I’m an unabashed fan of Kickstarter, a site where creative types pitch projects for friends, family and complete strangers to help fund. I’ve helped fund a few projects here and there, and the platform Kickstarter has on its hands manifests the same kind of inquisitive state that can lead to spending hours on the site. … [Read more…]
On Monday, Rolling Stone debuted it’s online subscription model, as well as a much-needed website facelift. Unfortunately, it may be too little, too late. In the years Rolling Stone wasted their web-space, with nothing to show but a handful of articles hosted on a domain, music blogs and sites have sped past the magazine (and many … [Read more…]
The past few years, one word has come up constantly in conversation about today’s pop music: Balkanization. Be it another teeny-indie scene given the tag “glo-fi,” or another subset of Brooklyn bands revisiting the aural atmosphere of ’60s garage pop, the message remains loud and clear: As micro-scenes develop within pockets of our society, our … [Read more…]
The BBC is reporting that Sex Pistols’ svengali and artist-musician Malcolm McLaren has died: Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of punk group the Sex Pistols, has died in New York, aged 64, his agent has said. There have been a lot of famous pop music managers over the years, but none like McLaren. Though the … [Read more…]
The new year is almost here, and with it comes a maelstrom of “End of the Year Lists.†Here on Ex-Spectator, I’ll be rolling out a few “End of the Yearâ€/â€End of the Decade†lists. Today’s list: The Best Albums of 2009. As I’ve mentioned previously, there are a lot of pitfalls for “best of†… [Read more…]
You have to hand it to the Boston Herald on this one. The Weekly Dig usually dispenses the mean-spirited disses, but this Michael Marotta column on bad summer trends takes the cake. Specifically, the following point: Ivy League indie rock Right now, Vampire Weekend and Chester French are taking our hard-earned money with half-hearted indie … [Read more…]
Big news out of Belgrade this past Monday, where war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic was captured after years of “living in hiding.” Karadzic was thought to be hiding out in a cave, but had been living in disguise under the name Dragan Dabic. While Karadzic committed some hainus crimes, but I can’t help but be … [Read more…]