Music Stars

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Billboard's Rap Songs chart

In the immortal words of O.D.B., "Rappenin' is what's happenin'."
The Big Hurt: Who charted?
By DAVID THORPE | July 02, 2010

The Big Hurt: Vince Neil acts his age

By the time you read this, the Situation will have his first single out on iTunes. Yeah, that the Situation.
Plus The Situation singled, Drake unsurpassed, Pete Doherty denied, Lou Reed exonerated
By DAVID THORPE | June 25, 2010

Dare to be filthy

After a few tours, any rock act worth its decibels should be able to name a couple of its wilder shows with little effort, but Justin Tranter’s pick for most memorable Semi Precious Weapons concert sounds especially libertine.
Semi Precious Weapons celebrate partying and poverty
By REYAN ALI | June 25, 2010

Crossword: ''Rumble in the Bowl''

Part of this unbalanced breakfast.
Part of this unbalanced breakfast.
By MATT JONES | June 25, 2010

Bonnaroo 2010 (Saturday): [Photos] The Avett Brothers, Clutch, Norah Jones, and more

The Avett Brothers, Clutch, Norah Jones, Dawes, and Elmwood, live at Bonnaroo 2010
Live from Bonnaroo 2010 | June 12, 2010
By GARY GURTCHEFF | June 18, 2010

Coming soon, unfortunately

Despite last month's record sales (the lowest since anyone's been keeping track), some artists still don't get the picture: nobody wants music anymore .
Music you don't want
By DAVID THORPE | June 18, 2010

Head games

One of the best artworks seen around here in recent years was Newton artist Deb Todd Wheeler's installation Live Experiments in Human Energy Exchange , at the (now defunct) Green Street Gallery in Jamaica Plain in 2006.
Deb Todd Wheeler and Ben Sloat give conceptual art a kick
By GREG COOK | June 11, 2010

Into the weird

No, it's not your imagination: things are getting smaller. Or at least, it seems that way in the funhouse-mirror world of modern music, where the semi-demise of the major-label factory has colluded with the anti-star obsession of the underground to pro
Welcome to our many small worlds
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 05, 2010

The Big Hurt: A big country lesbian pissing match

Reports began to surface recently that a major country star was set to come out of the closet in People magazine. I had high hopes for Chris Gaines, but no such luck.
Music news in brief
By DAVID THORPE | May 14, 2010

Review: The Back-Up Plan

As a pregnant single woman, Jennifer Lopez glows spectacularly. Director Alan Poul’s bland baby comedy, however, appears to have been a light labor.
It's laughing all the way to the sperm bank
By ALICIA POTTER | April 30, 2010

The Big Hurt: Dialing up Billboard’s Ringtones Chart

We may scoff at the very idea of Billboard ’s ignominious Ringtones chart, but mobile phones are one of only three viable revenue channels musicians have left these days (the other two being commercial licensing and crooked charities).
Who Charted?
By DAVID THORPE | April 23, 2010

Making change

John Sinclair’s poem “Ask Me Now” leaves little question about the poet’s values.
John Sinclair vs. ‘the dictates of conventional society’
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 23, 2010

The Big Hurt: ICP take on magnets

Would that I could simply post the entire lyric to “Miracles” by INSANE CLOWN POSSE and call it an article.
Plus Slash loves Axl and Dre does Freddie
By DAVID THORPE | April 16, 2010

Make yourself uncomfortable

In the past month, Sandra Bullock’s husband betrayed her by screwing a white supremacist with a face tattoo, a Georgia teenager was granted the right to take his boyfriend to prom, and Ricky Martin declared himself a “fortunate homosexual man.”
Xiu Xiu bloom on Dear God
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | April 09, 2010

The Big Hurt: Say anything

It’s almost impossible to read a single page of YouTube comments without being confronted by society’s ugliest afflictions: ignorance, pointless fights, horrifying racism, and unfair criticism of Justin Bieber’s haircut.
The week in YouTube comments
By DAVID THORPE | April 09, 2010

Asher Roth & DJ Wreckineyez | Seared Foie Gras W/ Quince And Cranberry

Now that Boston boy toy Sam Adams has blown onto hip-hop’s front lines, there’s almost room for original frat rapper Asher Roth to find a respectable position somewhere between the big-indie Atmosphere types and the upper echelon of major-label boom-bap.
School Boy (2010)
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 09, 2010

The Big Hurt: Bieber fever

Of the 45 headlines on mtv.com’s music-news section, nine are about JUSTIN BIEBER . That’s precisely 20 percent.
Plus U2’s purported fans, and Keane hits the green
By DAVID THORPE | April 02, 2010

Peter Wolf | Midnight Souvenirs

This Boston music legend’s metamorphosis from party animal to monster songwriter became complete with his previous solo album.
Verve/UME (2010)
By TED DROZDOWSKI | April 02, 2010

Championship vinyl

You have a better chance of hearing Taylor Swift songs banging out of Kanye’s tinted windows than you do of hearing either of their pop asses on the Good Life speakers during Fever.
Flavorheard, Frank White, and Mister Jason are Fever
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 02, 2010

Review: The Last Song

Bestselling novelist Nicholas Sparks ( The Notebook , Dear John ) and effervescent ’tween queen Miley Cyrus hook up for one of Sparks’s patented tearjerkers.
Emotional kidney punches involving arson, divorce, and sea turtle eggs
By TOM MEEK | April 02, 2010

SXSW 2010 (Friday): [Photos] Thee Oh Sees, Bear In Heaven, Bowerbirds

Photos of Thee Oh Sees, Bear In Heaven, Bowerbirds, Explode Into Colors, Quasi at SXSW 2010
With Explode Into Colors and Quasi, March 19. 2010
By P. NICK CURRAN | March 26, 2010

Joyride

It is May 1966, in the Prelude Club in Harlem, an Atlantic Records release party.
The Worcester Art Museum shows us ‘Who Shot Rock & Roll’
By GREG COOK | March 26, 2010

The Big Hurt: Now hiring

If you're a musician looking to break into the big leagues, now's your chance.
Music news in brief
By DAVID THORPE | March 19, 2010

Home and away

For many songwriters, home is where the art is.
Zach Jones's diasporic Fading Flowers
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 19, 2010

Review: Jay-Z at TD Garden

There was something about the way Jay-Z hyped the crowd up at the start of show opener "Run This Town" that was not only emblematic of his performance style, but of his general appeal as a performer -- a key to his likability.
Jay-Z, live at TD Garden, March 11, 2010
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 19, 2010

Photos: Jay-Z at TD Garden

Photos of Jay-Z's Boston stop on his BP3 tour.
Jay-Z, live at TD Garden, March 11, 2010
By KELLY DAVIDSON | March 12, 2010

The Big Hurt: Lightfoot lives!

Last week, the world was gripped in the terror of a GORDON LIGHTFOOT death scare when a realistic-looking Twitter obit was picked up by several Canadian papers.
Plus Weezy tweets and Mayer backpedals
By DAVID THORPE | March 05, 2010

Two great flavors

"When I said that I wanted to use 'What We Do' as a single," Freeway explains, "people said it couldn't happen because it didn't have a hook. You know how the rest of that one goes."
Freeway and Jake One team up to lay it down
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 19, 2010

The Big Hurt: Dispatches from Splitsville

Ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has happened: Fall Out Boy have split up.
FOB fall out; Scorpions subsist; Tyler frightens shoppers
By DAVID THORPE | February 12, 2010

Fela Kuti | The ’69 L.A. Sessions

Amiri Baraka put it best in his poem "In the Funk World": "If Elvis Presley is King/Who is James Brown, God?" So, by that logic, is Fela Anikulapo Kuti higher than or equal to God?
Knitting Factory (2010)
By ZETH LUNDY | February 12, 2010

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