From Radar, an interview with Alex Ross, author of The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. A review of Works of Music: An Essay in Ontology by Julian Dodd. The pressures on musical child geniuses are enormous, and the first casualty is a normal childhood — but sometimes the talented teenagers decide to call the tune. Under the Underground Nerdcore Movement: Meet Baddd Spellah, kickass nerdcore music producer. In defense of audiophiles: The iPod hasn't made great sound obsolete. The record shop's dead, long live the record shop: Amid the high street gloom, there's some evidence that independent record shops are reviving. From Cracked, an article on the 9 most unnecessary greatest hits albums of all time. Learning from the Dead: Scholars gather at the University of Massachusetts to discuss their work on the Grateful Dead. A review of Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, the Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound by Paul Drummond. After the Polka: Disco polo is the music that Poles love to hate. The roots of Portuguese fado in militant, working-class Lisbon were airbrushed by a fascist regime.
