El día de hoy, esta columna está dedicada a La Lupe. Voz irrepetible y desgarradora; testimonio de la pasión y sufrimiento de una de las máximas figuras de la música cubana, que nos hace recordar nuestras propias penas y al mismo tiempo alegrarnos con su ritmo y su inmenso talento. La Lupe nació en San Pedrito, Santiago de Cuba en 1936. Como Celia Cruz, antes de que su carrera musical explotara, obtuvo un certificado como maestra. Un año antes de mudarse a La Habana, en 1954, entró a un concurse en la radio [...]
The latest from Elijah , My Cupcake Future Is In Your Hands , is a two part DJ mix compiled to showcase the music Elijah is listening to and making now. My Cupcake Future Is In Your Hands features unreleased remixes and never before heard productions by Elijah. Also, it has a silly name. My Cupcake Future intro jj - Ecstasy Elijah - Extended Eye Contact Colorpulse - Glorious Dawn Virtual Boy - Anything Goes Olive - You're Not [...]

[It's Bjork's birthday on Saturday, celebrate appropriately. Here's my late-arriving weekend rundown:] Tonight: Alan Palomo's Neon Indian [pictured; download below] brings its multimedia synthscapes to the Echoplex for a night of cool electro that includes Keenhouse , Tigercity and Little Red Radio . ... Julian Casablancas hits downtown's Palace Theatre for Week 3 of his residency. ... Party guys Iglu & Hartly try to build on their U.K. buzz with a show in their home city at [...]

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Blake Butler is the rare young writer who consistently and effectively challenges his readers. Scorch Atlas is a haunting collection of interconnected stories and vignettes, a dystopian work of genius. The book itself is a work of art. The internal pages are individually distressed, and the page edges and cover appear burnt and scarred, and the design complements the book's theme perfectly. Matt [...]
Friday! Quick-hit thoughts of the week! QUICK-HIT THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK! 1. Whatever Brains - Gross Urge (mp3) ( buy ) BAM! Whatever Brains ( myspace ) is a Raleigh, North Carolina band called WHATEVER BRAINS. That automatically qualifies them to be AWESOME, but this song - along with a lot of the rest of their Trim-Jeans and/or Gross Urge Plus Ten CD-R - qualifies them to be DOUBLE AWESOME. I'm more comfortable thinking of them as traditional lo-fi punk than as [...]

At the tour's request, we did not photograph the Swell Season. The photos are of the opening act Doveman. Since seeing the Swell Season 's fantastic performance at Berklee Performance Center, I've told several friends that I haven't seen "Once," the film that launched the duo of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová and their real-life romance. Each time, I get the same reaction: my friend puts a hand to her chest and a hand on my arm, looks me straight in the eye and says, "You must see 'Once.' It's [...]
If you are a fan of Guitar Hero you'll be thrilled to find Activision has taken the Music and Rhythm gaming experience to the next level with the all new experience, DJ Hero . We've got one (1) Xbox 360 Standard Copy to give away and we'd more than love to make that happy person YOU! To enter, watch the videos below and leave a comment HERE ON OUR GIVEAWAY PAGE about the songs, the videos or commercials, before Midnight on Sunday, [...]

Stars' new record is a departure - into U2 and Coldplay territory There's a rule of thumb among the music industry's more professionally-minded producers and songwriters that three minutes and 30 seconds is the ideal length for a pop song. It's long enough for the rousing refrains to get repeated a few times, structurally it allows the inclusion of most major elements of a song (bridge, breakdown, perhaps a guitar motif), and, last but far from least, it's the length that radio stations and late-night talk shows...

As you know by now, we at NPR Music sent out a series of questions to people in the music, arts and entertainment communities. We wanted to get a sense of people's thoughts and feelings pertaining to the last decade in music, and what their thoughts were about the future. One question we asked was: What is the one song, movement or artist that sums up the decade for you, and why? Our respondents had a variety of answers, from Kanye West to M.I.A. to Beirut. Please add your [...]

As you know by now, we at NPR Music sent out a series of questions to people in the music, arts and entertainment communities. We wanted to get a sense of people's thoughts and feelings pertaining to the last decade in music, and what their thoughts were about the future. One question we asked was: What is the one song, movement or artist that sums up the decade for you, and why? Our respondents had a variety of answers, from Kanye West to M.I.A. to Beirut. Please add your [...]

Don't forget to rate the album at the end of the post. Welcome back to Blinded By The Hype, the PMA feature in which we revisit albums once the hype has died down. In today's world, music is released at a machine gun pace. It's a what-have-you-done-for-me-late ly type scene, and "lately" usually means this week. Rarely do we stop to smell the roses. Even good albums get overlooked as time passes. And we almost never – aside from year end lists – take a look backward. Hindsight is 20-20, and we'd like to apply that retrovision [...]
is it just me or does jesu seem more at home here than on hydra head? doth broadrick on these records not have more in common with the fuzzy slo-mo murmurings of mark kozelek and alan sparhawks rockist tendencies? i think so. in fact i'd be so bloody bold (though not really) to say that this shit is just red house painters turned way the fuck up. actually that's a pretty stupid thing to come out with. retraction, your honour. anyhoo. this is the new ep. and all my favourite jesu shit comes out on ep. [...]
There's probably more money in rock star autobiograhpies than in album sales these days, which makes all the stars writing autobiographies these days make cents (sorry). The Who's Roger Daltrey has been approached to write his autobiography, and as he talked about it on The Rock Radio, he totally undersells it: "I'm thinking about a biography now," Daltrey said. "It's probably time. Just the story of my life and the things I've done, y'know, it's kind of interesting." I'd love to hear that pitch. "Dear editor, I'd like [...]

As part of our ongoing end-of-the-decade coverage, we sent out a survey to various people in the music, arts and entertainment communities. Here is another question we asked: What does "indie" mean to you? Discuss our respondents' answers and leave your own in the comments section. Douglas Wolk, writer: That's very simple. "Indie" is short for "independent." Independently released music is not directly financially dependent on any of the four major labels (WMG, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal). "Indie" does [...]
By Jean Smith, novelist and singer in the literary rock duo Mecca Normal Rather than present a quasi-factual, semi-amusing trajectory through origins of the word "underground" -- complete with references to the Underground Railroad and the Weather Underground -- I want to open a window into how and why I do things. I invite everyone reading this to compare this to conventional objectives of mainstream bands. Historically, artists have been put into categories invented by the media, defined by journalists who grapple with language to supply the general public with [...]

It's almost cliché, but after college I drove cross country with a few friends and, literally, filled out a Relix internship application in the parking lot before a Deer Creek Phish show. I sent it off at a local Kinkos and after some persistent nudging scored an interview that fall. I interned for Aeve Baldwin, who was the editor at that time, and after a few months that turned into a part time job at the magazine. I did pretty much every job under the editorial sun except—luckily for Relix—copy editing, including project coordinator, staff writer, Jambands.com contributing editor, staff [...]
Modern Radio is one of the finest local record labels the Twin Cities has ever seen. Congrats on 10 years guys, it sounds like a helluva way to celebrate! Friday, January 22nd at the Turf Club FT (The Shadow Government) Daughters of the Sun The Chambermaids Double Bird Sheridan Fox (His Mischief) 21+, doors at 9PM - $7 Saturday, January 23rd at the Cedar Cultural Center The Plastic Constellations Skoal Kodiak Vampire Hands STNNNG and more! [...]

Wikipedia knows next to nothing of the Stockton-on-Tees noisenik quartet undulating the underground enough to crack Geordie pavements. Lead barker Kingsley Hall may well be the most articulate cult figurehead to shred the pages of NME with unequalled bravado and outspoken chivalry since Morrissey. Taking on the mainstream, one sycophant-smashing step at a time, The Chapman Family may well be the dark horses to back over the dingy, hurdled tracks of a recession-obsessed England. Brace yourselves- it's lenghty. But comedic genius shouldn't be abbreviated... Dots: The majority of those aware of the cataclysmic [...]
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make a fan review video for last week's Country Music Awards, but I thought it'd be appropriate to write a little something about it as it is one of Nashville's biggest nights. The whole week was madness – but fun madness. The company I work for is in charge of organizing the CMA remote broadcast and putting together coverage options for radio stations. About 50 stations, came to the Downtown Hilton and set up shop in a conference room. For 3 days, Country stars ranging from Jason [...]
1) The Detroit Experiment-Think Twice-Juno 2) Motorcity Drum Ensemble-You Got It-Prime Numbers 3) Marc Poppke-Far Away From You-Freerange 4) Tom Middleton-Hypnotizer (Francois Dubois Classy Disco mix)-Urban Torque 5) Jay Shepheard-Last Days Exit (Jimpster mix)-Freerange 6) Chrisitan Prommer & DJ Hell-Freak It (Spencer Parker Gun For Hire mix)-Buzzin' Fly 7) Bent-Swollen (Ben Watt Dub)-Godlike & Electric 8) Shit Robot-Simple Things (Serge Santiago mix)-DFA Biog: Paddy Freeform – The Sounds of the Universe... As a DJ, producer, radio presenter and label boss of Universal Vibes, the next few months look an exciting [...]