You don’t want to screw with Taylor Swift. Virtually every confirmed — or rumored — romance she has ends up in lyrics to one of her songs. John Mayer? Check. Joe Jonas? Hell, yeah. Yet as much as it may hurt the doe-eyed Swift and her good intentions, having her…
“The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought one formed a band.” This quote has been attributed to both Brian Eno and Peter Buck (of REM) — no one is completely certain who said it first, but that’s not the point. The fact remains that…
Tomorrow night at the Gothic Theatre, 20:12 — or 2MX2, as the group is now known — is set to release its new album, Case Study 20:12, and premier its new video for track “The Beast is Out,” directed by Emergency Room. We recently caught up with Role Pley and…
For over a decade, Umphrey’s McGee has been melting faces with insane covers, complex compositions and wild fan-interactive show. Ideas like the Stew-Art Series, the recently added “sUMmer School,” in which band members teach classes on songwriting, instrument improvisation and lighting techniques, and the UMBowl, are just a few of…
In the history of rock there has never been a greater example of media manipulation than the Sex Pistols. From the Stones refusing to wear ties to Bowie claiming he was gay to Ozzy biting the head off a dove, press-savvy rockers have been tricking the media into endless headline…
It’s difficult to imagine, but U2 used to be cool. Not just cool, but one of the most innovative, inspiring and mysterious bands of its generation. The group challenged the sounds, look and emotional resonance of rock music, forever redirecting the cultural stream for good or ill. Today, while many…
Watch out, Prince. Adele is about to set fire to your “Purple Rain.” One more week, and Adele’s 21 will boast the same chart record Purple Rain did in 1984 and 1985: reigning at the top of the Billboard 200 for 24 whole weeks…
This week’s rap roundup is full of drugs, nostalgia, soul samples and rapping producers. King Foe’s latest video from Junkie, “Foe” handles the drug end of things, while Wheelchair Sports Camp takes you back to when you things were simple, Spoke In Wordz takes aim at hip-hop’s authenticity with his…
Remember last year when the hacker group Lulz Security nabbed credit card data and other personal information from Sony PlayStation Network? Around the same time, two British hackers lifted unreleased songs by Michael Jackson from the Sony Music Entertainment computer system. The two hackers are so far found to be…
When he released The Ugly Truth last year, Mane Rok (aka Sam Baron) vowed to create an EP with each of the producers he worked with on the album. Staying true to his word, he released the hip-hop purist joint En Stereo with Es-Nine, whose production was stellar, and Santanamation…
Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” and “Stupid Hoe” couldn’t sound more different. We know this. The lyrical themes are light years apart, as is the production. For those like us who were wondering how Minaj could reconcile such a wide sonic divide on her new album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, the answer…
Gabrielle McClinton had to dismiss a good deal of formal training in preparing for her role in the touring production of Green Day’s American Idiot. McClinton, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, plays the character of Whatsername in the Broadway musical, which is set to open tonight at…
For close to a decade, Dave Simonett has stuck with Trampled by Turtles for all the ups and downs. From just a mere thought of starting a band to selling out venues across the country, the Minnesota-born bluegrass quintet is steadily amassing a legion of fans across the country with…
Yet another big week for Adele, who continues to dominate the charts. With a ninth consecutive week at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, the 22nd week overall, Adele’s second album, 21 recently supplanted The Bodyguard soundtrack in the record books and now the album has is closing in…
What do you do if the lead single from your new album campaign drops like dead weight down the charts? If you’re Madonna, you release another single and hope that the club kids don’t notice that you’re treading on old territory. Madge’s lead single from her hotly-anticipated twelfth album, M.D.N.A.,…
VNV Nation (due tomorrow night at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs) started as a kind of bedroom project for the band’s singer and co-programmer, Ronan Harris. By 1995, he had developed his music to the point that it was becoming part of the next wave of underground electronic pop…
See Also: Megadeth live review at Fillmore and interview with Chris Broderick Megadeth (due tonight at the Fillmore Auditorium) may be one of the Big Four of thrash, but in many ways, its frontman Dave Mustaine is largely responsible for the sound and aesthetic of three of the Big Four…
Update 4/12/12: Hot on the heels of its appearance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, One Direction has announced a date at the Pepsi on Tuesday, July, 24. Tickets on sale next Saturday. Pop music is cyclical. With the absence of one niche pop artist arises another: Look at…
In his best selling book Killing Yourself to Live, Chuck Klosterman asserts that “the best career move any musician can make is to stop breathing.” When examining Kurt Cobain’s post-mortem transformation from junkie dad to iconic voice of a generation, Klosterman notes that the suicide told everyone that “he wasn’t…
Iced Earth (due tonight at Summit Music Hall) came out of the rich heavy metal scene in Tampa Bay, Florida in the late ’80s. At a time when melodic heavy metal, especially the glam variety, was on the wane, Iced Earth came in with the wave of metal that produced…
Zola Jesus (due tomorrow night at Larimer Lounge) started as the solo project of Nika Roza Danilova. Shortly after she released her earliest recordings, she came to the attention of Caleb Braaten of Sacred Bones Records who has since been a champion of her singular creative vision. Danilova’s 2009 album,…
John Popper seems stunned by the fact that Blues Traveler boasts a longer lifespan than a legal drinker. Popper, who helped launched the band as a quartet in a New Jersey garage in the mid ’80s, has seen the outfit go through fundamental changes. The commercial success of the album…
