As much as I kind of loathe Pitchfork, I do have to give credit to those clowns for jumping on the summer-festival bandwagon. Hell, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the likes of Coachella or Sasquatch, it’s that there’s an assload of trust-fund “indie” kids who just aren’t living unless they’re dehydrated in a gorge somewhere.

As social media continually grows into the greatest mover-shaker in the world of culture, more venues are trying to attract tech-savvy folks who want to talk about their experiences in real time. 

What follows is a track-by-track breakdown of Book of Shadows, the newest release from Santa Fe-via-Austin musician Daniel Link.

That greatest of music-sharing haters, Lars Ulrich, is breaking into the world of acting (gross). Appearing as documentarian Joris Ivens in the upcoming HBO movie Hemingway & Gellhorn, Ulrich’s transition totally freaks me out. But it does, however, get me thinking about what kinds of roles I’d like to see some of my favorite local musicians tackle.

When you receive a copy of a CD along with a letter that reads, “What does a girl have to do in this town to get her CD reviewed?”, you laugh for just a little bit and then get down to reviewing.&

Maybe you’re a musician and maybe you think you’re one. Here’s a surefire way to find out if you’ve got the right stuff to become a celebrated member of the elite Santa Fe scene.

When I was just a kid growing up in Los Angeles, my mother played a wide array of records for my brother and me, but the musician who brings me back to those glory days is—wait for it—Taj Mahal. My mother played 1976’s Satisfied ’N’ Tickled Too so often that, even after years of not hearing it, songs like “Black Man, Brown Man” and “Satisfied ’N’ Tickled Too” are firmly lodged in my brain with nearly the same sense of necessity as things like breathing.

Sixty-four-years old isn’t exactly elderly, and I had seen David Lescht around town on many recent occasions, so the news of his death late last week was hard for me to fathom.

As bands like Chango will tell you, choosing the right tune to cover is critical. It’s pretty easy to look like a fool when you choose to cover some crap nobody’s ever heard of or a song that’s beyond your means. On some occasions, however, covers outshine the original material.