The music industry as we know it may well be a sinking ship. Worldwide music sales were down 7.6 percent last year, the fourth consecutive year they’ve dropped since 2000. Read more...

Earlier this month when media outlets briefly broke the story of the death of music great Rick James, two words stuck out in particular: “natural causes.” James, after all, had for years lived the fast life emblematic of many an out-of-control superstar, battling legal troubles toward the end of his career and, by his own math, spending millions of dollars on cocaine alone. Read more...

There’s an old journalism joke that “news is what happens to editors.” The idea is that small stories happen so frequently that the ones that end up on the pages of a newspaper are only there because they happened in the presence of someone with some control over the content of those news pages. Read more...

As the daughter of two prominent musicians ““ guitarist-singer João Gilberto; and one of Brazil’s most-loved singers, Miúcha ““ Bebel Gilberto, has been surrounded by music from her birth. Read more...

I swear I’m not an alcoholic. But when I heard that the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood were presenting special “21+” screenings of movies all summer long, I was so excited I must have squealed louder than Paul Hamm when he tumbled his way to a gold medal. Read more...

For John Kricfalusi, there was once a time when cartoons were really good. Of course, as the creator of “Ren & Stimpy” ““ one of the most popular, subversive, gross-out cartoons in modern history ““ Kricfalusi has an entirely different idea of what “good” really is. Read more...

Mission to Mars From the ramshackle, Replacements-like synergy of “Violet, Hello” and the chunky, chugging riffs on “Don Drysdale,” there’s no doubting that the ancient spirits of ’90s college rock are alive and well in Mission to Mars, the Portland-based band helmed by UCLA alumnus Philip Golden. Read more...