By Barry Walters, eMusic ContributorWhen ordinary hip-hoppers get famous, they usually bring along their new-money friends and strike while the iron's hot. For Dan the Automator, producer of Dr. Octagon, Cornershop, Gorillaz, and other unconventional acts, success means waiting… more »
By Michael Tedder, eMusic ContributorOne listen to Veronica Falls' sophomore album Waiting For Something To Happen and it's clear that the band knows both their reference points — Johnny Marr jangle, Lush reverb — and what to do with… more »
By Andrew Parks, eMusic ContributorNot to be outdone by yesterday's Governors Ball announcement, the promoters for Primavera Sound have lined up one of the year's strongest festival lineups thus far. Happening May 22-26, the five-day event features rare sets… more »
By Arye Dworken, eMusic ContributorSummer is festival season, but lately, festival season is actually just reunion season. Beginning with Coachella's uncanny knack for raising the dead (sometimes with the assistance of a hologram), bands are proving with alarming regularity… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorThere is a clip of Damon Albarn being interviewed in August of 1995, on the eve of his band's chart showdown against Oasis. This is the moment right before "Britpop" becomes both an inescapable and… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorBy 1995, Blur had become bona fide stars — the kind who would be profiled on the nightly news or featured on schoolgirls' folders and binders. But rivals had emerged from a different corner of… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorSome artists just have it: the ability to lead us around by the nose. We happily let them do anything; they have passports to go anywhere, try whatever crazy idea pops into their head. Wear… more »
By Dan Hyman, eMusic ContributorStability and Damon Albarn might as well be antonyms. Throughout his two-decade career, the forward-thinking singer has maintained an unrelenting desire for progressive off-the-cuff experimentation. The success of his most cherished acts, Blur and Gorillaz,… more »
By Jason Diamond, eMusic ContributorDamon Albarn talked to John Harris at The Guardian over the weekend. Topics covered included heroin, the end of his feud with Noel Gallagher, and the state of Blur after their Hyde Park concert to help close… more »
By Ben Beaumont-Thomas, eMusic ContributorAmid Blur's Union Jack-draped anointment — first at the Brit Awards, and then as the unofficial send-off to the 2012 Olympics — it's worth reminding the world that Damon Albarn is one the U.K.'s arch… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorBy the time Blur reconvened to record Think Tank in 2002, both Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn had begun crafting distinct identities as solo artists. Where Coxon committed his jagged, lo-fi compositions to a bedroom… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorBy the time Blur reconvened to record Think Tank in 2002, both Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn had begun crafting distinct identities as solo artists. Where Coxon committed his jagged, lo-fi compositions to a bedroom… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorThere's an ambition to 13 which suggested that Blur — still living down their part in the rise and fall of "Britpop" — was finally beginning to regain their identity as a band. Just in… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorBlur had achieved clarity of purpose following their disillusioning Leisure tours, self-identifying as an antidote to American culture. By 1997, they had begun to revisit this stance. Their self-titled fourth album wasn't a refusal of… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic Contributor"Call it London" was the most usable piece of advice given Blur by their label boss — he thought the band's third album sounded like a mistake. There's something charmingly clunky about Parklife. Its songs… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorIt certainly didn't have to turn out this way. Blur's 1991 debut, Leisure, was an enjoyable but somewhat vacuous assemblage of the era's dance-pop clichés. It did not suggest four men with great artistic ambitions,… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorDamon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree first started playing together in 1989 at London's Goldsmiths College — it was the first time Coxon, James or Rowntree had lived in… more »