Blog: Don't just do something, stand there

Billy Corgan has always been a great frontman, with or without James Iha and D'arcy. Last night's show was heavy on the Zeitgeist material with a few too many instrumental lulls, but it showed that Corgan has brought back the Pumpkins' rock-and-roll mentality. Although I was wishing for more Siamese Dream material than "Today" and "Hummer," the band put on a great show and made me realize I don't just like Smashing Pumpkins for nostalgic reasons. Review coming in The Other Paper next week.

God loves the arts, and I'm glad I'm a part of a church that realizes that. It's one of the reasons we're located in the Short North Arts District, and why we have a Grace Central Arts Guild that twice a year puts on arts forums with respected speakers and musicians. (Think Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine, not Thomas Kinkade.) Plus, each forum is accompanied by a literary journal. There's no hidden agenda with the Arts Guild. Its mission is simply to: 1. Encourage artists in the church AND in the community. 2. [...]

There's lots of posts about this already, but just in case you haven't seen it, check out the online interactive video for Arcade Fire's Neon Bible . Very cool idea, and well done. Click around while you watch. Also, I interviewed Arcade Fire's drummer, Jeremy Gara, for a Q&A in last Thursday's Other Paper. But I'm bummed I missed the band's Friday show here in Columbus. Next time...

People seem to fall into two camps when it comes to the Donnas: those who love the campy hair metal, and those who think it's all a gimmick. I fall squarely in the latter group. The show was bad--really bad. The Donnas didn't even appear to buy the schtick themselves, and to top it off, singer Brett Anderson can barely carry a tune. Worst show I've seen in a while.

Radiohead announced its new album will be available to download Oct. 10, and only from the album website . A big 'ole box set with two discs and other goodies is available for pre-order, as well. And there doesn't appear to be a label involved anywhere in the process. I guess Radiohead agrees that the music biz is changing. All that's pretty extraordinary, but to top it off, fans will decide how much to pay for the In Rainbows download. No joke-- the price is up to you . So the question is: How [...]

I know all babies are different, but for me, taking care of a newborn is the easy part. I'm not saying there aren't some confusing moments and afternoons of screaming that make you want to pull your hair out. But a baby's needs are pretty simple. He needs to eat, sleep and excrete, along with some developmental play time like reading and singing. (I recently penned a Grammy-worthy tune titled "Liam and Daddy Looking in the Mirror." Look for it on shelves come Christmas.) The hard part is taking care of a baby while still doing all the [...]

I'm a pretty loyal eMusic downloader, but the new music-download service from Amazon is good news because, like eMusic, it's DRM-free. No limits on how many times you can burn a song onto a mix, no restrictions on mp3 players, etc. I imagine I'll use it mostly for major-label releases that eMusic doesn't carry (right now the only two participating are EMI and Universal). And yeah, I do miss having the actually CD and artwork in my hand, but downloading is just too darn easy, and it saves me a trip to the record store, which [...]

Akron/Family put on great show at the Wex, complete with various percussion instruments and cricket noises. Review coming in The Other Paper Thursday. mp3: Akron/Family - Ed is a Portal

• Akron/Family - Ed Is A Portal