Study: Serious Music Fans Spend This Much on Music Per Year?

Just $422?  I'd have thought it would be more, given the price of concert tickets.  Then again, buying music is a whole lot cheaper than it used to be what with fewer of us buying CDs.  

This is the conclusion of a study presented at SXSW this week.  Read more (and get a bigger version of this image) at the LA Times.

More Photographic Proof That Dave Grohl is a Cool Dude

Having met Dave a number of times, I can attest that he is, in fact, a righteous dude.  Find 19 more pictures testifying the same at The Chive.

I have no idea what's happening here. But if Dave's doing it, it must be cool.

The Story of the Most Important Sample in Music History

This contemplation of the so-called "Amen Break" has been around for years.  But just in case youve never seen it, here's your chance.

How Records Are Made

If you're one of the millions of people who have adopted (or re-adopted) vinyl, you may not know how records are made.  

Gizmodo has an excellent account of analogue recording formats through the decades here.  There's also the following video.

Ban These Words from Artist Bios

Over the years, I have, on occasion, been hired  by labels or managers to write (or ghost write) official bios for an artist. These are among the toughest writing assignments I've ever had.

Why?  Because it's all been said before.  No matter what language I come up, it's been said before by someone else about some other band.  It's nearly impossible to find something original to say.

I've also read many official artist one-sheets where five hundred words are used to say absolutely nothing at all. It's cliche after cliche and platitude after platitude using overly florid language that, in the end, signifies exactly jack shit.  

Writers at The Village Voice have read their share of these bios and obviously feel the same way.  This is why they've performed a vital public service in proposing that certain words and phrases be forevermore banished from the bio writers' vocabulary. Here are but five.

• Cathartic
• Cinematic
• Epic
• Psych-[intesert term here]
• Swirling synths

To this I'd like to add the following:

• Bathed
• Blissed-out
• Brooding
• Fuzzed-out
• Miasmic

Anything else?