The James Gang

Long hailed by many as America's finest live band, My Morning Jacket have weathered road casualties, failed romances, even electrical storms to release their Evil Urges. Have Jim James and his "bunch of dudes" finally made the album of their lives?
Photos by Melodie McDaniel

Jim James loves to do voices. He peppers his conversation with crisp impersonations of the jokers who populate his world. Like the suits who go platinum-gaga at the arrival of each new album by his band, My Morning Jacket. "It's time to go to the next level, ravity-ravity-ravity!" James says, bending his faint Southern drawl into biz-speak yammer.

R.E.M.: R.E.BORN

It's rare that a band gets the opportunity to grow older and wiser together -- rarer still that one does so by sounding younger and snottier than ever. After losing their way with a string of ho-hum albums, here's how R.E.M. found their noisy deliverance.
R.E.M. / Photo by Greg Kadel

What follows is an excerpt from the middle of our April cover story on R.E.M. Read more about Stipe, R.E.M., and the genesis of their new album, Accelerate, in our April 2008 issue, on newsstands now.

Vampire Weekend: The Graduates

Thanks to the new speed of buzz, Vampire Weekend have gone from the Ivy league to the big leagues in record time. And everyone's impressed, it seems, but Vampire Weekend.
Photographs by Matt Jones

When Ezra Koenig was a sophomore at Columbia University, his main extracurricular activity was his (white) rap duo, L'Homme Run. They composed and performed verbally dexterous songs with titles like "Pizza Party" and "Interracial Dating" (which reflected on finding long black hairs in the shower), and co-opted the Lacoste alligator as their official mascot.

Pete Doherty: Man Out of Time

Is Pete Doherty a uniquely gifted musician with an underappreciated body of work or just a reckless junkie tabloid magnet looking for his next fix? Or both?
Photo by Hedi Slimane

Screwing a cigarette into his mouth, which he clamps between his teeth like a cowboy Clint Eastwood, Pete Doherty prowls around his suite at London's K West hotel as if scouting for potential escape routes.

Entertainer of the Year: Kanye West

In 2007, the man had his biggest success (and, sadly, his biggest heartbreak).
Kanye West is not pissed; he's just in problem-solving mode. Right now, the problem is production costs. "I want to be the No. 1 artist," he says to a member of his crew.

The Feeling's Mutual

In their first and only joint interview, epic-rock auteurs -- and new BFFs -- Bruce Springsteen and Win Butler talk about the early days, the glory days, and even the end of days.

"Welcome, Canadians!" Even at soundcheck, Bruce Springsteen treats a New Jersey venue like his home, and Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne are honored guests. "Did you guys finish your tour?"

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