Gear Reviews
How to Hot-Rod Your Strat For Under $20 a Week
The Strat Chronicles (or how I modified my Strat for $12.50 a week) PART ONE My mission was to take my Strat and modify it, so there’s no 60-cycle hum, as well as beefing up the sound a bit, all while maintaining the standard Strat appearance. I budgeted myself just...
MY FAVORITE AXE: Yamaha VSS-30 with Dick Rubin of MINKA
BACKGROUND I came from the void, and one day I shall return to it. In the meantime, I intend to make weird sounds. Some of them you might even call “music.” MAKE & MODEL 1987 Yamaha VSS-30 WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU Moments before I entered this world, my mother...
Simmons Introduces SD550 Mesh-Head Electronic Drum Kit
Following up on the success of its breakthrough SD2000 mesh-head electronic drum kit, Simmons has introduced the SD550 full-sized, five-piece, mesh-head electronic drum kit. Advanced, tension-able mesh pads with variable attack response technology enable expressive...
How To
Reach New Fans with Google Play Music All Access
An Interview with Google Music Guru Tim Quirk If you read this column, you know we try to cover as many new music platforms as we possibly can with one goal: getting your music to new fans. This month, we take on one of the big boys: Google Play Music All Access...
Why A Million Plays on Pandora May Only Net You $16
THERE’S NOTHING BETTER THAN A PAY DAY. With a multitude of income-generating avenues available for musicians on the Internet, there is no shortage of ways to make money online. How much you can make, however, is a different story. This month’s Legal Pad looks into...
Yacht Rock Revival
Similar to a late-night infomercial for a "best of the 70's" album, Yacht Rock Revue performs songs to sing along to and songs to shake your booty to...and the Yacht Rock "Revival" show was a perfect example of just that. One might wonder how a group of guys who...
Buying Guide
Simmons Introduces SD550 Mesh-Head Electronic Drum Kit
Following up on the success of its breakthrough SD2000 mesh-head electronic drum kit, Simmons has introduced the SD550 full-sized, five-piece, mesh-head electronic drum kit. Advanced, tension-able mesh pads with variable attack response technology enable expressive...
Absence of Ocean Demos The Galaxy Audio GPS-8
Our recent gear test winners, Absence of Ocean, have been hard at work these past few weeks testing out the Galaxy Audio GPS-8 personal monitor PA. While we await their final review, we wanted to share a look back at some of their videos as they integrated the gear...
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Reviews: 3 Different Takes
STUDIO TEST: Performer’s Product Testers Hit the Studio (and the Street) with the ATH-M50x studio monitor headphones We recently put out a call to action for our readers to test out some Audio-Technica ATH-M50x studio monitor headphones. After all the entries were...
Industry News
The Jayhawks Live at Royale – Boston, MA
The Jayhawks are the epitome of musical chemistry - demonstrated through an all-encompassing set heralding an era of forward motion and Proustian reflection. "The grapes, bitter / I’m no quitter / revolutions come one by one,” fans of The Jayhawks’ Sound of Lies...
Ellie Goulding Lights Up TD Garden
Ellie Goulding has a voice strong enough to stand entirely on its own. It’s distinct and full, and with it she scales to heights even a world-class mountain climber might envy. But the voice is only part of the British singer’s superstar success -- it’s a component,...
Sarah Jarosz ‘Undercurrent’ Review
Americana’s sweetheart Sarah Jarosz reaches a new level of brilliance on latest LP, Undercurrent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofNDjpsVtYw “What does it mean to be lost?” asks Sarah Jarosz as the first line on “Take Another Turn,” a track from her new record...