November 24, 2008 – Today, 17 years after Freddie Mercury's passing, I've found myself wondering: Where have all the great rock singers gone? On Rolling Stone's list of the greatest vocalists of the rock era, the Queen frontman comes in at No. 18. I'd argue him up a few notches, but that's me. What's much more interesting about the list is that, out of one hundred entries, only five are still arguably in their recording heyday. Of those five, only one is male or fronts a band: Thom Yorke (No. 66). The others are female solo artists: Mary J. Blige (No. 100), Mariah Carey (No. 79), Björk (No. 60), and Christina Aguilera (No. 58). Think about this for a second. According to Rolling Stone, of all the frontmen making career-defining music today, Radiohead's introverted, reedy-voiced singer is the best.

November 19, 2008 – You know the holidays are near when the music biz releases new albums by Kanye West, the Killers, Scott Weiland, and Guns N' Roses all in one jam-packed week. GNR's 15-years-in-the-making Chinese Democracy arrives Sun., Nov.23; the others drop on the more-traditional Tues., Nov. 25. To help you keep your Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa shopping trip short and simple (even if it's just to Amazon and back), here's a handy guide to who on your shopping list deserves each album the most.Guns N' Roses, Chinese Democracy>> Read Review Our Take: An endless wait and $13 million in recording costs have culminated in a pretty decent, albeit predictably overblown, album. Perfect For: Your "bro" in law Why?

November 10, 2008 – Megapuss' first video is more than a goofy, half-assed George Michael tribute party. The collaboration between Devendra Banhart, his pal Greg Rogove, and the Strokes' Fabrizio Moretti is a sweetly endearing, jokingly homoerotic display the likes of which hasn't been seen since, well, the latest Judd Apatow movie. Watch it now: When I first heard Devendra Banhart in 2003, I was browsing an NYU dormmate's shared iTunes library and decided to click on the unmistakably odd name. The cryptic 4-track ramblings of Oh Me Oh My... crackled through my headphones like a missive from some long-gone mystic cult, and the creepily androgynous voice -- sometimes burbling, sometimes keening -- wove mysterious spells that utterly captivated me. When he demanded "Lend Me Your Teeth," I was almost willing. A few months later, Rejoicing in the Hands was released.

November 5, 2008 – Reunion tours, dinosaur acts, cash factories...call them what you want, but these days, gettin' the band back together (for fun and profit!) has become a disturbing trend, especially so when vital original members are missing. Though it's up to bands (and their lawyers) to determine who owns the name, certain groups really have no business reuniting under their old moniker. After all, if you can't rally all the founding members to join in, you probably shouldn't be reaping the vast rewards of the nostalgia industrial complex. Here are some recent offenders: Smashing Pumpkins: Last week, Billy Corgan confirmed once and for all that James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky will never rejoin the Smashing Pumpkins, who "reunited" last year and just kicked off a national tour. "I can now say definitively that [James and D'Arcy] aren't ever coming back. Period. There is no maybe.

October 27, 2008 – In my confirmation email from the record label representative, I was told that travel from Manhattan to Wilkes-Barre, PA, ("Wilkes-Berry?" "Wilkes-Bar?" Actually, it's "Wilkes-Bear-Uh") and back for an exclusive AC/DC performance Sunday night would be by VIP Bus. For those of you who don't know what a "VIP Bus" is, predictably, it's a bus that looks like a limo from the inside.

October 20, 2008 – In anticipation of this week's episode of Gossip Girl, I spent a few minutes surfing its music channel on YouTube, where the featured songs of each episode are posted along with a short description of the various scenes (e.g. "Chuck and Nate lounge in grass"). A great tool for finding music, the channel has the added bonus of making songs available Monday morning, so you can hear the vibe before you watch the show. This week, Snow Patrol provide the obligatory party track.

October 14, 2008 – As I enter my mid-20s, weekends marked off for weddings become more and more frequent. In the past two weeks, I've traveled to Vermont and Memphis to see my cousin and brother (respectively) tie the knot. And at least four friends of mine attended other weddings over these same two weekends. But the more of these events I witness, the more disappointed I am at the music played. Why do so many couples believe their first dance must be to a tune that's become a wedding cliché? Does a happy marriage really have to start with "When a Man Loves a Woman," "Unchained Melody," or "It Had to Be You"? Interesting music has never been more available and new love songs are being written all the time, yet the mafia of tried-and-true -- in other words, boring -- choices keep a tight stranglehold on most ceremonies. Enough!

October 6, 2008 – Weird Trend Alert: Is it just me, or is it wildly unlikely that there are suddenly all these guy bands with the word "Girls" as part of their name? So who are these "Girls"? And where do they get off playing this devious gender trick? We investigate: THE GIRLS HOMETOWN: SeattleYEARS ACTIVE: 7OUTPUT: 2 LPsSOUNDS LIKE: A 12-hour dance party hosted by Ric Ocasek According to the Girls' guitarist Vas, a friend suggested the name to singer Shannon Brown in 2001, and the discussion ended there. "None of us are girls, but we sure at times act like them," Vas explains. "After being in our van for 18 hours, we tend to come onstage wearing women's panties. We're definitely in touch with our feminine sides." But doesn't it ever get you into trouble?

September 23, 2008 – Every fantasy you ever had of exploring the resort hotel from Dirty Dancing, every furtive wish that you'd someday get the chance to say hi to J Mascis face-to-face, and every hope that you could wander through a surreal reality for days sans chemical assistance came to life this weekend at Kutsher's Country Club, the once-thriving Catskills resort that hasn't seen a coat of paint since its 1980's decline from fashion.