Witch House: Harry Potter and the Wizard Rock Phenomenon
Confession: Last year I put on a Ravenclaw uniform — prim school girl blouse, skirt, and silver and blue tie, wool cardigan, navy-lined robe, wand pocket armed and ready — ...
Weirdo Lil Wayne Gone Squeaky Clean
Remember when Lil Wayne was the weird one? In 2006, when Weezy’s career started picking up its second wind with the release of still-astonishing Dedication 2 mixtape, he was ...
Rubble Rousers: Mr. Dream on Sifting through Trash–and Playing 4Knots
The Village Voice ran the Siren Music Festival — an annual, free, sweaty day of music on Coney Island — for 10 years. This year, they’ve renamed it the 4Knots Music ...
Can Latin Music Bust Out of… Latin Music?
About five years ago, I saw the New York bachata group Aventura headline Madison Square Garden. Riding high off their mega-hit “Un Beso,” a tender ballad with virtuoso ...
Stevie Nicks on Inspiration, Collaboration, and Her New Dreams
Since Stephanie Nicks became “Stevie” in 1973, the ethereal songstress has recorded 18 albums, been nominated for 17 Grammys, and had one of the music industry’s ...
Previewing the BET Awards: Where Are the Lady Rappers?
A glance at Justin Bieber’s stacked trophy shelf will tell you music awards shows generally reward sales over all other criteria. When they deviate from this rubric, ...
Remixing Metaphors: Music and the Value of Cost
Late last year, Fleet Foxes, a band that already feels like they belong to another time, compared the $3.99 Amazon digital sale price of their new album, Helplessness Blues, ...
Uncovering New Music at Copenhagen’s Distortion Fest
A long long time ago, in a year that shall not be disclosed (2003), I attended Love Parade, the debauched festival of raving that clomped and trucked down Berlin’s ...
Lyricists of the Page: From Dylan to Destroyer
Magazines and websites celebrated Bob Dylan’s recent 70th birthday by writing 700 tributes — there were so many, in fact, that the Guardian followed their coverage of ...
Friendly Fires Find Salvation on an Island
If you want to get philosophical about it, Friendly Fires are reaching for the rocky euphoria-point between total joy and the unknown. In 2008, the band — three ...