Metal never really gets the credit it deserves. Behind the seemingly impenetrable wall of sound – that rush of gruff vocals, ear-shattering drumming, whiplash-inducing guitar work and pounding bass – rests something irresistible. The aural atmospheres seem to plug into a part of the brain that releases visceral, animal like urges that are then burnt … [Read more…]
Usually, newspaper corrections tend to fly under the radar. They appear in the paper days after the initial article with the mistake in question was published. By that time, most readers have most likely forgotten about the mistake and/or article and have moved on. That’s not the case with Akeya Dickson’s Washington Post article on … [Read more…]
The Grammy Award nominees were officially announced last night. Most criticisms of its blatant populism and lack of any surprise nominations aside, let’s tackle the really big issue with this years nominees: No Mickey Rourke. This is bigger than his Oscar loss last year to the overrated performance by Sean Penn in Milk. But wait. … [Read more…]
People always talk about how technology impacts our society at such a rapid pace and look-at-all-the-terrible-things-that-are-happening-because-of-it, blah blah blah. I never thought an iPhone App would turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger a la Terminator. This is hardly on the same level of end-of-the-world-at-the-hands-of-technology type of situation, but it does frighten me: [youtubevid id=”VSkT5XykJzo&feature=player_embedded”] Where do you … [Read more…]
Last night, FX aired the “Sons of Anarchy†season finale to the largest audience in the show’s history. And it was a doozy of a show, and no doubt will draw more people into the show’s Hamlet-inspired tale of a California biker gang caught in the eye of an ideological storm when the third series … [Read more…]
The A.V. Club posted a link to Tim Quirk’s blog post on the odd inconsistencies of digital downloads and the money that artists recoup. Or don’t ever see for that matter. Quirk, former frontman for Too Much Joy, detailed the rather heinous business practices on his blog after receiving a “Royalty Statement” from Warner Brothers. … [Read more…]
Some musicians are known to be reclusive individuals, so it might be easy to cut them a break if they make some sort of mistake in the rare times they enter the public eye. Pete Doherty is not one of these musicians. The former Libertines frontman spends plenty of time in the spotlight, be it … [Read more…]
Vanity Fair‘s Jim Windolf recently wrote an odd-little feature on cuteness. “Addicted to Cute,” covers all your bases on the most important cute-related memes in our culture. But the most interesting part of the article, and its main thesis, seems a bit strange: Cootchie-coo behavior used to be reserved for private moments in the home. … [Read more…]
It’s been well over a week since Jim DeRogatis reviewed the first night of The Pixies’ three-night Doolittle retrospective at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom. DeRogatis caused quite a stir among Pixies fans with statements like: …it’s hard to consider them anything but a cynical corporation cashing in on blatant nostalgia–a hipper version of Creedence Clearwater Revisited … [Read more…]
Another day, another journalist seeks to kill a genre of music. Today’s suspect is news.com.au‘s Neala Johnson. The weapon – My Chemical Romance. What got the axe? Emo, of course: NO MORE angst. No more whingeing. No more playing the victim. When My Chemical Romance re-emerge in early 2010 with their fourth album, any trace … [Read more…]