As you’re undoubtedly well aware of by now, renowned author and recluse J.D. Salinger died last week. Since Catcher in the Rye was published it has quickly become a favorite for high school English teachers and because of that, it’s also become a favorite for musicians to drop quick references…
In 1985, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie stormed the pop charts with “We Are the World,” a song that had something to do with togetherness or African famine or something — we don’t remember anymore. Now, just in time for the 25th Anniversary of the original recording, producer Quincy Jones…
In case you’ve been living in a hole, Apple announced its newest device, the iPad a couple of days ago. Regardless of the stupid name and its XXL iTouch look, we’ve still got a few hopes for what it can do in the future. Sure, as a music listener it’ll…
It’s no secret that Blur’s seventh and final album Think Tank polarized critics and fans when it first debuted in 2003. Blur hasn’t ever been a band that lived on my radar. Although I’ve enjoyed a song or two and haven’t ever complained about hearing them, their records have spent…
In case you were unaware, the darlings of the music industry have decided a regular music album wasn’t enough and moved into the visual arena. Yep, America’s favorite eukaryotic organism-themed band, Animal Collective, has teamed with filmmaker Danny Perez to make what it’s coining a “visual album” titled Oddsac. Before…
Apparently Youtube launched a Pandora-esque service last week dubbed the Music Discovery Project with very little fanfare. Near as we can tell, it functions the same way as services like Last.fm and Pandora and operates based on some crazy mathematic algorithm we can’t wrap our tiny minds around, “Find >…
As technology moves forward, we’ve found new and interesting ways to make, record and brainstorm music on the go. There has been a flood of music production and recording applications for devices like the iPhone/iPod Touch, Nintendo DS, PSP and others. Finding worthwhile applications is another story, so starting today…
Local mishmasher and futurist Pictureplane has released a free new mix over at Dummy Mag called Trance Gender Mix and it’s all you’ve come to expect from him. The mix comprises a rather diverse set of songs, hopping from Bjork to Lil B then straight into House of Ladosha, all…
I haven’t the foggiest clue if it’s cool to be into Hawkwind right now, or if it ever was or wasn’t, but I can say with a certain sense of conclusiveness that ten years ago, while working in a record store I spotted my first Hawkwind album cover and I…
Ever since the launch of Harmonix’s Guitar Hero in 2005 there has been an ongoing debate between musicians and gamers about the legitimacy of the multi-colored guitar peripherals in regards to teaching people how to play. We’re not going to weigh in on the debate, but with the introduction of…
Okay, so the fame and fortune part is a stretch. But that certainly shouldn’t stop our glorious local bands from showing the world their songwriting and recording prowess in the Fifth Annual RPM Challenge. The premise for this thing is simple enough: musicians have 28 days, from the beginning of…
It was sad news when we found out Teddy Pendergrass had died on Wednesday of colon cancer. As others began collecting the best of his songs into comprehensive and downright exhaustive lists, we started thinking about who had used his sultry baritone or music for other ends. His songs have…
This last decade has seen several genres rise and fall on the Billboard charts and because of that we’ve had a weird array of singles briefly topping the charts. In ten years or so, when we look back on the ’00s there are a few songs that might make us…
Movie soundtracks are a difficult beast to master. They have to take an already existing song and apply it to a new medium in a new context. This often works with varying results, and many songs are so overused in soundtracks, they’ve lost all meaning. We’d like to honor a…
Reissues are a difficult breed, on one hand they seek to garner a new audience, on another they have to pay heed to what fans are looking for. The best reissues not only remind you why you liked the band in the first place, but help in keeping that love…
Video game music is a forgotten gem in much of the music press. It’s often viewed as the 8-bit bleeps and bloops of the Nintendo era, or worse, the orchestral grandeur of a Hans Zimmer score. To be fair, this is often the case as soundtracks in video games, like…
In the age of the digital download CD and LP packaging has been forced to step up its game in order to attract sales. Sometimes a great looking record is just too hard to pass up. We’d like to honor those that are still keeping the tradition of music and…
There have been billions of songs written in the last decade but sometimes it’s not the new ones that matter, it’s the reimaginings. Some people argue a great cover song is decided by it’s accuracy to the original, others want something new to be brought into the mix. The collection…
Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way from the get-go: we love The Rock. We can’t explain it but there it is. That said, we also hate Hans Zimmer with a passion usually reserved for evil dictators and ex-patriots. So what better example of Recast then…
Last Recast, we looked at film with an excellent score and added some licensed music to spice it up with mixed results. This time around we’ll look at one of the arguably worst licensed soundtracks of any film, Ghostbusters 2. Now, keep in mind, we’re not saying we don’t appreciate…
Halloween, the time when adults decide to don their favorite witty getups, whether it be the intellectual “Freudian slip” or the pop culture driven “Christian Bale Yelling.” We’re sure some of you are short on ideas, so we’ve compiled a list of band inspired costumes to wear to your favorite…
Movie soundtracks have the ability to create mood and atmosphere in an interesting way when utilized properly. Changing or adding to a soundtrack is a way to create a completely new experience. Blade Runner is one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time but the soundtrack has always…
