Anyone who knows me know that I love the esoteric, confusing and complicated aspects of pop music's greatest artists. When a Garth Brooks goes on a detour to b...

You didn’t used to have to be an expert on intellectual property law just to be a music fan. You would just put on your headphones, hit play, and enjoy whateve...

Hearing the news yesterday that Robert Redford had passed away reminded me of one of the most moving, and bittersweet, memories that Prince shared with us towa...

Alright, friends, in honor of attending the (alleged) last-ever Wu-Tang show at Madison Square Garden, I thought it appropriate to tell the story of the time I...

I don't think I've ever felt more tension in the room during a live performance than when I was standing five feet in front of Sly Stone, in a room that felt l...

By many measures, 1986 was the greatest year of Prince’s extraordinary career. One of the most remarkable metrics was that he recorded over 250 songs that ye...

David Letterman (whose team is doing a wonderful job of presenting and narrating his formidable archives) recently posted an amusing anecdote about Prince's fi...

Back in the latter part of the 20th century, a lot of subcultures held onto a concept called "selling out", a nebulously-defined idea based on a nega...

Back in 2021, my friend Jesse Thorn interviewed two of my creative heroes, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, for an absolutely indispensible episode of Bullseye . Th...

Though he’s one of the most gifted and important artists to have ever created popular music, Stevie’s legacy as a tireless and fearless advocate for justice ma...

Recently, a motivated Prince fan created a spreadsheet that attempts to catalog the entirety of Prince's thousands of recordings over the course of his caree...

On this day in 2007, Prince won Super Bowl XLI with a soaring halftime performance that climaxed with the skies opening up to honor his guitar solo. It is not...

Duleshwar Tandi, better known these days as Rapper Dule Rocker, is one of the most successful and influential rappers to have ever come out of the Kalahandi di...

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to watch the most definitive record of Prince and the Revolution at their commercial peak, on one of the bigges...

There could be no more fitting remembrance of Prince than Questlove going deep into his catalog and spinning some of Prince's greatest works into a multi-hour...

Even though I watched the medium of podcasting being created since its inception, I'd always resisted a little bit participating myself. I think I just felt mo...

With Janet Jackson's (woefully belated) acceptance into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it's well past time for a broader reckoning with her place in popular c...

Prince was an astoundingly prolific artist, releasing nearly 40 albums under his own name(s), and thousands of songs for himself and others. His concerts were...

Today's most fun new Glitch app is Record Player, which lets you upload a photo, then uses Google Cloud's Vision API to recognize the image and play it on Sp...

I keep having to explain a principle I arrived at a few years ago when I realized the modern conservative movement is grounded almost entirely in a contrived s...

I struggled for a long time when the nice folks at the Heat Rocks podcast asked me which Prince album I’d want to talk about on their show. Oliver Wang and M...

I was delighted to get to talk to Ben Greenman for an episode of “Dig If You Will The Podcast,” his series in honor of his book “Dig If You Will The Picture”....

With the recent availability of nearly all of Prince’s catalog on the most popular streaming services, it’s a great time to (re?)discover the breadth of Prince...

Red Book, Yellow Book, Green Book Stay within the lines. The Red Book There’s a specification that Phillips published in 1981 , for optical digital en...

Today, P.M. Dawn exists as a faded memory for most music fans, if they’re remembered at all. But Attrell Cordes made songs like nothing that came before. Beaut...

When Prince’s first greatest hits collection was released, Prince made private comments as a guide for the liner notes. Later briefly posted on his website the...

Twenty years ago, at the height of his battle for control over his musical career, Prince posted an unusually candid and direct letter to his fans, including a...

One time, I got invited to Prince’s house but I couldn’t go. Somehow I ended up with an even better Prince story. That brief message from Scott Addison Cla...

I’ve been struggling to find words to express how I feel in the week since Prince died. He’s obviously the artist that’s had the most impact on my life, and wa...

After talking to a friend about how Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” is so romantic if you just focus on the strings, bass and vocals, I was inspired to mix d...

Sometimes I get an idea in my head and I just can’t let it go. For a few months, I’ve heard this nagging sound in the back of my mind, asking me to revisit Am...

0:00 — 0:10 In the summer of 1983, Wendy Melvoin was just 19 years old. She’d flown halfway across the country from Los Angeles for her first professional gi...

After at least 15 years of debating whether I should spend money on this, I recently took the plunge and acquired one of my most-desired Prince collectibles....

[11:05pm] Well, that’s a wrap. It’s hard for me to say how that ranked as a New Girl episode, but it seemed the narrative of the show may have been subordina...

Here's a fun registry of derby names that lets you see if your roller derby name is unique: http://t.co/ZU0TAxNN4O — anildash (@anildash) Dece...

Every great career in rhythm and blues leads only to heaven or hell. The path to hell is obvious: From Sam Cooke gunned down to James Brown leading a multi-sta...

Maggie Vail and Jesse Von Doom are the executive directors and cofounders of CASH Music, an open-source toolkit for helping independent musicians support thems...

Julia Nunes started recording ukulele covers in her dorm room for her friends at home eventually led to 50 million YouTube views, four self-published albums, a...

Despite his obviously profound impact on popular culture, Prince has generally not been the subject of nearly as much academic study as his peers such as Micha...

Ten years ago, my friend Andre had been experimenting with an instant messenger bot that sent out news headlines; Up late on a Saturday night I got a message...

Today brings two announcements of great import to music fans, but they’re most notable for who’s not involved: The major record labels. First, The Beatles ar...

Everyone claims to be at the Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell: And yet, this venue has no mayor! THE BLOGOSPHERE IS FACT-CHECKING YOUR ASS, Das Racist!...

Though he was arguably the most popular solo artist of all time, one of the great joys of being a serious Michael Jackson fan is that some of his best work is...

This was probably the one clip of Michael Jackson I wish everybody had seen....

Jay Smooth, “ Please stop calling everyone and their mother ‘The First Rapper’ “: U-Roy may be one of rap’s predecessors, and among the influences that lai...

A lot of folks seemed to like the Little Red Riding Hood video I linked to the other day, so I thought I’d reach way back into the archives (anybody still...

I’m a fan of The-Dream , the producer-turned-singer who was born Terius Nash and is responsible for pop gems ranging from Rihanna’s “Umbrella” to Mariah’s “To...

My friend Nick is good at answering the questions I didn’t even know I wanted to ask. For example, how many electrons per song on an iPod ? At approximate...

On and On by Janet Jackson It's literally a song about cruising down the road with the top down. Dolphin by Prince It's about reincarnating...

Thanks to a nice reminder from Ginevra , and a motivational post by Ta-Nehisi Coates , I got around to gathering up some videos I've been meaning to share....

Major labels function with the assumption that 90 percent of artists they sign are going to fail — that should have been a red flag for everybody. I mean tha...

We saw Mary J. Blige. It was like a 2-hour motivation speech interrupted by some fantastic ass-shaking songs. I laughed, I cried, I want to see it again....

One of the most frequent questions I get when I talk to people who are unfamiliar with social media on the web is, “Who writes all these blogs or Wikipedia? Wh...

Spin Magazine’s piece covering the rise and fall, and perhaps second rise of D’Angelo has been lingering in my mind for weeks. As you might expect, I was a f...

I’ve been a fan of The KLF since I was a teenager, and just last week was reminded of one of their most amazing stunts. This is just the first of a five-part v...

Dedicated readers will recall me obsessing over and over-analyzing Auto-Tune in pop music earlier this year. It is, then, my pleasure to report that, than...

As I had guessed, I’ve already had someone threaten to unsubscribe from my blog due to the publication of this week’s Snoop Dogg research. But I’ve had twice...

Beginning with our exploration of Snoop Dogg’s “Sensual Seduction”, we wandered into the history of vocoders, talkboxes, and the most nefarious of voice manipu...

One of the things that makes Snoop’s “Sensual Seduction” video so compelling is his outstanding use of vocal effects. Let’s take a closer look, shall we? I...

Now that his single Sensual Seduction (a.k.a. Sexual Eruption) is in the Top 10, it’s official: Snoop Dogg can see the future. First, let’s pause to watch the...

Today’s Blog of the Year Pick: Ill Doctrine . Put simply, Jay Smooth’s Ill Doctrine is the best video blog on the web. (At least the best one that’s i...

Many of my nerd friends are all excited about Portal , Valve’s brilliant reworking of Narbacular Drop . I’ve only played about five minutes of the game...

The Donors Choose Bloggers Challenge that I wrote about a few weeks ago is almost over, and that means you only have a few days to help support the Notes fo...

Put these in your browser, and shake well. Facebook apps are not a long tail . So says Chris Anderson, who oughtta know. The tougher question is: Since th...

I’ve gotten a lot of really good questions (and some fantastically generous donations!) about the Donors Choose blogger challenge I wrote about yesterday , bu...

Ranjit has made his robots play Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” , and in the comments reveals that apparently he can just throw any MIDI file at them and have it r...

Alan Leeds, one of my heroes and our greatest record of the living history of funk music, offers a warm remembrance of Bobby Byrd after Byrd’s passing last w...

Speaking of Timberlake, that brings us inevitably to Timbaland. After the fawning over Rick Rubin in the New York Times, it’s amazing that there hasn’t been...

We just finished watching HBO’s broadcast of Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex tour , which I (unsurprisingly) quite enjoyed. It seems like he’s done a good...

I’d intended to post a correction to this NY Times story’s recounting of the history of blog book tours, but was pleased to see that my friend, and intermitt...

My fellow nerds, the moment we’ve waited more than two decades for has apparently arrived. Soundwave has arrived . He really transforms. And he really plays...

In the New Yorker, Bruce Wagner tries to live my life : The performance began at two in the morning and took place in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hote...

If you’re in NYC, you should join me, and my friends from Serious Eats , A Hamburger Today , and Gothamist for the Burger Bash at Water Taxi Beach tomorr...

In the New York Times, Jon Pareles gets it exactly right : Prince’s priorities are obvious. The main one is getting his music to an audience, whether it’s...

Over at HipHopMusic.com, which Jay Smooth has relaunched as a group blog, Brandon Soderberg offers When They Reminisce Over Mixtapes . The same industry that...

As much as we like to blame the RIAA for all the evils of the recording industry, leave it to my man Prince to bring out the best in the execs over in the U.K....

This one’s sublime: “ What’s your favorite kitchen sound? ” This one’s the truth, finally. The most eloquent dismissal of User Generated Discontent (or in...

Sadly, MichaelJacksonForSale.com does not actually let you purchase the King of Pop for your very own. However, it does have lots of interesting memorabili...

Details offers a lengthy and fairly credible interview with Justin Timberlake : Timberlake is not a kiss-ass. Selling more than 13 million records has e...

Sasha Frere-Jones bears witness to Prince’s ageless funk in this week’s New Yorker. As much as I admire Prince’s gifts, it’s Sasha’s job I want....

So, we talked about Gershwin’s work in inspiring the Rhythm Changes , but his signature work is, of course, Rhapsody in Blue. One of my favorite recent finds...

Nate Harrison’s 2004 documentary Can I Get an Amen? on the “Amen Break”, uncovers the story behind one of the seminal breaks of the electronica/jungle/drum...

Always trust the guys at The Smoking Gun to ferret out the good stuff. “ Thanks CBS for turning my son GAY. ” This, of course, is the substance of one of the...

Do you want links? Because I’ll give you some damn links, I’m not afraid of you! I’m not afraid of NOBODY! Reyhan Harmanci on the third wave of academic s...

Rip, Mix, and Burn? It’s not new. Contrafact is what they called sampling before there was sampling. You take the chords from a song that the whole band know...

Most everybody who knows me well knows that I’ve been a fan of Prince for pretty much my entire life. So when casual fans or non-fans hear that Prince is playi...

My iTunes library, of about 12,000 songs consisting of 60GB of data, got corrupted today. The MP3 files themselves are okay, but all of the metadata is blown a...

Sure, everybody’s linking to Ironic Sans’ (admittedly entertaining) Celebrity Patents , since Waxy pointed them out, but did you know Prince actually has a...

To those of us who grew up after his artistic heyday, James Brown is some combination of legend, influence, icon, and inevitably, caricature. So on the day we...

Microsoft has just launched the Zune , which will be one of the most popular digital music players ever made, and could have been considered a wild s...

Earlier this year, the New York Philharmonic started distributing some recordings of their works through the iTunes music store. On its own, that’s not a par...

What’s your musical horoscope?� (Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)� Inspired by Stephanie. � Read more on...

A little more than two decades ago, popular music was under fire by Tipper Gore’s PMRC, the Parents’ Music Resource Center . Tipper was aghast at popular musi...

This is the first post in a series where I’m pointing out some nice little touches that take up less than a 100×100 pixel square on a screen. Today’s is the N...

It’s uncanny how well Pandora knows my truest feelings. � Read more on Vox...

For a long time, I’ve been enamored of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. There’s a lot of reasons, from their music to their various art projects and media hacks....

My reign as most verbose Justin Timberlake fanboy on the Internet is not yet complete. Thus, some links to augment the review of “SexyBack” . The Observe...

Four years is a long time in pop music, but that’s how long it’s been since Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You” heralded his launch as a solo singer and...

It’s no great revelation that popular music has largely shifted to a producer-centric culture, and though this is true not just in hip hop or house music, as...

One of those interesting side-effects of having lots of old blog posts around is that sometimes they come back to life. With Star being fired last week, ther...

Just found this, though it’s an older post:  Michael Koppelman’s PodCasts about his time working with Prince. Koppelman was the engineer on a bunch of great...

Hey kids, do you like links? Me too. Chris Anderson revisits the death of the blockbuster , which is of course astute and correct, but is mostly interesti...

It’s like they chose the onstage talent at this event just to appeal to me ! ![Rock Your BillG.jpg]https://cdn.glitch.global/71e5579f-aba0-499a-b200-01549a2a...

Prince.org has a great interview entitled " ALAN LEEDS – THE QUESTIONS, THE ANSWERS & MORE BESIDES… .", with some terrific insights from Alan Lee...

Having just watched chapters 1-12 of R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet , here’s a list of the best words in the saga: Rubber Spatula Allergic Bless...

I’m delighted to see the Smoking Gun’s " Blasphemy In A Bottle" story. "Journalist" Dawn Westlake of CBS, who has covered the Michael Jack...

Mariah Carey killed her career by divorcing her boss and making a shitty movie, and then she gets to come back because she’s filling the void left by Bone Thug...

It’s really weird that after years of kicking around the industry Lewis Taylor finally shows up, apparently charting in some places. It’s even been enough th...

Since I’ve, uh, cornered the market on blogging about blog songs, I’m contractually obligated to link to Gawk At This , the Gawker rap track by The Assimila...

It’s like the whole web was made for Ben’s indulgence . This week at Slate, Judd Apatow’s Diary . The best part? He loves "Being Bobby Brown" , to...

Prince’s S.S.T. , his (surprisingly good) Hurricane Katrina relief track is now up on the iTunes Music Store . Nice that you don’t have to be in his little o...

Link: Finally, the wine bar is raised – Los Angeles Times ....

The amount of information, especially in the song database, at the unofficial home of Morris Day & THE TIME is pretty amazing. I love resources like this...

Why do I love LiveJournal? Because you find things like " Who’s your favorite faux Christian ex-rock star? ". A sad tale of Scott Stapp’s decline int...

I’m really enjoying " A LETTER TO PRINCE ROGERS NELSON ." Newbie thinks that the fansite is run by Prince himself, hilarity ensues. Big bonus points...

Once you’ve reviewed the guide to Beck and Scientology for journalists and fans , it becomes clear why he disses prescription drugs in his (otherwise excellen...

Man, the best of Lauryn Hill mix tape is so good that it’s a fucking shame she’s batshit, Tom Cruise-crazy now. Come back, Lauryn, stop making wack songs...

I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass along the NYTimes story on MTV Desi from last week. There’s a lot of different reactions this prompts from me, but perhaps the...

I was reading the  TIME interview with Dave Chapelle , and the way he’s tripping, it reminds me of the (first) time Prince retired from making music. Right wh...

Okay, this is a  pretty funny record review . Although I figure people who are still in their "listening to NIN" phase would enjoy the record....

Suphala just got her first big profile in the New York Times. Here comes the tabla invasion! Except probably not....

Some people start a blog because they’ve got something to say, and damn, Dan Charnas comes out swinging: big butts, hip hop radio, and white boy directors , i...

I have received the following comments on posts from my Pop Life blog. Though they’re ostensibly aimed at the celebrities I discuss on the blog, I prefer to...

Now that Jay has confessed to listening to Will Smith, I can too. First, there’s a few things to know. I still hold out hope that Will’s going to make a grea...

OMG, Best Television Film Movie about Sharks and Bikinis ever! Spring Break Shark Attack had the Tiffany Network showering us with blood, gore, slutty spring...

With the news that Toyota is launching a record label , I guess we can officially say that the music industry has gone completely random. Though most people...

This is second only to that "Biggie and Tupac start making out in hell" story that was posted on alt.hiphop.fanfic.slash the other day....

More proof that the New York Times is the best paper in the world: A Fake Michael Jackson’s Big Break: A Fake Trial . This important piece of journalism cover...

Michal Levy reminds us what we love about the web. With Giant Steps , Levy took Coltrane’s masterwork and set it to Flash in a beautiful interpretation. Nothi...

One of the great revelations of this AP story on Kevin Federline is that Kevin’s second child with Shar Jackson is named "Kaleb Michael Jackson Federlin...

The impressive thing isn’t that Sky News has a Michael Jackson Trial Channel . The impressive thing is the order of the navigation on the left side of their n...

Left and Right: D’Angelo and O.D.B. Proving my theory incorrect, D’Angelo hasn’t actually become so unpopular that he can’t get arrested . And, wors...

I don’t know how the Boston Globe publishes this, since it ain’t hardly news, but " Ashlee Simpson’s career comes courtesy of Daddy dearest ". Dear...

From Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainers of the Year : For Prince, the best part of his ’04 triumph was that it was all about the music, not about marke...

The Online Film Critics Society has its list of the 100 most overlooked films of the 90s and doesn’t include Boomerang! Criminal!...

Good to see Michael keeping his spirits up at holiday time....

From the Star Tribune, " When Prince tours, he’s king ". Madonna generated more tour revenue than Prince in 2004, but only ’cause she was willing to...

In what’s become an annual holiday tradition at Michael’s Neverland Ranch, the cops turned the joint upside down again . Ho ho ho!...

GQ has a range of different celebrities fawn over Prince . From Jermaine Dupri: "I remember when I was 8, Prince was opening for Rick James, and my mothe...

It seems that Jermajesty Jackson ‘s parents are splitting up . An unfortunate and surprising turn of events....

Since the Commons is going to Minneapolis , it might make sense to read Prince’s thoughts on maintaining control of one’s intellectual property ....

You want me to ROCK YOUR BODY? Huh?!...

This just in: geeky white guys with blogs like indie rock ! Me? I like music made by machines and/or black folks. Call me crazy....

When "The W" came out, I got to see all 9 members of the Wu-Tang Clan on stage at one time. Even that night , I knew we’d never see them all togethe...

I am boundlessly amused that the "bloggers fact-checking the Eye’s ass" circle-jerk has reached its nadir: Courtesy of Poynter.org , two thousand an...

Today’s song of the day? Under Pressure . Sigh....

Eight years ago, Tunes.com was offering audio samples for 200,000 songs, as part of its attempt to sell downloadable music over the web. What was Apple doing...

For your amusement, the Michael Jackson soundboard ....

I won’t be in NYC to see it myself, but you might want to check out the Prince movie marathon that’s coming up....

In what may be a first for media of any type, at any time, I have found a positive review of Under the Cherry Moon . I love the movie, but I still think t...

Milking the “controversy” over Cinnamon Girl for all it’s worth, the local Twin Cities press talks to the guys who made the video . If nothing else, they shou...

As is to be expected now that you can get paid a nickel for sending people to the iTunes store, there’s a blog that sifts through iTMS and links to highlights....

I find it oddly comforting that MC Hammer’s wikipedia page is not only completely updated, but clearly written by a fan who’s only papered the thinnest venee...

When I used to work in music promotion, we talked a lot about pre-loading PCs or other devices with music videos and songs. Sippey did the best job of describ...

Just for my own reference, I wanted to bookmark my favorite online music store, which I always forget the name of: SLCD , baby....

McSweeney’s asks the important questions . I got 100% correct....

Pegged to the release of Depeche Mode’s remix set, the Guardian offers a history of the remix that, predictably, skews white and British but is still pretty...

Gina lists the 1,049 federal rights that depend on marital status . Civil unions are not enough, and will never be enough, despite the fact that they’re harde...

How bad does the Wall Street Journal’s editorial judgement suck? I will show you! OpinionJournal, home to James “he whom I asked to kiss my brown ass” Taranto,...

Well, that raises the bar from “has his own sneaker line” in the rapper-as-mogul sweepstakes: Jay-Z’s in the running for president of Def Jam . 50’s gonna wan...

…controversy. Seems like Prince’s attempt to promote the new record with a predictably-controversial video is working, since even Billboard is picking up the...

Dan Woods has a poignant lament about the end of life for his application (and labor of love) Watson. The circumstance is unfortunate, but it would be totall...

The sad truth is that I am the only person in this airport lounge right now who’s really enjoying Janet Jackson’s Nasty . Part of it is because these peop...

...

A answer from the morning news, who else does The Shining and Cuckoo’s Nest share?...

Every once in a while, the random shuffle kicks up "Breathe On Me", off of Britney’s In The Zone , and the song makes me terrifically sad, even th...

I’m starting to reconcile myself to the fact that I actually still enjoy a number of R. Kelly songs, but it is while listening to his exhortations at the begin...

About 250 years ago, Josiah Wedwood invented the concept of the celebrity endorsement . A scant two and a half centuries later, his clever marketing strategy...

Current number of days that Michael McDonald’s " I Keep Forgettin’ " has been stuck in my head: Four....

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but as soon as I heard that J.J. Jackson died , I expected to see a response on Adam Curry’s weblog . I mean, I know they’r...

I could never figure out exactly why I liked Alicia Keys’ “ You Don’t Know My Name ” so much. I mean, it’s a fine song, featuring beautiful production by Kanye...

Okay, there are services that handle eBay for me if I’m too lazy to sell my junk. Which I am. But what I need is a service which will handle Free After Reba...

So, Prince is playing the Fillmore in San Francisco this weekend, two shows, and I need tickets. His online music club is supposed to hook us fans up, but I mi...

Sweet funky instrumentals. There’s the Commodore’s "Machine Gun", Barry White’s "Love’s Theme". There’s a whole bunch of almost vocal-fre...

I’m always struck by how obliquely I’ve become familiar with popular music, and not just because I usually identify Beatles songs by the covers of them I’m fam...

It’s really unseemly how much we’re enjoying watching Nelly’s “Search for Miss Applebottom” on VH1. It’s basically an entire show about Nelly looking at women’...

I grieve for Mandy Moore. The poor girl has been unfairly lumped in with lesser lights of girl pop stardom, barely staying above Willa Ford levels of obscurity...

CBS had planned to air their Michael Jackson Number Ones special earlier, but delayed the airing after his arrest and waited until he’d sat down with 60 Minu...

I find it fascinating that I can say "New York is my favorite city!" and half the responses will say "No! New York is a terrible city because I...

Apparently, the soundtrack to Disney’s new Haunted Mansion movie, Haunted Hits , features Morris Day and the Time doing a cover of Rockwell’s "Somebo...

I finally got around to seeing Finding Nemo this weekend. It’s pretty good, not great, but I suppose I’d appreciate it a lot more if I were a parent. In summ...

I’m absolutely certain that I’m the only person in Nice, France, who is walking around looking for locations that were used to film scenes for " Under the...

I’ve been following Russell Simmons’ political ambitions for over a year now, and it seems like his self-promotion campaign has kicked into high gear in the...

The whole point of funk music is finding a groove and working it, but too many really funky songs quit just as they’re getting started. Stevie Wonder is especi...

The household is currently enjoying Speakerboxxx and loving The Love Below . Especially "The Way You Move". Fortunately, both albums come togethe...

Go do yourself a favor and dig up a copy of the Neptunes remix of the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil . Tasty. Also, check out the video ....

Gen’s got a nice link and backgrounder on Seal’s impending new release . In typical Seal fashion, I’ve seen a good bit of promotion for the song, but haven’t...

I have an older, kind of broken-down laptop that I wanted to do some research and testing on, so I installed a fresh install of a new operating system on it. H...

A great, dead-on review of the new Neptunes joint , astutely analyzing the place they’ve reached in their career, and that it’s time to change it up. Even Tim...

The basic details: Justin took to the stage at 1:30am after the end of the VMAs, where he won 2 moonmen. Performance lasted one and a half hours, and onstage g...

I am really, truly, inordinately excited about the fact that I’m going to see Justin Timberlake perform this week, especially since it’s not the crappy arena t...

There’s a little promotional page for Prince’s new live DVD up, and you can download some sound and video clips there. I’ll probably write up more of a revie...

It’s been about 10 years, where’s the Best of Method Man collection? You could fill a strong 2-disc set or one bangin’ solid CD of tunes with Meth’s tracks, ev...

I’m listening to the (12 years old!) track “Latifah’s Had It Up 2 Here”, and my mind is thoroughly boggled that the interceding years have left the Queen as an...

I suppose it should just be a music TypeList so I can mention it, but holy crap the hook on Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” is working. It’s a sample from the Chi-Li...

Today I had a Patrick Swayze song stuck in my head. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in all of human history....

My cousin in California sent me the following email, but I haven’t kept up enough with our local hip hop stations enough to know if we’ve had the same trend on...

Though I work in the weblog industry and preach the gospel all day, I realize that this new medium isn’t really a utopia. Indeed, it’s just new. But there are...

Back in the mid-90s, as those of you who’ve seen "Behind the Music" will recall, M.C. Hammer went through a short phase where he was signed to Death...

Yeah, I got rid of the little toolbar that used to be next to the sidebar. Nobody uses it anyway, and most of the links there are on my page of other stuff n...

Another in my occasional series of great emails sent to our customer service address at work: From: [Name Redacted] Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 2...

I wasn’t going to write about it, but I can’t seem to stop thinking about it, so maybe writing it out will get it out of my head… I’m surprised just how affect...

Speaking of mental illness, I am, right now, listening to a dance remix of Whitney Houston’s version of "I Will Always Love You". It’s not merely one...

If web services are considered the API to an Internet operating system, what would be the device drivers? What’s analogous to the layer that abstracts the phys...

Understand this: I am an unapologetic Michael Jackson apologist. I was that guy, the one still holding on to hope. Michael Jackson has had a third child, app...

Understand this: I am an unapologetic Michael Jackson apologist. I was that guy, the one still holding on to hope. Michael Jackson has had a third child, app...

Andre kindly pointed out this weblog of Quake news from Blue’s News circa July 1996. I’ve always wondered why Stephen Heaslip deliberately gets written out...

And all good things, they say, never last …...

I thought everyone had read this, but then I mentioned it to a few people, and they hadn’t seen it. Do yourself a favor and read Clay Shirky’s thoughts on the...

It’s funny because it’s true ! This list of One Hundred Albums You Should Remove from Your Collection Immediately only includes 3 or 4 that I have. Overall,...

Just for you, because I love you, a picture of Björk as a baby:...

Confidential to Sean in New York: You didn’t, no how, no way , invent the remix. Don’t even....

After being inspired by trying to help Matt in his struggles to add the “currently listening to:” item on his site, I added a Now Playing box over there on t...

When we were walking around, I was humming to myself, and she asked what I was humming, and I said, “Nothing, just humming.” Because I didn’t want to feel fool...

It’d be ludicrous to think we couldn’t do this. We do this; This is what we do....

Musician Extraordinaire features a spectacular MIDI version of a cover of Hot Butter’s “Popcorn” in a piano fugue style. If you’re like me (but, alas, you’re...

Today my Internet taught me about the Mexican kids who love Morrissey , which I knew nothing about. Los Smiths, who’d have figured? Andre informs me that Mo...

What’s amazing is that random shuffle of music’s only been around for 20 years, and shuffling amongst multiple artists and albums has only been around for 5, b...

D’Angelo’s cover of " She’s Always In My Hair ". Because sometimes, you meet a woman like that....

N.E.R.D. Cee Lo. Remy Shand. It’s coming back....

I just got back from a two and a half hour show where Prince led a band consisting of, at various times, George Clinton, Maceo Parker, Larry Graham, ?uestlove...

Sippey does Purple Rain in keywords. Did I mention I’m gonna go see Prince on Saturday? Crazy little funky Jesus freak....

It all comes back, doesn’t it, to Stevie Wonder? At least it always does for me....

While I’m still out exhausting myself, go read about “ Sign O’ the Times ,” my favorite album....

You know, today is National Marching Band Day. Know why? ‘Cause it’s March 4th! Get it? Get it?!...

From pocho.com : This year’s Scammy Awards, the world of music’s top honors, featured the highest level of invisibility of top Latin talent ever. Even wit...

So, in the shower this morning, I was thinking that I need a loofah. Because, ya know, sometimes a fella needs a loofah. And, as has been documented by such po...

My man George is back, and not only writing as well as ever, but he’s got MP3s of his own songs up on the sidebar under “Media”. He’s got bigger balls than m...

Speaking of belated messages, here’s one I’ve been meaning to relay… Confidential to Beyonce K. in Houston: Diana Ross’s career is rolling over in its grav...

Four words: James Brown , Saturday night....

Do you remember a couple of years ago when that Sean Lennon album came out, and it was on Grand Royal and you checked it out, and there were some good songs on...

On Christmas day, I was driving down to Washington D.C. with my sister and my mother in the car and, as I am wont to do, I had Stevie Wonder’s “ As ” on the st...

I saw Maceo Parker last night, and he was funky as all get out. Granted, he wasn’t as ass-kicking as the first time I saw him, but that may have been due at...

There are days and times when all the inspiration I can find is to read about “ What’s Going On ” and then listen to the album, front to back. It’s all the i...

After a trying year like this one, we take the holiday season to look around at our lives and take stock, to remember what really matters. And so, as these las...

Amazon is offering a free download of one of my favorite songs ever . It’s a terrific version of a beautiful song, Everything But The Girl’s cover of Jobim’s...

The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim , a Flash turntable sampler of some works by one of my favorite composers. It’s purty. By kind courtesy of the inestimable...

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, in their entirety, the lyrics to Hanson’s “ Mmmbop “. You have so many relationships in this life Only one or two...

Not into P-Funk? How ’bout Arto Lindsay then? C’mon, let’s go!...

Anybody wanna tear the roof off with me? Next Wednesday ....

I am sure that when Al Green recorded the song “Simply Beautiful” he did not know that it would be the most apt song title ever....

Another thing that I have observed, and this is a very high compliment, is that Snoop Dogg is the Mick Jagger of hip-hop. I love both those guys, and see them...

Things that are good: Maxwell’s cover of “This Woman’s Work” The Phantom Menace DVD My new Pocket PC Carrot sticks That is all....

I’m a big fan of Negativland . I want this CD ....

Got the promo for Garbage ‘s Androgny today. Mmm, good pop music....

In response to a coupla emails, here is the setlist for Living Colour’s performance yesterday: Ignorance is Bliss Sacred Ground Middle Man Trance...

Today, Asian Dub Foundation and Living Colour with Mos Def . When people ask me why I live in Manhattan, it’s days like today that are all the explanation I n...

And, while I’m enjoying some good music, you can do the same… the best music, in fact. Corcovado , by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Jobim ‘s one of my favorite c...

Why I still love Ani ....

The Artist Formerly Known as Terence Trent D’Arby (no, really, he goes by “Sananda Maitreya” now…) is still pretty . And Claire has returned to making prett...

Inexplicably, every song available for download on MTV’s music download page is one I would, of my own free will, listen to. I swear they’re not paying me....

Speaking of Ani, anybody wanna go see her on Sunday night ?...

Okay, first to the inane news . It’s been reported all over that Prince is now a Jehovah’s Witness . I went around refuting it everywhere, based on comme...

Anil Dash :whooo! andretorrez : yeah? Anil Dash :whooo! Anil Dash :It takes two to make a thing go right… andretorrez : yeah Anil Dash :It takes two to m...

Why is it that today, especially in music, we have to choose between entertainment, meaning performance , and sincerity, meaning emotion ? It frustrates me t...

No, you didn’t see what you think you saw. Sometimes Jeff Buckley is the best friend any of us has....

I pride myself on being a fan of many genres of music. In keeping with this, I’d like to recommend in the category of "Reggae by Jewish Guys from Jersey&q...

I’m stronger than yesterday. My loneliness ain’t killing me no more. I’m serious here. No irony, no mocking. Nothing against sarcasm, it’s one of my best frien...

I want the new Jonatha Brooke album. If you buy it for me , I’ll be your best friend....

From Yahoo! Music : Techno whiz Moby is holed up in his Manhattan, N.Y., apartment, teaching himself Pro-Tools and “obsessively writing stuff for the next...

I wanna go see Bebel Gilberto , but I always need coercing to go to these things. Somebody find me a date for this…...

You know, I had almost forgotten that a song could change your life… feels nice to be reminded....

Remember a few months ago everyone was gaga over Golden Shower’s "Video Computer System" ? Well, now you can see how it was made . And in case yo...

I need two things for my MP3 collection. The first one, I think I can do. I’m gonna make a Windows Media skin that appends the currently playing song’s name an...

After seeing Bill ‘s link and discussing it with him, I figured I’ll just put up some of the Lomax recordings that Moby sampled. First up is Bessie Jones’...

Jack ‘s done a wonderful job of evoking the visceral, emotional impact of owning a music recording . My big-ass CD collection has always served two roles f...

Found out today about this CD called [Dreamworld: Essential Late Night Listening]( http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=3T19YX64RK&sou...

Following up on the "digging through the crates" meme of a few days ago, here’s a really complete database of samples and their origins that I foun...

Dammit, all the people I know around this town and no one could tell me Living Colour was going to playing together again ?...

Nice recounting of the sources for many common samples, called These Are the Breaks . I have a bad habit in our office of Napstering down whatever track provi...

Peter mentions "[I]t’s clear that there’s actual value in clicks-and-mortar, unlike the pure plays we’ve been seeing cluttering up the obituaries."...

Is there anyone who doesn’t like the Foo Fighters? I thought this was a universal thing....

I saw Wu-Tang Clan last night, and it was predictably entertaining, even though I didn't know every song. But the reason I think it will turn out to be quite m...

Today I learned that the Gza’s kids are really well-behaved, and that he is really good at chess....

Inspired by VH-1’s umpteenth career retrospective of Michael Jackson’s videos tonight, I dug up Bright Lights Film Journal’s review of Michael’s videos, whic...

How? Why? Who buys this country-fried crap? How dare they disrespect the King of Pop?...

Stuff like Passitalong is why I love groups like Chumbawamba. And KLF, and Negativland, et. al....

I’m glad Matt pointed out Marshall Dyllon , as I was (this is the truth, I swear!) just asking yesterday why there are no country boy-bands , since it would...

Hmm, ever notice how Ricky Martin’s uptempo songs sound kind of like Adam Ant? No? Oh well, maybe it’s just me....

Ever since one of our designers at work went to work for them, we’ve enjoyed singing the so-bad-it’s-good theme song for TakeOutMusic.com . Sing it with me, w...

Straight outta Brazil, it’s Golden Shower with Video Computer System . See why I love Brazilian music so much? Unfortunately, their CD doesn’t seem to be av...

So, the new future of the music biz is: Digital Mix Tapes ? At least they probably won’t get sued…...

Oooh, looks like another Red Hot album that I’m gonna like....

Cool joint interview with D’angelo and Beck at thefader.com ....

Just added a link in the sidebar to my new second blog , the Digital Music Weblog that has been stealing my time from this site. Go check it out and gimme...

Synchronicity. Just added a digital music news blog to my work website (will link as soon as it’s public) and today Blogger announces newsblogger , which is...

Great post from a musician’s point of view about the whole Napster debate over at Prince’s site called COMMENTARY: 4 The Love Of Music . Incidentally, there...

Liquid Audio : See also Sand, Head in the ....

I met D’Angelo today. That was pretty cool....

I was listening to Madonna ‘s single Music and it occurs to me… didn’t Prince release this song fifteen years ago ?...

Let me just say this… I found out a few weeks ago that Prince was changing his name back from the symbol. I was hoping it wasn’t true, but seeing the press con...

From the Cheese Archive : Danny Aiello felt compelled to record a follow-up to Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” which told the story from “Papa’s” perspectiv...

Go download one of these songs ....

Unsolicited Advice: Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like Stevie Wonder....

I saw Tracy Chapman last night, and you didn’t. She was pretty good. The venue wasn’t. That’s all for now....

In the immortal words of R. Kelly, I believe I can fly ....

Regular visitors will know that I’m deeply enamored of musical artists who take ownership of their own works . Interestingly, many of them were among my favor...

Another downside to the Tulip Bubble mentality saturating the industry is the "Why are they making all the money, I should have thought of that!" r...

Dammit, I just can’t stop starting trends . I half-jokingly put up my "FadMaker" section on the sidebar when Ani signs Arto Lindsay to her label....

Went to the grocery store the other day. (Did I mention I love grocery stores ?) The fellow in front of me in the express aisle had three items: A 6-pack of...

Everything that rises must converge. If pressed to recite a short list of some of my favorite pop musicians, that list would undoubtedly include Prince , A...

The harsh realities of the capitalist free market . Or, "Art vs. Commerce, Chapter LXXXII". Despite my fondness for independent record stores, (or s...

Just one of those great "Only on the Web" sites is the Visual Thesaurus from a company called ThinkMap . I’m not much of a fan of Java applets...

Separated at birth? The opening bars of Stevie Wonder’s "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" features vocals being handed off from a male vocal to a f...

Today and yesterday I have used the Metropolitan Transit Authority ‘s trains to go to work. I have been a big believer in public transportation , as long as...

Actually, it’s technically very early on 21st July, 3:45a to be exact. That bastard Prince made us wait 5 hours until he showed up. In my opinion, of cours...