archives: Music

Your Ashes on Wax: AndVinyly Is Putting the Fun Back in Funeral

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Get your cremains pressed into vinyl. Why be scattered when your family's eardrums could be shattered?  More »

Favela on Blast: Diplo’s New Documentary on Baile Funk in Rio’s Slums

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Downloadable and rocking documentary by Diplo and Leandro HBL shows the vibrant baile funk culture of Rio's favelas.   More »

10 Deadliest Concert Disasters of the Last 50 Years

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Crowds are unwieldy and amorphous. If you've ever been swept up in one, you know that to be among the press of a crowd is to physically cease to oper  More »

Photo Essay: Ut Av Vår Hule Music and Art Festival in Arctic Norway

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Wyndham Wallace's photographs show Arctic Norway's biannual music festival: beautiful caves, marble mines, music and art at Ut Av Vår Hule.  More »

10 Music Rebels and Their Wildest Acts

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Musicians and strange behavior go hand in hand. Paul Sullivan picks some of the weirdest incidents in rock history.  More »

Champion Sounds: 50 Of The World’s Most Heavyweight Dub Albums

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Paul Sullivan & Ben Rimmer give us their top 50 dub album picks over the last forty years from proto-dub to second wave.  More »

Impossible Music Is Not Quite Impossible

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The Impossible Music Project gets artists censored by their own nations heard. International collaborations are performed for live audiences in Brook  More »

10 Summer Music Festivals in The United States of America

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Alex Nolette highlights ten of America's best summer music festivals, some well known and some not.  More »

#MusicMonday – Night Ranger is the Best Band in the World

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Last year, during my trip around the world, I loaded up my iPod with their five albums and had the epiphany (somewhere in Laos) that Night Ranger was   More »

Fang Island’s Most Exuberant Crowd Yet: Video

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The happy, guitar heavy sound of Fang Island + kindergarteners = love.  More »

The Tone Matrix: Make Beautiful Music No Matter Where in the World You Are

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André Michelle has created a tool so you can make happy little tunes anytime, anyplace with an internet connection.  More »

#MusicMonday: Talking ’bout Mein Girl – Motown in German?


Mi Querido Amor? Mein Girl? Le Hoky Poky? L’Amore Verrà? You betcha!  More »

#MusicMonday: What Bands Would Help Teams Win the World Cup?

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If you could choose any band to play before a World Cup match, who would it be?  More »

#MusicMonday: Part Drummer, Part Acrobat, Part Magician (video)

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This is one drummer who doesn't fade into the background.  More »

#MusicMonday: 10 Songs About Streets, Avenues & Intersections

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Back in the day, this would have been the place to go if you were looking for a male prostitute. The song’s geographic location pinpoints the nexus  More »

Hear ‘n Aid: Remembering Dio’s ‘Star’-Studded Metal Benefit Track

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I'd been buying every magazine I could find, pouring over the details of metal's who's-who charity song, which followed on the heels of "We Are The Wo  More »

#MusicMonday: Lena Horne Was an Inspiration and Still Is

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Aside from being an extraordinary talent, Horne's story is a fascinating look into American history and politics on a very personal level.  More »

#MusicMonday: Four Chords Say it All

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Where does the four chords cliche come from? Axis of Awesome gives us a good idea.  More »

#MusicMonday: Notes on Bands and Music from Georgia

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Unable to afford a ticket to All Tomorrows Parties David Miller consoles himself with  More »

#MusicMonday – An Intro to the World of Diplo

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The international DJ/Producer (with the moniker of a dinosaur) has a far from normal life. Come along on Matt Huntington's journey of discovery.  More »

#MusicMonday: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector

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Vikram Jayanti's film about Phil Spector hits a raw nerve.  More »

#MusicMonday: Miyavi – Japanese Virtuoso & Self-Proclaimed Samurai Guitarist


Miyavi takes elements of jazz, rock and blues to create a sound all his own and delivers it with style.  More »

#MusicMonday: Kesha’s Tik Tok as Dissected by GloZell

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Even if you don't have the faintest idea of who Kesha is, if you resent corporate rock, inane lyrics devoid of meaning, and cookie cutter sound, you'l  More »

Ruffled Feathers & Riffs: How to Disrespect a Gibson Les Paul

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Essentially the most rock and roll aviary in the history of the world, plugged-in Gibson Les Pauls are installed around the Barbican’s Curve gallery  More »

Ricky Martin is Gay. The Sky is Blue. Things We Knew.

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"I am a fortunate homosexual man."  More »

#MusicMonday: The Best Bands at Coachella You Might Not Know

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Scott Shetler provides info and sound bites for some of the best Coachella bands you might have never heard.  More »

NY Audience Lets Iggy Pop Crash to the Floor at Carnegie Hall

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A recent Carnegie Hall audience apparently believed the geriatric punk legend capable of flight and so parted to watch him take wing at a March 1st Ti  More »

#MusicMonday: 10 Alt Country Musts For Your iPod

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Alt Country encompasses a wide and varied group of musicians who ride the line between Rock, Country, Roots, Bluegrass, Rockabilly and sometimes even   More »

#MusicMonday: Music for Airports, Planes, Trains, and Buses

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This mixtape from Modular recordings has krautrock, australian rock, fusion, street musicians, and pioneers of electronic music--all blended for movem  More »

#MusicMonday – 50 Collaborations You’ve Got to Hear

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If you're looking for top notch examples of what happens when artists combine talent and sounds, look no further.  More »

#MusicMonday: Compare the White Stripes Song to U.S. Air Force Reserve Ad

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The ad featured a song which sounded too much like "Fell in Love With a Girl" to be a sound-alike and aired it during the Super Bowl.   More »

What People are Listening to in…Argentina

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La Mona is known as Argentina’s James Brown with outrageous live shows that include high-energy dance and multiple costume changes. “The Monkey  More »

#Musicmonday: Tribute To Neil Young Set List 1/29/10


The set list from a tribute to Neil Young, which featured the likes of Elton John, Wilco, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Fogerty, Jason Mraz, Jackson Bro  More »

10 Black Metal Bands from the Most Unexpected Places

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When we think of black metal, we tend to think of Northern Europe and, to a lesser extent, North America. However, at this very moment, headbangers fr  More »

Hardcore Economic Theory as Rap?


What happens when a producer from Spike TV finds himself a huge fan of an economic podcast? A rap starring long dead economists, of course.   More »

#MusicMonday – Help for Haiti: Big Music Gets in on the Act


Various news sources are reporting an imminent re-recording of We are the World to be re-produced by Quincy Jones, and the Hope for Haiti Now album is  More »

#MusicMonday: La Bomba de Tiempo’s Percussive Mondays in Buenos Aires

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Each Monday, crowds gather in Konex to check out Buenos Aires' most noted percussion group. The performance takes place on an orange ladder contrapti  More »

Artist Riders: Inside the Diva Dressing Rooms of Your Favorite Musicians

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Who requires vintage 1999 Playstation cartridges? Who needs 4 quarts of FRESH SQUEEZED carrot juice before every show? Which "Artist" demands a four  More »

#MusicMonday: 50 Music Sites That Matter

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Bored with your music collection? Feeling out of the musical loop? Paul Sullivan offers us 50 music sites that offer some of the best and most up-to  More »

Four Little Kids Covering Pop Songs on Youtube

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If you're not one of the ten million people who've watched video of a kid playing Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" then you're missing out. It's viral media   More »

10 Australian Summer Music Festivals NOT to Miss

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Matador gives you the quick and dirty on ten summer music festivals definitely worth checking out the next time you're down under. A very merry summe  More »

#MusicMonday – Rage Against Crap Music: #1 UK Christmas Hit Group Effort Against Simon Cowell

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The group, run by Jon and Tracy Morter, was set up to unseat the schmaltzy picks of Simon Cowell that ooze forth from speakers all over the UK throug  More »

A Death Metal Cover of Super Mario Castle Theme

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We stumbled up on this YouTube while perusing the excellent metal blog Metalloides. Ever-fascinated with all things Mario and Death Metal, this video  More »

#MusicMonday – NPR Music Offers Free Downloads for Those in Search of Something New

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The song of the day is all over the place and you'll find something new or old that you need to listen to just when you need it.  More »

#MusicMonday: 10 Things To Know Before Your Next Rock Show

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Auto-Tune is an audio processor that fixes pitch problems for singers who are incapable of singing, as well as those who just haven’t gotten their c  More »

#MusicMonday Pick: Debajo del Agua

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Now the whole family + friends (most of whom grew up in the same neighborhood in Denver, playing on the soccer team José coached) continue the tradit  More »

#MusicMonday – Put Some Dub In Your Step & Some Hyper in Your Dub

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Paul Sullivan gives dub lovers an earful, recapping the Hyperdub Label's fifth anniversary party in London and dishing out some solid recommendations   More »

#MusicMonday – Ghostly Music and The New Indie Revolution

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The big, corporate labels are dinosaur fossils. Successful are the labels that can figure out not only how to distribute their music in new and diffe  More »

#MusicMonday: Discover Be-Dom, Portugal’s Percussion-Mad Sextuplet

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The six members of this Porto based group mix performance art with music composed on instruments comprised entirely of found materials  More »

How Big Is The Beatles’ Stick? Big Enough To Smack The Other Apple In The Face

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The Beatles' remastered catalogue will be available on a digital USB stick just in time for Christmas.  More »

Faith No More Electrifies Buenos Aires after a 10 Year Hiatus

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Faith No More sounds like no other band. Metal? Lounge? Rock? Country? Spaz core? Noise? Easy listening? Punk?--Yes. All of the above.  More »

Amazon.com Is Quietly Becoming The Best Place To Buy Cheap Digital Music

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The Gaslight Anthem's album is priced at $5.00 on Amazon and $9.99 on iTunes. What gives?  More »

#MusicMonday Trivia: Rappers’ Real Names and Musicians Under 5′3″

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At 4'11", is Dolly Parton tall enough to go on the rides at Dollywood? Perhaps Shaggy did the right thing by changing his name from Orville Richard B  More »

Twenty 80’s Rockers…Twenty Years Later

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Wonder where some of your 80's rocker faves ended up? We did too. Two hours and three tallboys later, here's who we found.  More »

#Musicmonday: We Make It Good Mix Series (Free Download!)

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Wayne Smith: Sounds as Jamaican as John Wayne. If John Wayne road around 24/7 with blunts in his holsters preaching Jah, or just how much he loves sm  More »

#MusicMonday: Micromix by Atlas Sound

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An Atlas Sound micromix from this summer that seems made for Fall.  More »

Made Scarce: How Indie Rock’s Next Big Thing Became Yesterday’s News

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"They may only have one album but they probably have one of the greatest stories of any band. It wasn’t just one awful thing that happened to them.   More »

Void’s War Hero is the Voice of True Evil

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Evil's true voice is the voice of a jealous and vindictive adolescent. It is impish and filled with snot, tears and a total lack of understanding  More »

8 Musicians Who Will Make You Rethink World Music

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Comprised of two Angolans and one Portuguese, Buraka Som Sistema is probably unlike anything you’ve ever come across. The rhythm they've mastered i  More »

The Last Great US Music Fest of 2009 – New Orleans’ Voodoo Experience

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It's the variation of acts that makes Voodoo so cool - you'd be hard-pressed to find a lineup as diverse as this one.  More »

R-A-M-O-N-E-S IN B-E-R-L-I-N

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It’s less a collection and more a shrine, a labor of love that is easily appreciated by anyone who has ever gone to the dark side of collecting, a w  More »

Attica! Attica! – Ditch the Van Bike Tour for Charity

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Riding my bike for 10 weeks, meeting new people, singing songs around campfires, sleeping in the woods, and making a few friends along the way? Now t  More »

Literal Video – The Endless Charm of Stating the Obvious

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You've been overexposed and are now suffering from Eclipse poisoning. Never fear. Get your mock on with this critical and observational jewel of sna  More »

Ten Metal Musts For Your iPod

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“Angel Of Death” chronicles the life of Josef Mangele, the infamous Nazi doctor who conducted grizzly experiments on humans during WWII. As contr  More »

Hey, Weren’t You In Sex Gang Children? 25 Original Names Of Bands You Know

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What was Radiohead originally called? Paul Sullivan hits us with a list of 25 band names that almost were (and, in many cases, should never have been)  More »

Ten Motown Musts For Your iPod

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“Please Mr. Postman” tells the tale of a girl waiting for a letter from her boyfriend. For those born after 1985, a letter is a physical piece of  More »

Seven Crazy Nights in Ibiza’s Summer Of Lust

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You know you're in Ibiza when it's four o’clock on a Saturday afternoon and you're dancing in an abandoned zoo surrounded by people in fancy dress.   More »

Lawn Seats Still Available! The Has-Been Tours Of The Summer

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A collection of some of this summer's worst has-been tours. Somebody call your cousin Ricky and make sure he can borrow his mom's car!  More »

Haven’t You Heard? United Breaks Guitars

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In his last email to the United employee who denied his claim, Dave promised to make three music videos about the experience, with the goal of hitting  More »

Guide to Starting a Band Overseas

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I did what any punk enthusiast in my position would do. I joined a death metal band, and along the way picked up a thing or two about the trials of b  More »

U.S. Summer Music Festivals Gone Green

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While your roaming summer music enjoyment can still be a shock to the wallet, it doesn’t have to be as big of a shock to the earth.  More »

6 Greatest Places on Earth to Buy Vinyl

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From Barcelona to Chicago, here are 6 of the greatest record stores on earth.   More »

The 10 Most Important Bands to See This Summer

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Summer is always the best time to see live music, whether it’s at the dingy little club in the rough part of town or in a farmers field somewhere in  More »

Nyle’s “Let The Beat Build” Goes Viral & Breaks

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A burgeoning New York rapper with some serious style, Nyle is suddenly the talk of the town  More »

Win a Sansa slotRadio Player for the Love of Music and the Love of Travel

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You have one week. Hey, that's less than 8 words a day you have to write!   More »

12 Tips for Surviving Your First European Heavy Metal Festival

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Metal festivals are not the occasion for your beach flip-flops or strappy heels. Expect to be stomped on by angry Germans-- you need to stomp right ba  More »

mp3 Of The Week: Run DMC Hard Times

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Hard times! Spreading just like the flu. Watch out, homeboy, don't let it catch you.  More »

Up and Coming Indian Rock Scene Offers Punch and Variety

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It's becoming clear that many fans are getting sick of the incessant recycling of cover songs and waking up to the amazing work being done by a handfu  More »

mp3 of the Week – The Replacements – Waitress in the Sky

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Having flown some of Europe’s gnarliest cheapos, I too have thought evil about the people who are supposed to keep me alive, in the event of a water  More »

What People are Listening to in…Canada

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The Great White North continues to pump out some of the best music in North America, as Matador contributor Jane Tattersall reports from Toronto  More »

#MusicMonday: 10 Black Metal Bands in the Developing World

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With ridiculous album titles like “Holocaustik Metal Sexxxecution Whoreslaughters”, Deiphago is definitely recommended.  More »

mp3 of the week – Chuck D – On the Real – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Edition

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Chuck D packs the spaces between the songs with interesting tidbits of information about the inductees, taking a break from the normal “On the Real  More »

mp3 of the Week: Personality Crisis, New York Dolls

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Take the overt gender bending out of their look and all the soul out of their sound and you have the template for all the Whitesnakes and Warrants you  More »

mp3 of the Week: dubsessions

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Lately I've been 'easing' into work with a little dub / steppers / rockers / reggae.   More »

Travel mp3 of the Week: Recent Bedroom

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I don't know what it is about Atlas Sound. It's like it's always raining in their music.   More »

This is the most creative use of youtube I’ve ever seen.

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Turns out the sickest band in the world is. . .you.  More »

What People are Listening to in… Brazil

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I thought my collection of Brazilian music was pretty impressive… until I went to Brazil.   More »

What People Are Listening to in…Chile

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The music scene in Chile is erupting. Here's why.   More »

Carnaval Highlights from Montevideo, Uruguay

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Our tour of Carnaval continues...this time, in Uruguay.  More »

5 Best Jazz and Blues Venues in Rome

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The 5 best spots to enjoy some soul in the Italian capital.  More »

The Tarrus Riley Phenomenon: A Return to Roots and Conscious Reggae

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“Poom poom poom! When I say that, it’s not a gunshot okay, it’s a musical shot!”   More »

The Best Places to Catch Live Music in New Orleans

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In a city that defines music, it can be hard to choose where to see a show. Here are some of our favorite venues.   More »

Calcutta Nights: Your Music and Club Scene Guide

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Your field guide to beats, bars, and clubs in Calcutta.   More »

Learning to Dance Tango

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In the words of Benny's tango teacher: "Tango is 2-3 minutes of embrace between people from anywhere, from any social class, people who've never seen   More »

10 Most Influential Musicians for Travelers Over the Past Decade

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As much as anything, travel is about discovering new music.   More »

Ten Songs By Musicians Who Died Too Soon

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"You'd learn the words, sing them, maybe finger your guitar on the right frets, then realize what they meant."  More »

Fela Kuti: Father of Afrobeat

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Love Afrobeat? Learn more about its creator, Fela Kuti.   More »

Touring The USA (With Help From Dead Rock Stars)

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"I've found myself late at night in the kitchen of rock stars. . . "  More »

A First Timer’s Guide to Oktoberfest

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Everything from tent selection, where to go and stay, plus key Oktoberfest phraseology.  More »

Burning Man 2008: A Retrospective in Images

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Photos of the American Dream, burner-style.   More »

First Timer’s Guide to Full Moon Raves

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From its shadowy origins to tips on raging there today, check out Thailand's Full Moon Raves.  More »

Top 10 Nightlife Spots in Mexico City

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Feature photo by bdebaca. Photo above by heather. Here are the top 10 spots to party in the Mexican capital city. Mexico City: It’s south of the bo  More »

10 Music Blogs to Keep Your iPod Stacked with Fresh Beats

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Tired of the same old tunes?  More »

Nashville: Get Your Honky-Tonk On

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This is a guide to the Nashville you’ve always known existed, but probably never thought was worth visiting.  More »

8 Essential Tips for Carnival in Rio

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From where to crash to recommended clothing, beverages, plus pre and post-party tips, here are 8 essential things to know for Carnival.  More »

How to Prepare for a Summer Music Festival

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From choosing the right festival to tips on camping and pacing yourself throughout the shows, here's (almost) everything you'll need to know about pre  More »

How to Ask “Would You Like to Dance” in 50 Different Languages

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This might be the only phrase you need to know.   More »

The 10 Hottest Nightlife Spots in Havana, Cuba

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From tragically touristy to totally local, our top 10 nightlife guide to Havana takes you to places that reveal Havana’s love of music, dance, and d  More »

The 10 Best Venues and Shows in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

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Welcome to Salvador--the beating heart of afro-Brazilian culture.  More »

Club Atlético Fernández Fierro

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Not your typical tango show, the funky Orquesta Tipica de Fernandez Fierro dazzles a fresh following in Buenos Aires  More »

Tango And Lambada Zouk: The Best Of The Buenos Aires Dance Scene

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Kelly Rice digs into the Buenos Aires dance scene for the best spots to experience Tango and Zouk.   More »

Top 10 Nightlife Spots in NYC

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Kyle Tregurtha reveals the right names to drop to get you through the door in these New York City spots.  More »

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