Rap and rock are about rappers and rockers, about virtuosity or bad-assedness or some other salable trait specific to an individual performer. Country hates all that. Instead, it takes as its subject its own listeners. The only boasting you'll hear from the hatted pros concerns their audience: that they're decent, humble, and everything that's right with America. It's no coincidence that the audience in turn reflects these salable traits back on the flatterers. Whether it's talk radio or CMT, th
This week's three (plus one) top 10 country hits demonstrate the full range of approaches available to Nashville's hit-making men. There's Toby Keith's beefy traditionalism, Billy Currington's barroom morality tale, Darius Rucker's poppy reassurances, and Rascal Flatt's party-time crossover abomination. They also demonstrate the limitations of those artists' producers, as every song here resorts to the cheap trick of dropping out most of the instruments for a dramatic hush just before the final
A new blog launched last month that could, quite honestly, be the new Look At This Fucking Hipster or Stuff White People Like. It is simply and elegantly entitled Awesomely Bad Lyrics, and that is its focus.
The posts follow a basic format: line-by-line (or couplet-by-couplet) analysis and mockery of songs. Awesomely Bad Lyrics looks to be primarily focusing on classic rock, although Live's "The Dolphin's Cry" has been roundly ridiculed as well. The blog's author states that the primary intent
Tickets for two incoming Midland -- and completely different -- shows go on sale this Friday, July 31, at 10 a.m. But chances are, if you're an NPR listener, you'll be down for either.
Ross Halfin
Who: The Mars Volta
When: September 14
Whither NPR?: Now you, NPR listener aged 35 , might think you're too old for this, but let's look at the ingredients: long Santana breakdowns with a Steve Perry howler on vocals and plenty of '70s prog and Sun Ra stylings and nonsensical album titles like Defibr
When boss lady Elke asked if I'd be interested in reviewing one of the CDs in the Rockabye Baby series, I agreed without hesitation. Having just turned 30, I've scads of friends who are contemplating baby making, and it'd be nice to give them something other than a rubber ducky.
I figured many of our readers are in a similar boat, and that it'd be the honorable thing to take the hit and listen to one of these things all the way through. It's just my luck this had to be Journey instead of
