No, not my next book riff, though that's coming very soon. What's long overdue are two things -- first, major classical music institutions seriously acknowledging alt-classical composers, and, second, a little celebration, here in my blog, for the Chicago Symphony...

Sure, it was only three years ago, but we are still crazy about 2006's debuts (Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys, Burial), breakouts (Amy Winehouse, Gnarls Barkley), bold makeovers (Christina Aguilera), and early farewells (J Dilla), not to mention the less eventful but nonetheless excellent releases from...

Tonight at King’s Place sees the second of two concerts of new Irish music for violin and piano. (For my review of the first concert, see here.) In Solos and Duos for Violin and Piano: 2, Ioana Petcu-Colan (violin) and Michael McHale (piano) explore the lyrical side of contemporary Irish music, taking as a starting [...]

Yeah, we were gone. Yeah, we are back. Like LFO. No, we have no excuses. No, we’ll never leave you high and dry again. I know you’ve heard it before, I know we’ve made promises we couldn’t always keep, but things will be different this time. We’ll be stronger, we’ll communicate more, we’ll be...

Incidentally, it’s obviously N*w C*mpl*x*ty week in the British press – here’s a very fine piece on James Dillon (whose music is also being performed in Huddersfield) in today’s Times. The complexity came about as a way of creating music that approximates to the complexity of being alive today, he says. Which is why he was [...]

Robert Johnson has been dead for 71 years, but his birthplace wasn’t verified until recently. A letter from Johnson’s half-sister confirms that the iconic bluesman was born in 1911 in a Mississippi home built by his stepfather, a well-to-do craftsman and landowner. Located in Hazlehurst, the house...

My first Guardian article came out today. I now feel a combination of great satisfaction, disappointment at the inaccurate headline, and terror that someone’s going to find tremendous fault with it. It’s a fairly puffy thing previewing Richard Barrett’s Opening of the Mouth at Huddersfield next...

Cleveland, Ohio may not seem like a hotspot for indie pop but thanks to Afternoon Naps, the city is home to one of the best indie pop bands anywhere in 2009. Parade, their debut album for indie pop stalwart Happy Happy Birthday to Me, is a short, sweet confection made from a recipe of classic [...]

Recent Saturday Night Live host Taylor Swift made history at the Country Music Awards, becoming the youngest artist ever to win the Entertainer of the Year award, beating three-time winner Kenny Chesney. Swift also snagged the awards for Female Vocalist of the Year, Music Video of the Year for her...