This week’s Rock-a-Ramas were written by Fred Pessaro, Zachary Lipez, Grace Scott, Maria Sherman, Dan Morrissey, and Dave Carnie.

Interpol, The Other Side of Make-Believe
Interpol, baby. Before he joined as drummer, I used to follow around Sam Fogarino so much that the owners of Beacon’s Closet thought I had a crush on him. But I was just lonely! Then he got me a job at the store and I was the second person in Beacon’s history to ever get fired.

(The review would be better/funnier if I left it at that, but I’m simultaneously soft and uptight about ethics in music journalism. The new Interpol is good. Maybe their best since Antics. It’s no Ton-Ups, to be sure, but what is?)—Z.L.

Belief, Belief
I don’t have a single Belief. Can you Belief it? I know that people have Beliefs, but I’ve never listened to any Belief. I have friends who listen to their Beliefs and they seem to have a lot of issues. They’re very uptight, they’re offended by every little thing, and they’re just generally jerks. They’ve been listening to their Belief for so long that it has turned them into narrow-minded, stupid, intolerant, inimical, hateful, slow, dumb, dull, dimwitted, dopey, crazy assholes. They Belief in all kinds of crazy shit: god, Santa Claus, ghosts, flat planets, alien abduction, that some dude won an election that he didn’t—you can listen to Belief all you want, but that doesn’t make it true. If you listen to Belief, that’s fine, enjoy yourself, but realize that there are other people around you who don’t enjoy Belief the way you do. Some people like listening to other things besides Belief. Some people don’t listen to Belief at all and prefer to question Belief. Remember: if you listen only to Belief, you will never hear anything else.—D.C.