The August issue of Texas Monthly carries an ultimately amusing feature about the Sierra Blanca inspection station, an infamous U.S. Customs and Border Protection road stop that's ensnared a number of high-profile musicians, including Willie Nelson, Fiona Apple, Nelly, and Snoop Dogg. The Hollywood Reporter once…

During the press onslaught surrounding Fiona Apple's recent album, The Idler Wheel. . ., the most important character in the artist's personal sphere was her pit-bull mix, Janet, a 13-year-old stray rescue.

Not one to let Fiona Apple's a bizarre, rambling statement concerning her recent arrest at a Texas border checkpoint for hash and marijuana possession go unretorted, the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department Public Information Officer has released his own bizarre, rambling statement, calling Apple out for promising to…

Fiona Apple was arrested for hash possession Thursday — which, come on, seriously? On Friday, she related her jailbird blues to a concert audience in Houston.

Internet-producing partners LOL Boys have never recorded in the same room — they pass tracks back and forth online from their respective locations of Montreal and Los Angeles. Earlier this week, they released an excellent mix (via Fader) of their revisions of recent (and some not so recent) songs by the likes of Kanye…

By the time Lana del Rey released her album Born to Die in January, the discourse around her had swirled hard enough that critics merely had to push back for an angle. Many of the reviews served as backlash to the backlash regarding her persona, her inadequacy as a performer, and her deeply frivolous lyrics. Some of…

Seven years later, Fiona Apple finally follows up her acclaimed third studio album Extraordinary Machine with the garrulously titled LP, The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do.

CNBC's one-time "money honey," Maria Bartiromo, turns 42 today. Moby is turning 44. Marie-Josée Kravis, the wife of billionaire Henry Kravis, is 60. The rapper Ludacris is 32. Brokerage founder Muriel Siebert is 77. Hedge funder David Tepper is turning 52. Political operative Bill Cunningham is 59. Singer Harry…

Author James Frey turns 39 today. Another author who has dealt with a bit of controversy is celebrating, too: Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, is 37. Restaurateur Stephen Hanson is turning 59. Sculptor Robert Gober is 54. Photographer Nan Goldin is 55. Emmy Rossum is turning 22. Actor Benjamin McKenzie is…

Last night in the sweaty morass of Gleason's Boxing Gym, a crowd of weird literary types gathered around a boxing ring. Famous pervert-alcoholic-author Jonathan Ames was set to fight Craig Davidson, Canadian author of pugilist novel "The Fighter." At 43, more than a decade older than his opponent, Ames was…

A truly gifted singer/songwriter usually can convey emotion and inner life through a few simple chords and some heartfelt vocals. Sometimes, however, it requires a little more. A reader sends in this report from last night's Nellie McKay performance: