Brad Paisley

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Friday, September 13 Monophonics THE MINT Monophonics are like a whole section of the record store come to life -- especially that wall above the register where they keep the serious stuff. The Bay Area band do acrobatic son ... More >>

Music Picks: Mad Decent Block Party, Weeknd, Cold War Kids

LL Cool J's Authentic: A Track By Track Review, Without Prejudice

LL Cool J can do no wrong lately. Actually, strike that, LL Cool J does everything wrong lately. Last year there was his trend-hopping track "Ratchet," dubbed one of the worst of 2012. More recently there was his duet with Brad Paisley, "Accidental Racist," in which he more or less forgave the sin o ... More >>

The Coachella 2013 Awards

The brunette in the backward pink mesh trucker hat and booty shorts grabs a megaphone and addresses her fellow campers. "WECOME TO COOOOACHEELLLA." The congregation of twenty 20-somethings lustily applauds. It's Thursday night, a dozen hours before the festival officially begins, and the rules ar ... More >>

Django Unchained: The Most Moving Scene Quentin Tarantino Has Yet Filmed

Django is Like "Accidental Racist," Except Not Godawful.

How to Spot Hollywood's Nonthreatening Black Man (NTBM)

Brad Paisley's "Accidental Racist": Why This Song Sucks

Monday, Brad Paisley, a white man, joined hands with LL Cool J, a black man, and attempted to end racism with a song called "Accidental Racist" (below), wherein Paisley addressed the debilitating dread of being an affluent white male in America and LL panthered around in the background, high-fiving ... More >>

Country Star Brad Paisley's Veiled Liberalism

By Alan Scherstuhl Editor's note: Alan Scherstuhl sometimes writes about country music for our sister blog at the Village Voice. Brad Paisley, "Southern Comfort Zone" Current Billboard Country Singles Chart Position: 10 The Verdict: Holy shit, songs on the radio can still be important! In this ... More >>

The Ten Best Country Albums of 2012

By Alan Scherstuhl This list of the year's best country albums is assembled with two important premises in mind: First: If the people who record and listen to these records consider them country, than they're damn well country. Purists who argue that country should still sound like '68, '76, '84 o ... More >>

Like Marriage, This Is 40 Is Long, Aimless and Worth It

Dive - The Satellite - 4/19/12

Dive The Satellite 4/19/12 Better than... not keeping it country. Last night east-coast rockers Dive, who have been building a strong buzz through publications like Pitchfork, played a surprising set at The Satellite. They are a group of thin white guys from Brooklyn -- a trope that has, deserv ... More >>

If You Don't Like Country Music You're a Blue State Elitist

See also: Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup": Why This Song Sucks Asking people what kind of music they like can be a loaded question. People want to seem open-minded, yet cool, which for some reason tends to inspire this insipid response: "I like pretty much everything. Except country." (The hipster var ... More >>

William Shatner's New Album Of Sci-Fi Covers? Not Bad! He's At Amoeba Today

​See also: William Shatner Is Recording Star-Studded Metal Album in L.A.: We Got the Details William Shatner's first foray into music was 1968's The Transformed Man, a novelty of Shakespeare and Cyrano de Bergerac passages paired with a couple of pop tunes, "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Lucy in the ... More >>

Sesame Street Tackles Hunger Issues: Lily the "Food Insecure" Muppet

2011 Sesame Workshop. Photo by: Gil VakninNew Muppet Lily with Brad Paisley and Elmo​ Cookie Monster probably is going to rethink those cookies: on Sunday, Sesame Street will air a primetime special, Growing Hope Against Hunger, in which the Sesame Street residents learn about hunger issues in ... More >>

William Shatner Reveals Song Lineup for His Upcoming "Metal Album"

​Back in February, we broke the news that William Shatner was working on a star-studded new album with some of LA's most prominent metal session musicians (Read "William Shatner Is Recording Star-Studded Metal Album in L.A.: We Got the Details"). Well, now WilliamShatner.com (of course there' ... More >>

Top 10 Country Radio Songs to Open Your Mind (Even if You Think You Hate Country Music)

Eazylanish/Flickr​We've seen it over and over on Facebook profiles. Music: "I like just about anything...except COUNTRY, of course!" As if admitting to liking mainstream country music (because, sure, everyone likes Johnny Cash) is like admitting to having a Beanie Babies collection. It's sham ... More >>

Rock Picks: Tinariwen, Lucy Schwartz, Brendan Benson, Free Energy, P.O.S.

Also, Randy Newman, Meshell Ndegeocello, Useless Keys and others

Rock Picks: Winifred E. Eye, Stagecoach, Marianne Dissard, Thao

Also, Franz Nicolay, Sweet, Tinted Windows and others

Hitsville: The Year in Music, by the Numbers

You don't need a half-wit music critic to tell you it's been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were dem ... More >>

Ill-Thought Out Observations From This Year's Grammy's

Because Live Blogging is so gauche. Occasionally the Grammy Committee's old fogey sensibility yields huge dividends. See the inclusion of Morris Day and the motherfucking Time. As far as I know, only two people have paid much attention to Morris Day and the Time post "Jerk Out:" the illustrious ... More >>

The Freak Parade

Nashville superweirdoes Big & Rich wrangle the Rose Bowl halftime, somehow. Nation reacts with relief, pride

The Psychic Hipster’s Pop 10 Yindies And Crunksters And Christians, O My!

Captain, My Captain

William Shatner on life, love, horses and making a record with Ben Folds