• Yes, Virginia: There is a Santa and His Name is Steve Albini

    For the past two decades, Steve Albini and his wife Heather Whinna have spent every Christmas morning delivering gifts to families in need throughout Chicago. The legendary audio engineer known for producing too many groundbreaking records to count, who is also kind of a notorious curmudgeon, recently published a heartwarming essay on The Huffington Post entitled "Why I Haven't Had a Conventional Christmas in 20 Years," in which he explains why he and his wife started playing Santa Claus and why, often with the help of famous friends including Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Portlandia's Fred Armisen, they continue this charitable tradition that makes for an even better holiday story than even the folklore behind the old "Yes, Virginia" editorial.

  • Steve Albini's Anti-Dance Music Email Used as Promo for Oscar Powell's New Single 'Insomniac'

    Oscar Powell, the head of Diagonal Records who also releases music under the moniker of Powell, is set to release a new single "Insomniac" featuring a vocal sample from record producer and musician Steve Albini, back when he fronted the band Big Black. When Powell reached out to ask permission for the sample, he also got a lot of Albini's opinions on his hate for dance music.

  • 5 Live Albums Recorded to No Audience: Pink Floyd, Bjork and More Feel for Baltimore Orioles

    The unfortunate riots in Baltimore have led to a bizarre situation at Camden Yards in Baltimore, where the hometown Orioles have been playing the Chicago White Sox in an empty stadium due to the situation outside. It's clearly had an impact on some of the players...White Sox starter Jeff Samardzija was rocked for six runs in the first inning today, perhaps nervous because the whole world wasn't watching him. It made us baseball fans at Music Times if similar things have ever happened in the music world? Not quite, but we did find a number of "live" albums that were recorded with no actual audience in attendance. Check out a few examples, from Pink Floyd to Björk.

  • 8 Studio Albums That Feature A Live Track

    One of the primary objectives for a record producer is to make sure all of the songs on an album sound sonically consistent, but some artists choose to do away with this consistency by incorporating a live recording into the otherwise studio recorded album. Here are eight studio albums that feature a live track.

  • 8 Artists Who Should Make Dance Albums

    When country legend Dolly Parton announced today that she's planning on releasing an LGBT-friendly dance album, it got me thinking about what other artists I'd love to hear dance albums from. Here are eight artists who should release dance albums, too.

  • 6 Musicians Who Became Famous Producers

    Plenty of musicians eventually try their hand at producing, since it's pretty hard to record music in a studio without learning a thing or two about production. However, these six artists proved to be such talented producers that they made a second career out of it. Here are six musicians who became famous record producers.

  • 5 Artists Who Recorded the Same Album Twice

    In a previous article, I wrote about artists who recorded new versions of their own songs. Far less common, however, are artists who choose to re-record entire albums. Here are five artists who recorded the same album twice.

  • 8 Great Punk Covers of Classic Songs

    If an artist does a cover version of a song, but doesn't really change anything about it, then there's not really a point in doing it at all (listen to Seal's version of "Let's Stay Together" and tell me why it had to be made). However, these eight bands took songs by non-punk bands and put their own noisy punk spin of them.

  • 6 Great Bands with Unconventional Drumming

    A drummer can either make or break a band. If they can't keep a beat, or if they play in a style that doesn't suit the songs, then the band as a whole will suffer. These six bands understood the importance of percussion, and dared to experiment with what unusual percussion could bring out in their music.
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