Glee is back, and though I thought I was over this show, once again it has turned a super frustrating, "I'm going to throw my computer out this window if this file does not render properly right now!" day completely around. In this fictional high school as in life, it appears that the newspaper is dead and the real dish in served online. To open the new season, we get the summer vacation report, TMZ style. … [Read more...]

I know the whole indie-alt-classical vibe makes perfect sense to some people and makes other people's gag reflex kick in. Regardless of your artistic opinion on the intersection of Xenakis with fauxhawks and fixies, however, wasn't it a pretty easy scene merge? What if one of the new music super groups reached for a style that was a little further afield from what was already in the closet, something a bit more...goth rock perhaps? I was thinking about this and the future of the performing arts … [Read more...]

If you are a new music fan in the market for a new digital SLR camera with video capability, secure your wallet and be careful watching this video! Composer/NMBx pal Dan Visconti scored this beautiful demo flick which highlights what this new-to-market bit of technology has to offer. They could not have produced a piece of marketing better suited to the Mind the Gap demographic, I suspect, so I pass it along here: … [Read more...]

I get quite a few press releases about very interesting new music events every day, but a concert series in a coat closet? This feels like a first. Chris Kallmyer has organized "four resident ensembles, 96 composers, 350+ new works, and over 400 concerts inside a coatroom, under the stairs in the lobby of the Hammer Museum" in Los Angeles. The performances take two minutes a piece and are performed for the gathered Saturday afternoon audience members two at a time. Also, it is free. For once, I … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago, a composer I was in correspondence with mentioned that it had been a while since he'd last cruised through Baltimore, but that he suspected Charm City's new music scene was in need of some fresh energy to get things revitalized. With more than a little bit of hometown cheerleader excitement, I shot back: Something like this, perhaps? Admittedly, the fact that the curator of the Contemporary Museum's Mobtown Modern music series, Brian Sacawa, is my husband means that I can in no … [Read more...]

Sharpen your pencils, music makers: Composing original jingles is back! "Years ago it was selling out -- now we call it selling in," Mr. [Mike] Boris said. Er, wait a sec, a big part of this is not actually composing jingles in the traditional sense. This Advertising Age report reads like the trend falls more along the lines of people writing pop songs that can be licensed cheaper and with less cultural baggage than a U2 tune to sell a product, and just maybe the artist can ride that freight … [Read more...]

I'm not usually a sentimentalist, but after slogging through recent weeks of news rich with intolerance and violence (I'll spare you the litany of links), this vet's story of music and humanity sneaked into my Google reader thanks to a friend and provided a glimmer of, well, hope in the midst of what all too often feels like an endlessly horrific news cycle. Towards the end of the clip, he states his name as Jack LeRoy Tueller, and a little searching turns up this CNN news item which offers a … [Read more...]