...Almost forgot, the fine folks representing Love and Logic, the subject of last week's Moment of Zen , gave me the all-clear to share the band's cover of Adam Lambert's "Whataya Want From Me" with you fine folks. So while I truly hope you support the band and get the track on iTunes, I'm pleased to be able to offer you the track here too. Love and Logic - Whataya Want From Me (Adam Lambert Cover) [ iTunes ] ==TJ==
So between a blizzard of insane proportions striking the east coast,my real life entering an incredibly busy period, and the usual malaise of things getting in the way, I've been derelict in my blogging duties. Since I have several hours now where I can sit and take care of all the things that have fallen by the wayside these past few days, I'm gonna use this time to try to catch up on stuff I haven't gotten to talk about lately. First, I've begun a tradition where once a year when there's significant snow fall, I offer up [...]

Go ahead and groan at the title of this post, but it beats the millions of people making jokes about Pete Wentz saying "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs". Now, let me preface this by saying that there has been no official statement that Fall Out Boy has disbanded. Reports that they have, including this one, come entirely from reading between the lines. So by all means take this with a grain of salt, but its undeniable that Fall Out Boy is a band in turmoil right now. Shortly after the video for Fall Out Boy's last single [...]

In looking back at reviews I've written over the last couple years, I realized that I tend to view things with rose-colored glasses at first. In part it's because I believe that every piece of music has some redeeming value, and in part because as a general rule I don't like writing bad reviews. Why do I open up a review with this fact, you ask? Because Lil Wayne's Rebirth is a bad album. It's an unprovoked assault on eardrums all over the world. It's terrible, needless, self-indulgent, and very nearly unbearable. [...]

"I'm kind of modeling it after Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band... It's kind of the look we were going for stylistically on the album cover and just the project in general… [Springsteen] pours so much passion and emotion into all of his songs every night and I hope I can capture that too." -Nick Jonas, on his solo band The Administration Look, think whatever you want about the Jonas Brothers, but reading that quote you have to give Nick Jonas one thing; the kid has got stones . Comparing a new [...]
Hey everybody, First off, I want to offer the deepest of thank yous to everyone who dropped messages of support since my last message when I announced that the free posting of mp3s was going to cease. It was comforting to see my cynicism about why people visit music blogs proven wrong. Feels good to know that the words on this site mean as much as the music behind it. So a sincere thank you to everyone for the continued support. Among the support, I've seen a number of people suggest that streaming music might provide [...]
So unfortunately due to obligations rooted in my real life, I wasn't able to watch last night's Grammy awards and snark them in real time as I have in years past. But thanks to some lovely twitter followers, I was able to keep track of the goings-on in almost real time. If you follow me on the aforementioned twitter account, then you know that I tried to predict the winners of some of the major categories, based on who was deserving of the awards and on the trends from recent Grammy award ceremonies. Well, it appears that Grammy [...]
A commenter last week sent me a link to a video of a band called Love and Logic covering Adam Lambert's current hit "Whataya Want From Me". Love and Logic's version strips out the bombast and bravado that permeates nearly everything Lambert does, but in its place the track becomes a vulnerable plea from one lover to another. The video is below and there it is, your moment of Zen: Check out the rest of Love and Logic's music on their website . [...]
Upon realizing that thus far my adventures in top 40 radio have stuck to the east coast, I felt that it was time to spread our wings and see what the rest of the country was listening to. On the one hand, it's unlikely that the music will be that much different, but at the same time, you never know what local flavors might be carrying some influence. So with that, I paid a visit to Z107-7 (KSLZ-FM) 's stream out of St. Louis, MO. Our DJ for this adventure was a fellow by the [...]

I can't really speak for the rest of America, but I'm going to anyway right now: Iron Man 2 is the most anticipated movie of 2010. The first one was unbelievably good and a benchmark to which other comic book movies should strive to be measured by. I have nothing but high hopes for the sequel, but this piece of news bugs me just a little bit. It appears that AC/DC might be providing music for Iron Man 2 . The press release from Marvel Studios and Columbia Records is below, but the wording is a bit [...]
As previously announced, the Tuesday Night Roundup has moved to Monday nights, hence the title of this here post. You all know the game at this point, so let's go ahead and dive in. You'll notice more video in place of where audio files might have been in the past. = We Are The Fallen , the group comprised off three former members of Evanescence and American Idol contestant Carly Smithson is releasing a new version of their debut single "Bury Me Alive" tomorrow, in preparation for a new album, due out sometime this Spring. Below [...]
Hey all, Everybody relax, this isn't a "We're closing up shop" message. So if you follow my twitter, or have been keeping track in general, you heard that I've recently been hit with a couple of DMCA notifications in the last week, primarily centered on my Vampire Weekend and Spoon reviews. WordPress has threatened that repeated DMCA notices could result in killing the blog, which I think we'd all rather avoid. Personally, I think this is like what happened a little over a year ago, and the permanent suspension threats are largely bluffs, but I'd really [...]
My brother showed me this ad a few weeks ago, and it'd been sitting, dying to be featured on this site until right now. It's a British commercial for Cadbury eggs, and if you're wondering what that has to do with drumming gorillas, stop now. And here it is, your Moment of Zen: Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight [ iTunes ] ( YSI ) ==TJ==
For this week's installment of the Adventures in Top 40 we're going to veer away from the vapid black hole of the current Top 40 and set our sights on another sector of modern radio; the alternative rock format. By this point trying to describe the alternative music genre is as fruitless as trying to convince an NBC exec to put someone funny on at 11:30. The term has become so diluted and bastardized that it no longer has any meaning. But yet alternative rock radio lives on, so I decided to see what it's been up to, starting with [...]
Here in what passes for my real life, we're in the midst of what's known as "syllabus week", which is generally the first week of classes where professors hand out their syllabus and students get a sense for what the coming weeks and months will hold. While it is hardly the busiest week of the semester, it's the least predictable, as there's no telling what's coming. I tell you this as a roundabout way of explaining my inconsistent posting this past week. Once things settle down a bit I'll be around more frequently. To make it up to you, I [...]
If you've never heard an OK Go album, you probably at least have seen one of their videos; probably this one , for "Here It Goes Again". It's kind of become OK Go's trademark to do goofy, do-it-yourself videos to promote their music, and let the YouTube hits accumulate. And in support of Of The Blue Colour of the Sky , released last Tuesday, the band dropped clips for "This Too Shall Pass" and "WTF?". One problem; OK Go's label EMI has, in a common move lately, disabled embedding for the videos, [...]
If you've been wondering what became of the Tuesday Night Roundup, it went on a bit of a hiatus for the holidays. As per changes in my schedule in real life, the segment is now moving to Monday nights (or Tuesday mornings, as the case might be). So here comes the first, albeit abbreviated, installment of the new/old series. =Congratulations are in order for former Dresden Dolls' frontwoman and solo artist Amanda Palmer, who over the weekend announced her engagement to writer Neil Gaiman. The two had been dating since mid-2009 and word of the engagement broke by [...]
Not everything blogworthy story or press release I see gets its own post. There simply isn't enough time in the universe for that to be feasible. Which is why every once in awhile they all get lumped into one big post. This is one such post. -I have a running bucket list of concerts I want to get to see. On that list is seeing Dropkick Murphys in Boston on St. Patrick's Day. While a live CD/DVD isn't anywhere near the same as the concert experience itself, this March DKM are making it a bit easier for people [...]
Today you're getting a special double-sized Moment of Zen today, because I have two videos worth showing. First, this is a week old, but might also go down as one of the strangest renditions of the National Anthem ever. Here it is, your (first) Moment of Zen: And then, Thursday was the great and powerful Dave Grohl's 41st birthday. But rather than play a video we've all probably seen and gotten used to, I present our man Grohl in an uncredited appearance from the [...]
Welcome back to Adventures in Top 40, in which this blogger wanders into the dangerous lands of radio. This week, we wandered onto the internet stream of my home base's Top 40 Station, Philadelphia's Q102 (WIOQ-FM). I happened to come across the station this afternoon during the latter part of "On Air with Ryan Seacrest", making this particular expedition all the more treacherous. If you thought I got off pretty light last week, you were right. Let's get started. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance [ iTunes ] ( YSI [...]