I'm keenly aware that my Top Ten for the year included very little in the way of the avant-garde in jazz. What can I say? My favorites were my favorites. Yet I can't help but feel like some great "out" records got overlooked in the shuffle to compile these best-of-'08s, and so I've got a [...]
I discovered my rap, R&B, and chitlin' circuit soul favorites via that old-fashioned medium, the radio, while finding my Spanish language, African, and indie-rock faves via the internet, publicists, and word of mouth. With the wealth of music out there, marketing and advertising gimmicks and strategy continue to be crucial in spreading the word to [...]
It's been an interesting year in music: Latin urban music wars, an emo-turned-Latin pop star, evolution of an R&B crooner, a hip-hop Renaissance, the continuation of the "outernational" movement, and Kiwis wooing the ladies. One of the most diverse Top 10 list—a little something hopefully most can enjoy. I certainly have...
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Los de Atras Vienen [...]
You haven't had enough of the lists yet, have you? Good. Here's one more quick one: my list of favorite shows of the year, mostly in D.C. but also ranging north to Baltimore and south to Charlottesville (links all lead to photos):
St. Vincent at Rock & Roll Hotel, February 26
Nels Cline Singers at the [...]
This year, as always, I struggled with whether to give more weight to the albums I admired as complete works, or the ones that contained the greatest number of blazing singles.
Album artistry won out, for the most part. The Renaissance, 808s & Heartbreak, and New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War, for example, are discs [...]
Every year there's always tons of records that deserved more time, that flew under the radar or just got lost in my stacks and/or hard drive. Here's a few that I thought were worthy of sharing:
U.S. Girls: Live On WFMU
U.S. Girls is Megan Remy. She plays through messed-up keyboards and loves the sound of a [...]
Fifth in a series of 6, we asked DC's favorite recording engineer Don Zientara for his take on the state of recorded music in 2008. He responded in limerick form (and in an interview at his studio in Arlington):
There once was an audio format called mp3
Where parts of the digital word were sent off to [...]
While gathering info for my piece "Beats Working" (featured in this week's 2008 Music and Arts in Review issue), I spoke with several DJs and promoters who had very interesting things to say, though space constraints prevented their quotes from making the print. Good thing we've got this spacious Internet to stretch out in.
Over the [...]
This year's music issue contains a mix of great questions: If full-length albums are dead, why do so many people still want them? Is hip-hop growing up or having its Yacht Rock moment? Can lo-fi recordings compete with the digital onslaught? What are the most...distinctive music videos of the year? Have cutbacks at big labels [...]
Where 2007 was my love-affair year with free jazz, 2008 saw my affections turn to extreme metal in all its varied forms. The sad departure of Transparent Productions meant a dearth of interesting avant-garde jazz in the District, and I replaced concertgoing expeditions to Sangha (RIP) and Twins Jazz with rather different expeditions to places [...]
