean to discriminate against the Northwest, because I’ve only heard the kindest words about Seattle and Portland. It’s just that I’ve never been there before...

Nneka Concrete Jungle (Decon) It’s strange–whenever I think I don’t like Nneka’s new Concrete Jungle very much, I go back and listen again, and something changes my mind. I guess it’s a good sign that I keep going back. For instance, the song “Kangpe” boasts...

Patty Griffin Downtown Church (Credential Recordings) I’ll start by damning this album with not-so-faint praise. Patty Griffin’s new one, Downtown Church, makes for uniformly pleasant listening. It’s made up mostly of gospel covers, with a couple originals and Big Mama Thornton’s...

From the beginning, Vampire Weekend have seemed to live a charmed existence. They were shot for the cover of Spin magazine before their debut album even came out (the only time in Spin’s history this has happened); they appeared on Saturday Night Live just six weeks after the eponymous record was released;...

The lights dimmed, the entire place went dark. Massive screens across the back of the stage burst with colors. A video began telling the story of the Passion conferences.  After a few minutes, the video piece transitioned and powerful words scrolled onto the screens as violins and cellos filled the...

If you weren’t looking for it, you probably missed the 2008 return of Sixpence None the Richer, humble and unheralded, a return that, for me, sees their re-arrival in the midst of a second age of Christian music, which is retroactively furthered by the success of bands like Switchfoot and The Fray...

We have a Christmas tradition around these parts.  Every year, shortly after Thanksgiving, we re-post Burnside’s most popular article of all time: “The Abominable ‘O Holy Night’”.  Along with the Advent Conspiracy, this insanely awful little diddy gets us in the Christmas...

The Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come (4AD, 2009) There is a distinct part of me that quails at the idea of breaking down the lyrics of one of the greatest living singer-songwriters.  John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats is known for lyrics that are a sublime mix of metaphoric, literal,...

[Music Editor's note:  Sometimes it's interesting what albums resonate among our writers.  Of course, any album with a heavy Portland connection is likely to be featured in the virtual pages of Burnside, but the new album from Menomena's Brent Knopf (as Ramona Falls) managed to be the subject of two...

College prepares a person for life in the real world. It’s that magical time that urges kids to forget about cliques and “popularity” in exchange for individuality and maturity. It’s an exciting transitional stage. But it’s not just about preparation for a full-time job. ...