Last night (pretty close to this morning in my neck of the woods), the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. This year’s ceremony covers all the audio recordings released from 1 October 2011 through 30 September 2012. These are the five biggest takeaways from the nominations. #1: Nicki Minaj is …
Comedy music duo Hard ‘n Phirm (Chris Hardwick, Mike Phirman) put out a new video last week that’s pretty special. The pair was inspired by the Ermahgerd meme to write a midtempo love song. Not familiar with the meme? It’s a silly image macro that started last March on Reddit. Someone found an old photo of a preteen girl with …
P!nk knows how to write a catchy song. She’s also developed a clear artistic identity that is instantly recognizable once she starts singing. There’s a wild side to her vocals matched with aggressive, personal lyrics. The Truth About Love is an album filled with catchy songs. Any track could be a single that gets Top 40/CHR play without issue. The …
I was just a bit too young to catch the original run of Fraggle Rock. I did, however, watch the show on TNT and the Disney channel on a regular basis. It was just so much fun. When I woke up yesterday to a new Fraggle Rock video, I was thrilled. Then I realized it was a Ben Folds Five …
Though most of my income at this point comes from writing, I still self identify as a musician. There was a time where I could have called myself a professional musician. I was gigging on regular basis for money and for experience when I lived in NYC. What I gigged on–voice, piano, woodwinds–I had extensive experience in. I can sing …
If it weren’t for the hosting issues last week, Amanda Palmer Day at Sketchy Details would have been Wednesday. Instead, it’s today. Here’s a photo recap of the concert on 11 September. I’m still toying around with this gallery plugin to see about the size and placement of the captions. Just click on the center for the full size shot …
Amanda Palmer is an artist obsessed with creating connections. She writes personal songs in such an open and honest way that listeners are forced to respond. Love her or hate her, you cannot accuse her of taking the easy way out. Her latest project see the addition of The Grand Theft Orchestra to her piano-driven rock/alternative music. If anything, the …
It appears I may have posted my Lindsey Stirling tribute a day too soon. Yesterday, a new video emerged from the ether of the Internet that kind of proved my argument. Lindsey Stirling is a violin player working off of the pop culture idiom. The new video is the Game of Thrones theme. It reconnects Stirling with her Skyrim theme …
Lindsey Stirling has come a long way since stepping into mainstream media consciousness on America’s Got Talent. There, with only 90 seconds to perform at a time, she was viewed as a novelty act (Lindsey Stirling, the “hip hop violinist”) and nothing more. The judges did not like her quarterfinals performance, with Piers Morgan giving her an X and no …
Laura Linney is Aimee Mann. That’s all you really need to know about Aimee Mann’s new music video “Charmer.” Curt? Quite. But that’s all it took for me to watch the video for the first time. I presume you’ve already hit the replay button on the YouTube embed. I can’t blame you. That song is catchy. Catchy is one of …
I’m a sucker for quite a number of things involved in this story. Tim Burton pictures? I’ve seen them all in theaters since Sleepy Hollow. Yeah Yeah Yeahs? I pop one of their albums in at least once a week and try to catch them whenever they play in NYC. Karen O’s film scoring/soundtrack contributions? Pure unadulterated fandom. Calypso music …
I’ve been big on M.I.A. since she came out the gates with “Galang,” a twisted little play on street slang that is far deeper than its sing-song hook and neon colored video would lead you to believe. Is it a track about the call to emigrate to a wealthier area that isn’t necessarily safer? A remembrance of the violence during …
UPDATE: Here’s the MJRI voting link this week. Here’s my (Totally, Completely, not joking around, NSFW) performance that the judges liked for once. And here’s the full podcast. Voting closes Midnight on Wednesday, July 11. I admit that I enjoy terrible songs. I love to tear them apart, analyze them, and figure out how they went so wrong. Usually there …
It’s America week on Myndjack Radio Idol. I’ll update after the show goes live with the voting link. Voting link is here. I appreciate #1 votes. Not ranking contestants is worse than ranking in last place. Any unranked contestant gets the worst score possible. As you can see, there aren’t too many ways to make Amanda Palmer (by way of …
