AltWeeklies Wire
The Music Industry Isn't Done Harassing College Students Over File Sharing. Should It Be?new
Last December, the Recording Industry Association of America announced it would no longer continue its massive legal campaign against downloaders. But that doesn't mean you should grab that album off BitTorrent quite yet.
Tags: RIAA, illegal downloading
The Great Demo Review 2009new
We received more new-music submissions than ever this year, but that didn't keep us from reviewing every one of them.
San Diego CityBeat |
San Diego CityBeat |
03-04-2009 |
Music
Tags: San Diego, Great Demo Review
Fort Worth Metal Scene Remembers Abboud Greig, Joe's Garagenew
In the story of Abboud Greig, the 74-year-old Fort Worth landlord killed early last month during an attempted robbery, a little perspective goes a very long way.
Dallas Observer |
Pete Freedman |
03-02-2009 |
Music
Baltimore Hip-Hop Vets Offer a Way Forward For The Scene--Looking Backnew

If you follow hip-hop journalism, you've heard this story before: Once there was a grassroots movement that established criteria for what made hip-hop matter. Now it's just people repeating the same old nonsense about big-screen TVs, money, and bitches.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
02-24-2009 |
Music
Together, Live Nation and Ticketmaster Could Exert a Dangerous Amount of Powernew

When news of the proposed Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger flashed across the internet, it was accompanied by the same mix of panic and dread you'd expect in response to an announcement that great white sharks were carrying the Ebola virus and could now fly.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
02-23-2009 |
Music
Is Hip-Hop in Seattle Being White-Washed?new

Just like electric blues, hip-hop reaches a vastly broader, and whiter, audience than ever before. The difference in Seattle is that some of the most recognizable figures are by and large non-black, a fact that makes rappers like Silas Blak concerned.
Seattle Weekly |
Jonathan Cunningham |
02-23-2009 |
Music
Is the King of Pop's Neverland Booty Our Folly Too?new

Life is hard, and economists searching for a symbol to the End of an Era need look no farther than Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson's 2,800-acre Valhalla outside Santa Barbara.
L.A. Weekly |
Randall Roberts |
02-20-2009 |
Music
Musicians are Hardly Immune to the Twitter Bugnew
Is the "microblog" Internet phenomenon the next leap forward for musicians or just a tweeting waste of time?
Houston Press |
Chris Gray |
02-17-2009 |
Music
Seven Unsexy Songs About Sexnew
With apologies to Big Black, here are seven songs about fucking that are unlikely to inspire any actual fucking.
Tags: Sex, sexy songs
Signs of Life in the Dead of the Grammys Pressroomnew
No wonder print is on the ropes. We reporters are bores. A dying industry covering another dying industry, like a bunch of telegraph operators sending missives about a carburetor convention.
L.A. Weekly |
Randall Roberts |
02-13-2009 |
Music
A Wealth of Free Musicnew
Bigger crowds for bands, higher sales for bars, and cheaper nights for fans: So why aren't all shows free?
Tags: live music, economic issues
Hip-Hop and the Obama Effectnew

Nas, Young Jeezy and others don't think Obama's presidency spells the end of hip-hop.
New York Press |
R.M. Schneiderman and Ray LeMoine |
02-05-2009 |
Music
Tags: Barack Obama, hip-hop
A Soundtrack To Sweat Tonew
Most New Year's resolutions involve exercise, but what will you listen to?
East Bay Express |
Kathleen Richards |
01-15-2009 |
Music
The Best Tribute Bands to Never Existnew
What of the many acts that, for one reason or another, will never merit the tribute-band treatment? Let's travel to a thoroughly unhip parallel universe and check out the greatest tribute bands to (hopefully) never exist.
Jazz Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard Diesnew

Hubbard, who died on December 29 at age 70 after suffering a heart attack in late November, remained almost peerless for 50 or so years with his chosen instrument.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
David Cotner |
01-09-2009 |
Music