Tuesday, December 15 2009
Take It From an Honest Man: An Interview with A.A. Bondy
After spending nearly a decade in grunge band Verbena, A.A. Bondy reinvented himself as a working-class folk singer and feels like he is playing the most sincere music of his life.
Monday, December 14 2009
Staying on the Edge: An Interview with Damon Elliott
Having produced hits for Destiny's Child, Bone Thugz-n-Harmony, and P!nk, Damon Elliott talks to PopMatters about his career and his work on that Fame remake.
Friday, December 11 2009
The Best Electronic Albums of 2009
We have no idea where the hell electronic music is going in the next decade, but if you can't find something in the wide stew of sonics out there to get excited about, check your pulse. You're probably dead.
The Best Psych Albums of 2009
Psychedelia has influenced so many things in 2009 -- whether the band is labeled freak-folk, psych-pop, or garage psychedelia to name a few -- that the creative approach to songwriting has influenced and been adopted by so many genres that barely any independent label has remained untouched by its reaches.
Precious and Lee Daniels: State of the Race
In adapting author Sapphire's difficult novel for the screen, director Lee Daniels is helping change the way spectators view African American women by deploying stereotypes and then exploding them.
Thursday, December 10 2009
The Best World Music of 2009
In 2009, well-known artists reliably produced solid albums, lesser-known artists did things that were often surprising and successful, archives were trawled by enthusiasts, old songs were excavated, polished, and compiled, and labels both large and small kept moving stubbornly on.
The Best Bluegrass of 2009
For bluegrass fans, 2009 was a great year for music, a bad year for frugality. Though we're only listing the Top Ten, there were many excellent artists and albums worthy of a mention.
All Is Said and Done: An Interview with Vertical Horizon
After accidentally reuniting Rush and befriending Neil Peart, Vertical Horizon's Matt Scannell returns with his band's first album of new material in nearly six years.
Wednesday, December 9 2009
The Best Indie Pop of 2009
My indie-pop year 2009 was about young energy and autumnal melancholy, about the rush you feel when you first hear an exciting new band and the bittersweet feeling you get when your favorite band calls it quits.
The Best Singer-Songwriter Albums of 2009
We got it all in 2009. The stuff right here -- this is singing, this is songwriting. It lives, it breathes, and it bites. Hard.
The Sociology of Superheroes: Andi Ewington and 45
Andi Ewington's 45 appeals to an audience that transcends 1970s Batman, and even the phenomenal Watchmen.
Tuesday, December 8 2009
The Best Debut Albums of 2009
The best debuts are exciting not only for what they promise, but for what they deliver, too. Think of these ten albums not as what could be, but also what already is: the best debut records of 2009.
World Tour/Media Whore(s): The Year in Reunions
While 2009 spawned plenty of rumors that brought the Libertines, the Smiths, and the Stone Roses back together, these were the bands that actually dusted off their guitars and plugged in their amps one more time.
Paranormal Passions: An Interview with the Ghost Hunters
The Ghost Hunters Academy investigators talk about the amount of misinformation there is about paranormal investigation and what an awesome season finale would look like.
Monday, December 7 2009
A Welcome Return Home: The Orenda Fink Interview
Orenda Fink, one half of the acclaimed band Azure Ray, discusses her newest solo release, Ask the Night, a stripped-down piece that finds her reconnecting with her childhood in Alabama.
Friday, December 4 2009
Reconsidering the Revival of Cassette Tape Culture
At best, the cassette revival is merely a vacuous fad of no genuine value; but at worst, it's a confused, regressive cultural misstep more dangerous than most would care to admit.
MCA’s Heavy News
This is more about the surprise I felt when an hour after my heart ached for my own mother it ached again in a similar way for someone whom I have never actually met. So I’ve spent probably months listening to the Beastie Boys. So what? This gives me the right? The short answer is “Yes. Yes, it does."
Thursday, December 3 2009
Making a Case for the Most Underappreciated Band in Pop Music
Big Star may have long dwindled on the threshold of musical ubiquity and dangling obscurity, but it strangely seems like the only befitting legacy for artists so caught between their innate standing as pop music outsiders and their reverential, ever-striving will for superstardom.
20 Questions: Bruce Greenwood
The prolific actor Bruce Greenwood shows up as yet another character for 20 Questions -- this time as a rather erudite cake designer with a mean edge on a ’53 Telecaster.
Wednesday, December 2 2009
Reinventing Don Imus: Anatomy of an Excuse
Imus traffics in the tropes of hip-hop and black culture in general on an occasional, selective basis -- a cafeteria approach to cultural exploration as obvious as it is insincere.
