• Concert Review: Hologram City in Hackensack, NJ, 6/14/14

    Continuing the long line of New Jersey basement venues with awesome names is Hologram City in Hackensack. Though most basement shows I've been to take place in the middle of quiet residential neighborhoods, complete with disgruntled neighbors who love calling the cops, Hologram City sits right at the corner of a busy intersection and even has its own (small) parking lot, which makes it a great location for a venue. The show I attended there last night was titled "Basement Maneuvers - An Electronic Evening," and as that name suggests, it was an evening of performances by electronic artists. Though I've been to plenty of shows featuring electronic artists, and have even played with some myself, I'd never been to an entirely electronic show before, so the atmosphere and flow of the evening was very new to me.

  • 6 Great Alt-Rock Musicians Who Can't Sing: Wayne Coyne, J Mascis, and more

    One of the greatest things about punk and alternative music is its embrace of imperfection. Even though most alt-rock singers couldn't pass the first round of American Idol, their voices are often uniquely powerful and captivating. However, these six singers have voices that are too rough even for some alt-rock fans.

  • 5 Bands Whose Members Never Went Solo: Metallica, Beastie Boys, and more

    In previous articles for Music Times, I've written about musicians who went solo pointlessly, as well as successful musicians who never went solo at all. Today, I'm looking into the very rare case of bands whose members have never released a single solo album. It's not nearly as common as you would think.

  • 7 Songs Written About Ex-Bandmates: Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and more

    Being in a band can be stressful work. Sometimes this can lead to vicious disputes between bandmates or untimely departures from the band, and because these are musicians we're talking about, songs are inevitably written about these tensions. These seven songs were written about estranged or long lost bandmates.

  • Seven Songs That Sound Totally Different Live: Lou Reed, Springsteen, and more

    Unless you have the misfortune of seeing an artist lip-synch along to a backing track, the live version of a song is always going to sound at least a little bit different from the version you’re used to hearing. While most artists try their best to recreate the studio version, others view live performance as an opportunity to re-imagine (or correct) the song’s studio version. Here are seven songs that sound very different when performed in concert.

  • Eight Bands That Moved Away from Punk: Beastie Boys, Green Day, and more

    The world would be a much poorer place if punk rock didn't exist. It's a great place for musicians to start out, but there's only so much someone can do within the genre before they or their audience gets bored with it, which is why so many bands that started in punk eventually moved on, such as...

  • NME lists its 500 best songs of all time: Nirvana, The Smiths and The Strokes vie for top spot

    "Greatest songs of all time" lists are nothing new, but we admit we're curious to see what the folks at NME have come up with. After all, the magazine emphasizes rock from the U.K., and the U.K. has produced many of the most influential groups of all time. Interestingly, NME opted to shy away from the obvious big names, at least in its top five (only 500-401 and the top five have been released thus far).

  • Joy Division members disapprove the auction for Ian Curtis' kitchen table on Ebay

    A table once owned by Ian Curtis of Joy Division went to auction and today is the final bidding day. Currently the bid has reached £8,200.00. Tel Harrop is the one selling the table, a longtime collector of Joy Division memorabilia. Curtis' family and other bandmates are not happy with the sale of the table and have shared their upset.
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