Archive for February, 2012

Damon Albarn is a true creative. He’s not the type that seems to coast, he is not only driven by the need to create, but by the need to create new things. It’s a drive that has led to gigs like an opera, movie soundtracks and a consideration to direct the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. [...]

With a vast variety of genres in the music world, it’s inevitable that unusual crossover collaborations will arise – for better or for worse. Pop legend Tony Bennett and modern soulstress Amy Winewine’s recent duet on “Body and Soul” was a collaboration in the “for better” category, even winning the award for Best Pop Duo/Group [...]

Certain songs have an inherent appeal that makes them popular covers. They infect the brains and resonate with artists of any era, inspiring their own rendition. It’s one of the purest examples of imitation as flattery. One of these reliable, time-traveling songs is The Kinks’ “I Go to Sleep” – a 1960s classic that has [...]

With Black History Month well underway, it would be appropriate to reflect on the civil rights era that changed America. In service to that ideal, I’ve compiled a brief look at the movement’s most notable anthems as something to listen to at this time of year to remember this pivotal point in history. It was [...]

One of the most popular new year’s resolution is the goal to get in shape, put on muscle, or drop some pounds.  As we make our way past the first month of the new year, however, we see a definite slump in our efforts to buff up and slim down.
After spending the whole month of [...]

The biggest music news last month was the revelation of the 2012 Coachella line-up. The gaudy fakes from last year have cleared, and what we have left looks to be one of the most stacked festivals yet. Coachella has earned the reputation of being the premiere music festival for its hype, early occurrence, and inspired [...]

In the 1990s, it was normal for 13-year-olds to listen to 25-year-olds singing about the joys of never outgrowing TV, parties and all the small things. Years later, those 13-year-olds have grown into 25-year-olds and the 25-year-olds into 37-year olds, whose music still provides sonic ointment to those growing pains that never really go away. [...]

A great movie or song, alone, can inspire powerful emotions. But combined, sounds and images can amplify the sensation. The Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr, who worked on the soundtrack to Dennis Hopper’s film Colours in the late-1980s, said he enjoys working on movies because “You’re not restricted to working on something between three and five minutes [...]

High school is rough. Falling out with friends, break-up’s, bullies, failing classes, parents are fighting again; nothing going the way you’d hoped it would. For so many of us, escape came in music, and Blink-182 was one band that we could put on and instantaneously be bolted off to another place when we had nowhere else to [...]

Did you catch Monday night’s episode of Gossip Girl? If you did, chances are you heard Vitamin String Quartet’s lush string arrangement of INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart” throughout the lavish wedding recpeption. You might have also heard VSQ’s arrangement of Pat Benetar’s “We Belong” as Blair and her prince headed out onto [...]