It’s rather ironic that one of the most influential names and forebearers of style in the history of music is also the one that the world knows the least about. Many artists come out of the woodwork and onto the stage for that reason alone – to be remembered by the mark they left on the music world, not by their private lives through the lens of the paparazzi or the twisted words of the tabloids. While it would have been a privilege to have more accessible resources on who Lou Bond was as far as his agenda and of course, more music, you could say that he achieved the gold status of such a marked existence.

Continue Reading

One of my main goals during the SXSW Festival was to catch Broken Bells at some point during the week. Fortunately for me, I stumbled across a parking garage where James Mercer and Danger Mouse were filming a show for Spinner. After making the cutoff by only 20 people AOL treated us to some free beer and hot dogs before funneling everyone downstairs for the video shoot. This could have been an example of being in the right place at the right time, so I took full advantage and I’ve got plenty of pictures to show for it!

Continue Reading

AP is reporting that the concert website Pollstar has updated its weekly report of the Top 20 highest-grossing concert acts in North America in 2010 and… oh, it’s bad.  Maybe not entirely unexpected, but still – 2009’s top 20 list at least had U2 and Bruce Springsteen at its #1 and #2 spots before being padded out by Britney Spears, The Jonas Brothers, Dave Matthews Band and Nickelback.  But 2010, on the other hand? Oh my…

Continue Reading

Oh, happy day! Jimi Hendrix is back on the charts! Valleys of Neptune, the new album of previously unavailable Hendrix studio recordings, has debuted on the Billboard 200 best-selling albums chart at #4, while four additional Hendrix catalog titles — Are You Experienced (#44),  Electric Ladyland (#60),  First Rays of the New Rising Sun (#63), and Axis: Bold As Love (#67) — have returned to the Billboard 200 four decades after their original release dates.

Continue Reading

Sure, not everyone loves the dreamy, adult-pop music stylings of singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan, but for those who do today just got a whole lot better. The Grammy-winner is scheduled to release her first studio album of new material in 7 years, The Laws of Illusion, on June 15.

The album is currently being recorded in Montreal and Vancouver, with plans for release just prior to the kick off of Lilith Fair 2010, the return of the all women touring festival, founded by McLachlan.

Continue Reading

The lowest common denominator slinked a lot lower last night on Fox’s American Idol, featuring two of the dumbest names in pop music (no, I mean literally, their names are, you know, stupid): pop starlet Kei$ha was joined onstage by electronic act 3OH!3 for a performance of the aptly titled, heavily auto-tuned hit “Blah Blah Blah.”

Continue Reading

SXSW’s music festival officially started yesterday and the streets of Austin definitely showed it. Not only was it the official kick off to the week’s event, but it was also St. Patrick’s Day. Industry folk, bands and their instruments, along with people dressed in green – who were ready to have a good time – piled out onto 5th, 6th, and 7th Street in Downtown Austin to catch some great live acts.

Continue Reading

Alex Chilton, singer and guitarist of influential ’70s power-pop band Big Star, and basically just an all around music icon, died Wednesday at a hospital in New Orleans. Chilton reportedly suffered a heart attack – only days before Big Star were set to perform at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

The singer, songwriter and guitarist was 59.

Continue Reading

Phish, fresh off their gig inducting Genesis into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, have announced a whole of bunch of gigs: a 29-date, 18-city summer tour that begins in Chicago on June 11 and travels all across the U.S. before wrapping it up on Aug. 18 at New York’s Jones Beach Theatre.

Check the full tour schedule below.

Continue Reading