March 3, 2009 – From N.W.A. to Eminem, rap has never had much truck with taboos. But despite a history of pushing the edge to the center, there's one boundary the music is still struggling to cross. "I've stopped thinking about reaching straight people," says Captain Magik, 28, a self-described "young, gay, and proud" Cleveland MC with a raspy, Nas-like flow. "I had enough problems at my day job when I came out. How can I expect support from something as homophobic as hip-hop?" He's not the only one looking for answers. More than a decade after artists like Man Parrish, Deep Dickollective, and Rainbow Flava introduced gay voices to the hip-hop underground, a new generation of rappers are still struggling to escape from their subcultural ghetto. It's not for lack of effort.

February 27, 2009 – The Watchmen is without a doubt the most highly anticipated superhero film since, uh, last summer's The Dark Knight. But even if Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Alan Moore's influential graphic novel will be hard-pressed to match the Bat in terms of either box office or cultural clout, it has already proven to be a more substantive event for nerds who like their muscled heroes accompanied by a little music -- Bob Dylan's "The Times They are a-Changin'" plays over a scene-setting montage and the Smashing Pumpkins' "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning" is featured in the trailer. So in honor of that film's nod to music, I've compiled a list of my nine favorite songs that mention comic book characters. What are yours? 1. "Sgt.

February 26, 2009 – Musicians tend to play better after warming up. Or, as the case may be, thawing out. "Our first practice space was in a room we couldn't afford to heat," recalls Wild Light's cofrontman Timothy Kyle, thinking back to the band's winter rehearsals in Quincy, Massachusetts. "When we finally had a gig someplace warm, it was crazy how limber my fingers felt," says Seth Pitman, 25, who shares songwriting and instrumental duties for the folk-pop foursome with Kyle and Jordan Alexander, both 28. "Playing is easier when you're not freezing your ass off!" It's also easier when you have a history as long as Wild Light's. The friends -- including drummer Seth Kasper, 27 -- grew up in New Hampshire and played together in a Clash-inspired outfit throughout their teens. They broke up before heading to college, but when they all found themselves back home after graduation, the flame was rekindled.

February 26, 2009 – LISSY TRULLIE "I wanna punch the next guy who says that I 'actually' play the guitar well," sneers Lissy Trullie. "When people are still surprised by something like that, I'm like, 'Fuck you.' " Trullie wasn't always so brash. Though she'd played in various bands since moving to New York City from Washington, D.C., the longtime Germs and Ramones fan was content to stay in the shadows. "I was happy writing songs for my friends," she says. "But people really encouraged me to sing my own stuff, so I gave it a try. I'm amazed people are psyched on what I'm doing -- I still hate the sound of my voice." You wouldn't know that from listening to the just-released Self-Taught Learner EP (American Myth).

February 20, 2009 – February 20 marks what would have been Kurt Cobain's 42nd birthday. He died almost fifteen years ago, on April 5, 1994. Since the year 2000, Cobain's journals have been published, a Nirvana box set was released, Gus Van Sant made a movie about a very Cobainesque rock star, and Michael Azzerad released a documentary. And that's just the beginning. ÂIt doesn't feel like he's been gone that long. But at the same time, he always felt like a specter. When Nevermind was released, I was into baseball and WWF wrestling instead of angst-fuelled rock. I was only twelve when Cobain died. I'm pretty sure I didn't read a magazine article about Nirvana until after he was dead. All of which is to say that Cobain the person and Cobain the rock hero/walking tragedy/myth have long been intertwined in my head. It's hard enough to understand rock stars when they're alive.

February 13, 2009 – We don't know all the details, but unless a lot of people are very wrong about a lot of things, R&B star Chris Brown physically assaulted his girlfriend, pop starlet Rihanna, last weekend just before both were set to perform at the Grammys. Already the 19-year-old singer has been dropped from both a Wrigley's chewing gum and a "Got Milk?" ad campaign. Similarly, 96.5 KISS FM in Cleveland has removed Brown from its rotation. Is the erstwhile "Next Michael Jackson"'s" career over? Hard to say. In rap, there's plenty of precedent for violence or other nefarious activity being viewed as a positive. It certainly never hurt Jay-Z or Young Jeezy to brag about their criminal exploits. But domestic violence is different. It's not tough to beat up women. It's pathetic. The two most infamous pop music perpetrators of acts of violence against women are Ike Turner and Rick James.

February 4, 2009 – The 51st annual Grammy Awards feature an amazing roster of performers, including U2, Radiohead, Coldplay, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Paul McCartney, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers, and many more. (Watch the show Sunday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. on CBS.) And, it turns out, the Recording Academy is also giving out a few shiny awards. Below, read our predictions for who should win and who will win. Then post your comments.ALBUM OF THE YEAR: - Viva La Vida - Coldplay? - Tha Carter III - Lil Wayne?- Year Of The Gentleman - Ne-Yo - Raising Sand - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss?- In Rainbows - Radiohead Should win: You could make a good argument for any of these albums, but in terms of innovation, talent, and general zeitgeistiness, Tha Carter III was the year's best. Will win: Coldplay are as close as a band from this decade comes to being U2-style rock gods.

January 29, 2009 – The Super Bowl Halftime Show is a tough gig. It's fundamentally a fifteen-minute sideshow, as performers try to draw the attention of people who've spilled dip on their shirts and are waiting for the game to get going again. Screw up (e.g., Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004) and you become a punchline. Do okay, (The Rolling Stones in 2006; Tom Petty last year) and you're forgotten by second-half kickoff. But every so often a musician is able to transform the bloated advertising feeding frenzy into something greater In New Orleans in 2002, at the first post-9/11 Super Bowl, U2 delivered an amazing tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack. Watch here. During the band's performance of "Where the Streets Have No Name," a giant banner displayed the names of people who died that day.

January 23, 2009 – You can always count on the Academy Awards voters to blow it. But the Academy's failure to nominate Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" for Best Original Song makes me wonder if the nods are decided by throwing darts at a board labeled "next best things." Hey, I don't mean to denigrate the songs that were nominated. Peter Gabriel's "Down to Earth," written for Wall-E, is a nicely subdued number that gently sways between melancholy and hopeful. And Slumdog Millionaire's "O Saya" and"Jai Ho" are thrilling, cosmopolitan, danceable tracks that show the Academy nodding to a world beyond Hollywood. But sparse and solemn, "The Wrestler," from the film of the same name, has an intensely affecting emotional specificity that the aforementioned nominees lack.

January 18, 2009 – [INSERT SHEEP-HUMPING JOKE HERE]: No band is an island. But according to Nick Johnston, singer for Auckland, New Zealand's Cut Off Your Hands, it helps to be from one. "Because the country is so isolated," explains the 24-year-old frontman, "our music ends up being very pure. It's hard to rip off interesting bands if you never see them play." In early 2006, inspired by the albums he'd order from D.C.'s legendary punk label Dischord, Johnston formed Shaky Hands with his friends Michael Ramirez (guitar), Phil Hadfield (bass), and Brent Harris (drums). They'd played 120 shows within a year before a cease-and-desist from a similarly named Portland, Oregon act inspired their grisly rechristening but didn't slow their momentum. Three EPs of tuneful post-punk, one of which was produced by Bernard Butler (Duffy, Black Kids), have the band primed to go global.