Cartoonist Nina Paley is the creator of Sita Sings the Blues, an interpretation of the Ramayana, the Hindu epic. The film was released online earlier this year and set to the music of blues singer Annette Hanshaw. In the difficult process of acquiring rights to use Hanshaw’s music, Paley
Back in the formative days of the mp3-blog world, Ryan Catbird was king with The Catbirdseat. Since then he’s started his own label (Catbird Records, with a slew of newreleases) and founded MBV Music, an amalgam of music blogging’s finest that recently won an Eddy. TMN: What
A native of New York City, John Schaefer has been a WNYC radio host and music curator for more than 25 years. His long-running show “New Sounds” explores a diverse galaxy of genres old and new, and his program “Soundcheck” interviews artists and covers industry news. “Soundcheck” also recently
Cadillac Man, as he was known on the streets, spent the better part of the past 15 years homeless in New York City. After losing a managerial position at a Pepsi plant, and then at a Hell’s Kitchen meat market, his second marriage dissolved. With nowhere else to go,
Four Tet is actually Kieran Hebden, a post-rock/electronic musician from London. Dubstep producer Burial, after a great deal of speculation, finally owned up to being William Bevan. Hebden and Bevan are mates, as they say across the pond, which is why they collaborated for the two tracks on
Less than a month has passed since up-and-coming Austin act VEGA, who were pretty well-received at SXSW earlier this year, allegedly stole Crystal Castles's guitar pedal, and yet we're all just barely getting over the conflict. Two full weeks later, the questions that
The Dirty Projectors sound weird. Not weird like never letting your children celebrate their birthday, or like an extensive collection of Beanie Babies. The Dirty Projectors are weird like people who refold their napkins when getting up from the table, if only for a bathroom break, or like a bunch
For those of you with a guilty conscience looking to sit out the battle between the record labels and the maniacally shortsighted (though preciously so) "everything should be free" people, look no further than the new Free Music Archive. Brought to you in large part by the guys
Winning is hard, really for two main reasons: first, you have to win. The best winners make this look easy, but it never is. The second reason concerns what happens after you win. All the striving and dedication to your craft has paid off, but it puts you in a
"Regarding our absence, sometimes one needs to disappear in order to regroup; situations change and human beings are swept here and there by the marvelous ebb and flow of culture." Such is the explanation--noticeably void of definitives, of real cause and effect--posted on the Voxtrot website.
