By konowd1 on May 17, 2011 at 2:09pm in Miscellaneous
For any young player growing up in the ‘80s who wanted to be the next Eddie Van Halen, Jackson, Kramer and B.C. Rich made the guitars of our dreams. The excitement of seeing them in your favorite guitar magazine was just like the rush of sneaking through a copy of Playboy.
Companies like Charvel/Jackson grew out of guitar repair and the... Read more
More ArticlesMiscellaneous -
By ira_brooker on Mar 23, 2011 at 9:50pm in Miscellaneous
Any pop culture aficionado can tell you that the world loves a good bad guy. It’s why audiences walked away from The Dark Knight talking about The Joker instead of Batman, and why at least 90% of reality TV participants are truly repellent human beings. Things are no different in the world of music. Songwriters have a long history of lionizing... Read more
By ira_brooker on Feb 11, 2011 at 11:07am in Miscellaneous
The old line about looking for love in all the wrong places doesn’t just apply to singles bars and chat rooms. Some people will simply never find real love in the domain of human beings. For these select few, a lasting relationship might be as close as the local pawn shop, a mail order catalog or even their own garages. Love songs dedicated to... Read more
The Best and Worst Netflix Music Movies
By adam_schragin on Jan 12, 2011 at 12:09pm in Miscellaneous
Through its use of streaming, anytime/anywhere video and the not-quite-as-cutting-edge red envelope mail program, the movie retailer Netflix has basically ruined the cheesy, bowtie-wearing video rental empire. First by jumping onto DVDs while retailers like Blockbuster were still crawling, and then by offering their mail-based plan to deliver... Read more
By adam_schragin on Dec 28, 2010 at 8:13pm in Miscellaneous
Part of what makes my job of editor at this website more fun for me, as a fan of music, is getting to discover all of the content that artists on this site contribute. We really do have musicians of all stripes signed up on MadeLoud, and from hardcore hip hop to Christian contemporary to instrumental music to reggae, we've got at least something... Read more
By NoahBerlatsky on Dec 26, 2010 at 12:44pm in Miscellaneous
There’s nothing quite like a plush floppy critter singing — which of course explains the breakout success of John Denver. It also, to perhaps a lesser extent, accounts for the marvel of musical treasures which was the Muppet Show. Below are some of the highlights. [And visit our previous piece that charts some of the best performances of muppets... Read more
By ira_brooker on Dec 23, 2010 at 2:32pm in Miscellaneous
In terms of implied exuberance, there aren’t many phrases that can measure up to “Bootsy Collins Christmas album.” Maybe “birthday party unicorn ride” or “Super Bowl chocolate orgy,” but those are pure fantasy. Bootsy Collins’ 2006 LP Christmas is 4 Ever, on the other hand, is very real. So does it pull off the impossible dream of marrying the... Read more
By michael_keefe on Dec 21, 2010 at 10:45am in Miscellaneous
No matter how you slice it, 2010 was a big year if you were into pop, folk, dance, rap, and on and on. Basically, any genre you could throw a stick at would be able to throw a great tune right back atcha. In this column, we'll give you a taste of some of this year's most palatable offerings, from the buzz-rock of the Dum Dum Girls to the... Read more
By NoahBerlatsky on Dec 19, 2010 at 7:23pm in Miscellaneous
“Music itself is a call that demands response,” editor Ann Powers writes in her introduction to Best Music Writing 2010. That may be true, but it’s not exactly the message of the book she’s put together. She might have been more accurate if she had said, “Musicians are a call that demands response.” Or even, “the music industry is a call that... Read more
By adam_schragin on Dec 13, 2010 at 2:07pm in Miscellaneous
Despite some slightly frigid (for Austin) weather, the threat of an impending work week and a late start time, Red 7 was nicely packed on Sunday evening for a performance by New Orleans’ Eyehategod. The purveyors of a subset of metal perhaps perfectly described as “sludge,” the sound of Eyehategod contains hints of grooves buried underneath a... Read more
By janetkjay on Dec 1, 2010 at 9:00am in Miscellaneous
Once you've spent enough time in a city's music scene, you realize one very important truth: if the band is good enough to get middle-aged non-drinking folks to 6th Street; to get grizzled, bearded old men out of their armchairs and out to the show, the band has got some substance. A number of long white beards and water-sippers could be found at... Read more