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The 2002 collection of Bill Griffith’s “Zippy the Pinhead” strip, Zippy Annual, (Fantagraphics) opens with a sequence that shows the cartoonist at his most playful. In it, a tearful retro comic strip femme – redolent of the kind of kitschy figures Griffy used to parody in his Young Lust underground …

We mentioned last week the formation of a new Webcaster Alliance. The organization has now issued a position paper in the form of a history of HR 5469: As the lame duck legislative session begins today, the webcasting community continues the fight to keep HR 5469 from passing in the …

Is this an emblematic confrontation or what? Broadway’s pit musicians fear that producers are prepared to pull the plug on them and plug in electronic replacements if the musicians’ union refuses to swallow cuts in the size of orchestras. The sides are preparing to negotiate a new contract, and producers …

John Borland writes on EMI’s accomodations to digital distribution of music: Record label EMI Group has significantly loosened the reins on how its music can be distributed on the Internet, striking a set of deals that expand what consumers can legally do with EMI tunes accessed via an online service. …

File-sharing is sucking up the bandwidth at universities. Art Jahnke is against it: a recap. When we last left the embattled recording industry, it had sent a letter to administrators at 2,300 colleges and universities, calling on them to crack down the downloading of copyrighted music and video files and …

As evidenced by his recent 2-Cd set Anthology, there was a time in the ’80s when Rick James could (musically) do no wrong: “You and I,” “Give It to Me Baby,” “Cold Blooded,” and of course “Super Freak” were the essence of melodic funk. But the one-time bandmate of Neil …

Joni Mitchell is resurfacing and previewing her new album via the web: For two weeks leading up to the release of Joni Mitchell’s new album, “Travelogue,” Nonesuch Records will be previewing one complete track a day from the album for 14 days as streamed audio over the internet. Beginning November …

Here’s a story. Knoxville singer/songwriter Michele Newton recorded some tunes raw, just her voice and guitar, with some friends as a club demo – you know: “I want to play here, this is what I sound like.” Lives go on – Newton got married, became a mom and dropped out …

I was looking forward with breathful anticipation (I stop breathing for no CD) to Paul Thorn’s new album, Mission Temple Fireworks Stand, Thorn’s take on the traveling Southern tent revival culture Thorn learned so well at the side of his preacher father. Alas, perhaps the charming and charismatic Thorn is …

When we were in Hawaii last summer we listened to a lot of Steely Dan, one of the few bands the whole family – from (at the time) 2 to 43 with a couple of teenagers thrown in the middle – could mutually appreciate. The teens dug the rocking guitar …