Like most people involved in record labels, music magazines and other forms of music promotion, Dave Ullrich has seen the business from both sides. He has spent time behind a drum kit playing for The Inbreds and working in a singer/songwriter vein as part of the collective Egger, and has been publishing...

With their first album of new material in 11 years, Portishead have delivered just the record that critics like myself have wanted to hear them make – a smoky, clattering work that skims the border of absolute ugliness and despair without ever really collapsing into complete disrepair. What their...

There is a distinct, albeit thinly sliced, difference between party music and karaoke music, though both share the distinction of being music that is commonly known by a large swath of popular culture. Party music is designed so that the empty spaces at said party are filled with fun, recognizable,...

If you aren’t sure why food needs defending, In Defense of Food is the book for you. Many books have appeared over the last few years that address the dangers of the Western food culture, and In Defense of Food, while not the best of this genre, is a good introduction to the idea of a more sustainable...

Janet Jackson’s latest album, Discipline, isn’t going to change your world, but it might just make you want to get up and dance. The album doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel when it comes to dance albums, any more than Paula Abdul’s does. Still, Discipline has interesting...

By Taylor Eby We here at Burnside have become extremely busy with our journalistic endeavors and have decided to follow the lead of more prestigious writers, such as the ones over at Maxim. From now on, our music reviews are going to be our best “educated guesses,” which will not only benefit...

It feels like I have been to this place before. The place I speak of is one of distrust, malcontent and utter irritability with the status of modern music review. It’s almost as if these writers (probably due to a corporate agenda) have to achieve a certain preconceived slant and could care less...

Why do you think, of all the guitar players on the planet she could arrange a conversation with, would Zooey Deschanel (having played prominent roles in films like Almost Famous, Elf, and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) align herself with M. Ward to make her first album? Granted, Mr. Ward is...

It doesn’t make sense that an album that many folks will crank up at their next party is etched in loneliness; that an album that moves from the sands of Southern California to the streets of the Motor City takes place completely within one person’s head. It doesn’t make sense that...

I want to give the world a foot massage “Take a load off,” I’d say “You’ve had a long week” I want to buy backpacks for crack babies Teach them E=mc2 Sing them the theme to Fat Albert Show them the correct dosage of sugar for kick-ass Kool-Aid Tell them their mothers’...