Are The Black Eyed Peas still world beaters?

The last time we heard from will.i.am and friends, they were breaking every singles record known to man. In case you’ve purged your brain of the memory: In 2009, they had the number one song in the country from April 18 through October 17. “Boom Boom Pow” took roughly the…

How the Grammy Sausage is Made

The Grammy nominations are out. You’re welcome to see the list, but we don’t recommend reading much into it. The major awards are all more or less their respective industries sitting in a circle for a giant back-rub chain, but none is less indicative of what is actually happening than…

Dean Spunt of No Age on the importance of DIY

No Age (due tonight at The Bluebird Theater) isn’t a band that has hit the mainstream yet, but it has enjoyed an unexpected rise to prominence as a noisy pop band, making art grounded in notion of doing things your own way — regardless of whether or not it’s met…

Susan Boyle is an unkillable sales machine

It’s officially the Holiday season, which is why Poptimystic is finally ready to address the Christmas albums on the charts. Even though they’ve been there for at least three weeks. Two of Billboard’s top ten albums are seasonal, and Billboard, remember, is about a week and a half behind what…

Dylan Rau of Bear Hands on Burning Bush Supper Club and politics.

Bear Hands first made waves in 2007 with the release of its first record Golden EP, bolstered by a nervy energy and politically pointed lyrics on songs like “Vietnam.” On the Brooklyn band’s latest release, Burning Bush Supper Club, Dylan Rau’s incisive lyrics are very much intact, but the band…

DJ Klaw on Sex Panther and the whomp-whomp awesomeness of bass music

An active member of the Mile High City’s diverse music community since relocating to Denver in the early ’90s, Max Klaw currently performs as a genre-defying but ultimately bass-centric DJ, VJ and dance-music producer. We recently caught up with the pervasive bass junkie to get the scoop on his monthly…

Rihanna is a Singles Lady if there ever was one

Last week in Poptimystic, we talked about Taylor Swift and her unparalleled ability to sell albums in the current music industry wasteland. But the album is not what it once was, and the ability to sell singles may actually be a better litmus test of an artist’s influence. It remains…