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Music

meryl and the streets

www.myspace.com/merylstreet About Meryl and the Streets "We were pretty much just chillin'," lead singer Jason E.

by 34TH STREET

The fort knox of poon

You could be hung with an Oscar and two Golden Globes, but if you can't set the stage like a Hollywood pro, you ain't getting near that white orchid.

by MERYL BARNIMUM T. GRABARSKY

It's a listening party!

"Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above" by CSS Joe: At first I wasn't sure I liked it, but then Vince turned the bass up.

by ALEX JACOBS

To blog or not to blog

Mp3 blogs will become your life. As you read these words, thousands of self-anointed music experts in thick plastic glasses and headphones are furiously posting, downloading, and analyzing fresh tracks from The Knife and Of Montreal, alongside deep cuts from dusty LPs of their parents' generation.

by STEVE MCLAUGHLIN

Total clipse of the heart

No, it's not We Got It 4 Cheap: Vol. 2. That mixtape was a flamethrower to the safe houses major label rappers found themselves in, circa 2005.

by ,

Trail of tears

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have had an extreme career arc. Their 2002 major label debut Source Tags & Codes was an era-defining work of anthemic indie rock - one of those precious high school records I could blast for weeks on end in my '89 Mazda 323, driving from one South Jersey diner to another, getting home late at night and highly caffeinated, reading LiveJournals until 4 a.m.

by STEVE MCLAUGHLIN

Harpy, but in a good way

Joanna Newsom's second album, Ys, is a daunting little number. Take the defiant medieval blonde on the cover, sickle in hand.

by DAMIEN BRIGHT

Home is where the art is

Manya Scheps can't stand the rain. By 8 p.m. over two inches have drenched the city and begun to leak through the walls of her basement.

by VINCE LEVY

My kingdom for a rhyme

Jay-Z famously rapped on Kanye West's College Dropout that he's "not a businessman" but a "business, man." Cocksure, of course, but kind of an insightful self-examination.

by JIM NEWELL

The best of times the worst of times

Across four albums, Mobb Deep's primal realism vaulted them amongst hip-hop's biggest names; they rap-battled with Tupac and rhymed alongside Nas, B.I.G.

by ,

Jazzercise

John Medeski is definitely not a physicist. Still, the 41-year-old pianist has his own convincing theory of nature: "Everything is vibration and sound.

by JONATHAN LIEBEMBUK

Friday night fever

Luke Jenner, singer-guitarist for the Rapture, looks serious in a cramped dressing room downstairs at Pure nightclub.

by ALEX JACOBS

State of Panic in the attic

Paul Michel's fourth album, Quiet State of Panic, filled with tracks about loneliness and wistful romance, would make the perfect soundtrack for a sequel to Wicker Park.

by HILLARY SMITH

A band you can't refuse

The Rapture are back. After their meteoric rise in 2003 on the strength of hit single "House of Jealous Lovers," the band spent a few years out of the public eye.

by ALEX JACOBS

If you build it, they will gather

It's close to midnight at the Rotunda on 40th and Walnut. On the steps outside, a cypher of about 20 hip-hop heads huddle in close as a ghetto blaster thumps old school loops and two emcees in the middle face-off: "Common nigga, you don't think that's a lie / That's like saying when I spit it I don't spit fly / That's like saying you ain't you and I ain't I / Like this ain't the Gathering it's a street word fight." The crowd goes nuts, leaning back like witnesses of a car wreck to reward the verbal beating.

by VINCE LEVY

Meow mix

In 1974, drinking buddies John Lennon and Harry Nilsson decided to make a record. The Nilsson-penned, Lennon-produced result was Pussy Cats, equal parts riotous sing-along and nostalgic meditation.

by ALEX JACOBS

Guess Who's Back

Sometimes when a band is 40 years old they release an album that is more for themselves than for the fans.

by ,

Badly Drawn Boy

Born in the U.K., the fifth album from Badly Drawn Boy (a.k.a. Damon Gough), sounds like a rock 'n' roll musical.

by JONATHAN LIEBEMBUK

Straight Outta Heathrow

Lady Sovereign is a girl who knows how to take her criticisms with a healthy grain of salt. "They can fuck off," said the 20-year-old British rapper of her detractors.

by VINCE LEVY

Press Play, Playa

Diddy and his Bad Boy camp taught hip-hop how to spend loot. Not some gambino-type Infiniti shit, I am talking Maybach shit.

by ,

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