Latest Posts

Column 24: The Oscars, Best Original Song, and Dreams of What Could’ve Been

And so Oscar season officially begins. With the announcement of last Thursday’s nominations, the annual awards campaign has kicked off. While there were notable surprises and snubs in every category, let’s get to the one that matters to readers of this blog though, Best Original Song. Lost Stars – Adam Levine (Begin Again) Grateful – Rita Ora (Beyond the Lights) Glory – Common & John Legend (Selma) I’m Not Gonna Miss You – Glen Campbell (Glen Campbell : I’ll Be Me) Everything is AWESOME!!! – Tegan & Sara and The Lonely Island (The LEGO Movie) That is the field for this year’s Best Original Song winner, which to me, could not be more depressing. In a year that was so uncommonly great for music in movie, to look at that crop as the “best” of the year seems so falsely representative of what the year was. There’s been a lot of[...]

Column 20: Hunger Games – Inspiration for Rebellion and our Youth

While it might be tempting to ignore or write-off the soundtracks for recent mega-blockbuster young adult franchises, the last five years has made this increasingly hard to do. In an effort to both create a sonic landscape for their films and create brand identity, studios have been turning to the world of indie rock. It’s hardly a new idea, going back to the 90s it’s easy to forget that films like Romeo & Juliet and Great Expectations featured original music by bands like Radiohead and Pulp. It almost is a bit heartening listening to these soundtracks and imaging the pre-teens hearing many of these great artists for the first time to find an alternative to what the radio has fed them. That said, Lionsgate deserves special credit for handing the reigns of their entire soundtrack for their biggest franchise over to Lorde. The 18-year old artist is right in the[...]

Best Case/Worst Case: Up-and-Coming Pop Stars

Pop music is in a transitional stage right now. New performers keep sprouting up with mega-hits faster than we can keep track of them. So, with that mind, let’s look and some of the bright new faces in pop and determine what would be the best ways for their careers to play out, and what scenarios would leave us sick with disappointment. Lorde Best case: Continues to embrace weirdness, and largely ignores what’s going on with contemporary pop stars. In a perfect world, she could keep making the music she wants to make while staying a force in the mainstream, but if she fades out of view of the Billboard Hot 100 and continues to do her own thing, that would be fine, too. Really, just as long as she stays weird, and continues to grow as a songwriter without blatantly seeking out huge pop hits, that would be great.[...]

Just Announced: Lorde

Continuing to support her 2013 mega album Pure Heroine, current pop It-Girl, Lorde, will be making her WNY debut at Artpark’s Mainstage Theatre on Sunday, September 7th. Hailed as one of the biggest indie-pop crossovers in the last couple of years, Lorde will be sure to please the closet music elitists fans, and lure the suburbanites out to Lewiston like the Pied Piper. Supporting Lorde will be moody indie duo Majical Cloudz. Tickets will go on sale Friday, June 6th at 10am for $39.50, $49.50, and $59.50.