I met up with an old friend for drinks last night, and over the course of conversation it became clear that he didn't know about the current boon of good music with overt Maryland ties. Both of us spent a lot of time listening to crappy local acts back in High School and directly afterward. If you spent enough time hanging around that circuit you' ( Read more... )

One comment about another one of these "best of list" noted that all of the included artists were only "indie".  It seemed to me the concept of "mainstream" in music vanished sometime in  2007 if not earlier.  Is there a "movement" right now with a group of performers producing popular music in a shared style?  Who would be in that group?  Kayne ( Read more... )

I don’t want to sound like I’m knocking Kayne West, because if 808 and Heartbreak is a flop, it will be the kind of failure that will probably inspire a whole sub genre five years from now. That aside, ever since Cher’s ‘Believe’, we’ve had to live with auto tune front and center in mainstream pop. It’s hard to think of instances where it’s been ( Read more... )

Top Ten

1. Celebration - The Modern Tribe
   
   The most apt criticism and compliment of TV on the Radio is that their ambition well exceeds their talent. I think that’s why they’re so attracted to Celebration, a group of virtuoso multi instrumentalists. This is Celebration’s second release, once again produced by TVotR’s ( Read more... )

I got very intoxicated very early last night and as a result made it back to bed by midnight. And I am happy to report that while I did spend much of the night kneeling at the alter of the porcelain god, I did not have communion with it. Never the less, I couldn't get much sleep, so now seemed like as good of a time as any to finish up my 2006 Best ( Read more... )