Janelle Monae, performing “Let’s Go Crazy,” in front of Prince, at last night’s BET Awards. Me, last Friday at the Voice, wondering if she’s too weird to cross over into wide acceptance. Much more to come from me on her, soonish.
Also more to come from me/here/soonish on M.I.A. and Drake, both [...]

I’m over at Village Voice’s Sound of the City Blog today and tomorrow, lending my expertise on a variety of subjects, including that insane new Books track, that *yawn* new Interpol *yawn*, and best of all, puns galore with possible Weird Al/Lady Gaga songs.
I was there doing the same thing two months ago, too, which [...]

That titular participle happens to be the title of a book, to be published by the good folks at Sage, which is due in September of this year, and in which yours truly has contributed a chapter titled “Same as the Old Boss? Changes, Continuities, and Careers in the Digital Music Era.”  I promise [...]

If you read the whole thing, you’ll see that Newton Minow’s notorious “vast wasteland” speech—delivered right after he’d been tapped by JFK to lead the FCC—at least had its heart in the right place.   Its official title is “Television and the Public Interest,” and Minow used it to lobby a still-formative medium to incorporate more [...]

My brilliant friends are preparing their year-end lists, which I’ll post here to showcase my good taste in friends (last year’s).  After that, I’ll post some longer thoughts (last year’s) and even-longer mixes.  For now, a bit of my stuff for that other place.  My take on Royksopp’s Junior, which I love, is at the [...]

Back to reviewing albums and tracks at the Fork after a bit of a layoff. An Alex Metric track review (complete with fun movie quotes) here, and an Alec Ounsworth album review (complete with two full albums), here. I highly recommend Mo Beauty for your personal home collection.
And because the song’s now in [...]

A new track from The Field, the first from his forthcoming Yesterday and Today LP, called “The More That I Do,” is available in downloadable form. Predictably, it’s good. But a different kind of good than the icy winds of From Here We Go Sublime: it’s still based around a fat rhythm bed, [...]

My Tinted Windows game has caught on! (At least in Idolator’s comment section). People are approaching the boy-band timeframe liberally (some NKOTB in there), but that’s OK. I particularly like the all-British one, and Maura’s picks.

As I’m sitting here watching my Interpersonal Comm. students take an exam today (update: something which I’m still doing), my friend Maura pops up in my IM window with a question. She was wondering as to the validity of this particular study (warning: not in English), and more specifically, this arstechnica article citing it. [...]

Hopefully soon, I’ll be able to post two things: some thoughts on 2009 songs and albums thus far (Phoenix, “My Girls,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs, AC Newman, Royksopp), and more excitingly, my take on some of the best stuff to come out of Indiana lately (the Broderick, We Are Hex, Push/Pull, I’m looking in your direction[s]). [...]