Here's a selection of the best of last week's music blogging from around the Village Voice chain:
Sate your nostalgia for the Aquanet-fueled halcyon days of hair metal with a look at this collection of vintage show ads from Minneapolis. My favorites are the many appearances by the oafishly named Dare Force. That name should have an exclamation point or two, I think.A heady set of "over-the-top cinematic prog rock" and some sweet novelty glasses (pictured above!) are among the charms of this Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears concert review.
Five Swedes who sound a lot like the Cure play a few songs live in a random NYC location as the Shout Out Louds become the latest subject of Possibly 4th Street.
You do not want to mess with Long Winters' frontman John Roderick's stash of canned chili.
Have you considered the genius of Curtis Mayfield yet today?
Every town has its eccentric music-scene characters, the fringe whackos that sometimes make going out to a show surreal, dangerous or just plain annoying. In St. Louis, that whacko's name is Beatle Bob, and it's time you met him.
The Sufi-inspired psychedelic trance rock of Haale sounds intriguing, and so does she in this Q&A.
Meet blogger Paul Ford, who covered SXSW in a unique way, by staying home and downloading all 763 promotional mp3s offered by bands that actually attended, then doing six-word reviews of them all.
Miami prepares for the Winter Music Conference with this Q&A with Louie Vega, a house music legend.
Just as "big band leader" has become an anachronistic musical job, "rock star" is soon to be dumped onto the scrap heap of history, now that the mystique has been stripped away by dudes in bands revealing their dorkitude on MySpace for all to see. -- Cory Casciato
