Pardon the absence. You see, I’ve been in a bit of a funk. Watching all the crap emanate from all the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performances, coupled with the inexplicable rise of the foul-mouthed Ke$ha (more on that later this week), has me mourning for the death of popular music. 2010 is not starting out [...]

From the moment he walked onstage at Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, Paul McCartney was a consummate professional. He had 45,000 people waiting for him; he could have taken his time and kept them waiting for as long as he wanted.
Instead, to everyone’s surprise, he began playing 15 minutes early.
At 67, the  former Beatle played for two [...]

The evolution of Mandy Moore is now complete. Now 25, the former teen pop sensation has recently gotten married, and her latest album, Amanda Leigh, is a collection of smart, acoustic- and piano-based pop songs that, based on similar artists’ work, should flop phenomenally.
Moore has aligned herself with one of the best (and unknown) songwriters in pop [...]