RECENT ARTICLES

The art of drag is a centuries’ old form of expression borne from vaudeville, burlesque and a need to experiment with personal appearance, gender orientation and sex. But, more recently, the spotlight on drag seems to grow markedly thanks largely to the hit television show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. Before the show, popular drag queens often had a cap on their potential career achievements (and earnings). One could be a star locally in open-minded cities but thanks to Drag Race, queens can now be internationally famous and celebrated. One such star is Katya (born Brian Joseph McCook), the Russian-themed, (often) hot mess with a sharp tongue and quick wit. Today, Katya, who is one of the world’s most popular drag performers, is set to release her latest work, a five-track EP, Vampire Fitness, out Friday.

Read More

Payge Turner, the Seattle-based singer-songwriter and recent performer on the NBC television show, The Voice, remembers falling in love with music at four-years-old while backstage at her mother’s choir performances. Turner, who grew up in the Caribbean, says music often felt magical, mystical and mysterious. Along with singing and songwriting, Turner has always had a fondness for musicals, which combine both acting and singing. For her, they’re like fairytales. And Turner, thanks to her successful audition on The Voice, is living something of her own fairytale with a new career coach in Gwen Stefani and thousands of new fans ready to watch her evolve and achieve more.

Read More

Los Angeles-based multi-disciplinary artist, Gabbie Hanna, says that, for her, communication is the most important part of being human. For Hanna, who has Billboard­ chart-topping songs and New York Times best selling books to her name to go along with millions of song and music video streams, listening to and comprehending one another is the key to peaceful, productive living. But, if you ask her, Hanna says that while clear communication is essential in all facets of the world, it’s especially important when it comes to interacting with those close with her. Those familial relationships are the roots upon which creativity grows. And they’re the essential aspects to Hanna’s big, ever-burgeoning career.

Read More

Before Shawn James and his Liberty Bell-like singing voice were well known, he remembers sitting behind the studio glass feeling jealous. In his twenties, the Chicago-born singer had studied in college in Florida to be an audio engineer. He’d taken internships in Nashville afterwards, moved there with his wife. But when he was finally offered a job and a permanent position, James remembers feeling his gut sink. He’d sat there twisting nobs and pushing faders but the whole time he’d wanted to be on the other side, performing and singing into the microphone. So, he declined the position and, with the help of his wife, changed his life forever. James, who rose to fame almost overnight (more on this later), released his latest record, The Guardian Collection, last week and the stripped-down LP continues to display his unparalleled vocal power.

Read More

Superstar singer and performer, Leslie Odom Jr., has a favorite Christmas memory. At 10-years-old, the eventual co-lead of the Broadway show, Hamilton, was gifted a double-deck karaoke machine from his parents. He’d already shown interest in music. He’d found his father’s record collection in crates in the basement, and Odom Jr. began listening to it all. His folks saw his interest and wanted to help promote it, so they invested in a portable “Singalodeon.” That investment changed Odom Jr.’s life, helping him to develop the skills and interest that would one day make him a household name. From those early days singing to a Marvin Gaye record or writing his own songs and recording them on the Singalodean, Odom Jr. has developed into an acclaimed recording artist and his next release, The Christmas Album, is out November 6th.

Read More

At five-years-old, Sophia Regina Allison, better known as the singer-songwriter, Soccer Mommy, understood that she wanted music to be in her life always. Allison, who started playing then, saw her dad strum the guitar here and there but he wasn’t a professional musician. A professor, he’d moved their family to Nashville from Switzerland when she was just one-year-old. By pure serendipity, Allison, whose mother was a grade school teacher, was now smack-dab in the center of Music City. She went to a performing arts high school and, later, in college at NYU, studied music business. But instead of graduating, Allison decided to drop out, move back to Nashville and sign a record contract. She’s been releasing popular music under her moniker ever since, including her acclaimed 2020 LP, color theory, and the latest music video for her new single, “crawling in my skin.”

Read More

Growing up, the rapper, Open Mike Eagle, says there were two prominent styles of rhyming in his hometown of Chicago. On the south side, where he was from, the aesthetic was influenced by a more classic New York City style. Whereas, the west side of the city took on touches from down south and Los Angeles. For a while, Eagle says, he adopted the New York City-south side method, rejecting the west side and it’s more melodic approach. But, at some point, a switch flipped. It didn’t have to be one or the other. He could be both. Ever since, in many ways, Eagle’s style has leaned into that truth. He can embrace the many diverse aspects and abilities of his mind. He can have as many interests as exist moments in the day. And this eclectic intellectual bent permeates Eagle’s newest LP, Anime, Trauma and Divorce.

Read More

British-born and Maryland-raised rapper, IDK (aka Jason Aaron Mills), wants the world to understand that music is so much more than an amalgamation of rhythms, melodies and lyrics. For the Los Angeles-based emcee, who released his major label debut LP, Is He Real, a year ago, music is medicinal. It’s a balm, a salve, a prescription, even, that soothes the mind, body soul and heals in the same way therapy, a massage or Aspirin might.

“The thing I love about music is not really publicized,” IDK says. “A lot of people don’t really talk about it or don’t know. Music is almost just as important as a doctor. It can be looked at in the same way as going to see somebody like a therapist. A lot of people without music or the funds to have a therapist probably would be in a way worse place.”

Read More

Musician and performer, Amanda Palmer, has led an eventful life. But, the artist says, it comes with a price. To experience, to be known, to create, to receive adulation, praise and attention requires putting oneself into the world in vulnerable ways. Often an artist will show the recesses of their psyche, as if splaying ideas out on the laundry line for the neighbors and world to see. But Palmer is used to this. At six-years-old, she began singing in church. As a college student, she dressed as an eight-foot statue standing still in the middle of city blocks to earn rent money as onlookers at times berated. And she’s fronted several prominent music projects, including the wildly popular duo, The Dresden Dolls, which is set to release the never-before-seen 2017 live show film, The Dresden Dolls Return To Paradise, on October 31st to celebrate the band members’ first meeting on Halloween two decades ago.

Read More

In an era when information and options seemingly bombard the world’s population at a never-ending assault, Nashville-based songwriter, Molly Parden, aims to be understated. Her work is subtle. It hovers. While so many of her contemporary peers present explosions and songwriting pyrotechnics, Parden prefers a float down the river with a few pals. The artist, who grew up in a suburb outside Atlanta before moving to the metropolis and, later, landed in the Music City, is set to release her latest solo record, Rosemary, on November 13th. For Parden, who is so experienced at working in other people’s projects (more on this later), the forthcoming EP is a rare offering of her solo work in collection. And today we are happy to premiere the video for the EP’s new single, “Who Are We Kiddin’.”

Read More

Whenever 21-time platinum-selling rock ‘n’ roll band, Hootie & the Blowfish, get together to write and record a new album, the group’s lead guitarist, Mark Bryan, usually leaves with enough material for a new solo record. Each of the four core members of Hootie write and so when the band gets together, as it did for its recent 2019 release, some 70-80 songs are composed. From the batch that don’t make the final album, Bryan reuses the favorite ideas he’s found and written, bringing them to his own studio. This was precisely the process for the musician’s forthcoming solo album, Midlife Priceless, which he will release in April 2021. Today, we are happy to premiere the record’s first single, “Wanna Feel Something,” on which Bryan sings about Hootie’s recent successful reunion.

Read More

Mark Everett, principle songwriter and front man for the Los Angeles indie rock band, Eels, was just trying to make his friend happy. Dora, an old friend of the musician’s who used to work on the band’s tour crew as the lighting director, was feeling blue and Everett (better known as “E”) wanted to cheer her up. The two were text messaging back and forth when, suddenly, E realized the exchange made for good song lyrics. Maybe they could be spun in a way to cheer other people up too? A day or two later, Jeff Lyster, who is known as “The Chet,” sent E a bit of music and he realized it would be perfect for Dora’s text message song. It’s an open temperament like this that’s willing to accept creative “lightening strikes” that’s buoyed Eels for 25 years. And it continues today with the band’s latest LP, Earth to Dora, set for release Oct. 30th.

Read More

When he’s not eating, sleeping or talking, celebrated songwriter, Andrew Bird, says he’s often whistling. At first, though, the Suzuki method-trained violinist thought whistling sounded cheap, not classically musical or respectable enough for his nuanced records. But, after dropping a few without his signature high-end sound, Bird relented. Now, he and his whistle are creatively inseparable on his many anticipated releases. It even landed prominently on his forthcoming holiday album, Hark! Bird recorded the new record over two periods of time – one pre-pandemic and one during – and he’s set to unveil the complete 13-track LP on October 30th (with a vinyl release on November 13th).

Read More

For at least a little while, Gavin Rossdale says his voice was actually an obstruction to his success, not the reason for it. The gravely-voiced front man of the U.K. group, Bush, says that when he and the band were on the rise in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a wave of music that didn’t quickly welcome in a rough, raw singer like Rossdale. At the time, Britpop was all the rage, with bands like Blur, Oasis and Suede topping the charts. But Rossdale was more into – and reflected – groups like Soundgarden, Soul Asylum and Jane’s Addiction. Rugged, ravaged bands with aggression built into their distorted chords. But, eventually, a harder version of rock took the world by storm. Suddenly, Bush was at the center of it. The band’s success continues today with the release of its 2020 album, The Kingdom, which hit number-one on the Billboard Hard Music Albums chart and is available in a deluxe format this week.

Read More