Muhsinah's sound is refreshingly hard to categorize. It's at once ethereal and electric; otherworldly and organic. Undulating basslines collide with crackly handclaps, fuzzy, disjointed drums and Muhsinah's woozy vocals. As an accomplished pianist and producer, she knows her way around both an MPC and a baby grand. The woman behind the music comes off as rather straightforward: very sweet and very determined. Muhsinah (pronounced Moo-SEE-Nah) is Arabic for "doer of good...

6:45: No more early start. Checking out Chin Chin at Max Fish . They're rocking like they're at Madison Square Garden and I'm going temporarily deaf. However, I'm too proud to put in the neon yellow ear buds that came in my swag bag. 8:20: I notice Nikka Costa head-boppin' at the end of their set. 8:25: Go to Stones...

This coming Monday November 3rd, Giant Step bids the Hudson series a grand farewell for 2008 with NY House and Latin music veteran Louie Vega. If you've joined us for any of the 19 previous Hudson parties, you know what to do: RSVP here and bring your dancing shoes. On November 6th, Giant Step and The Florida Room proudly present a special performance by Anané and a DJ set from the Grammy Award-winning, world famous Louie Vega. Along...

5 PM: Pick up my CMJ badge and then sit around for another hour waiting for my photographer and tossing out the wad of flyers they give you in the "swag" bag. He tells me a lie about being 40 minutes late. I know it's a lie because it's the type of sad excuse I often make because I'm always late. I pick up tons of free cds chock full of children I've never, ever heard of. 6:45: I finally meet my photog and we go to the CMJ media mixer which ends...

Recently, I've been making some fun social gaffes that I thought you would enjoy. I must have spent the past few months with my head up my butt because I completely missed that TV on the Radio was playing three shows at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple . I absentmindedly texted a friend close to the source about 3 hours before the show for tickets. Due to my tardiness, I expected him to type back "LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL" or...

According to his MySpace bio, people in Spokane, Washington think James Pants' music is "mystical and enchanting." No foolin.' Now, I've been to Washington and there is little more than strip malls and clouds. Maybe that's why Pants has spent a lot of his existence fiddling with sounds from damn near every musical genre ever conceived. His music is a mix of velvety sonic textures and tinny, clangy noise plucked from choice 20th century eras such as the swinging '60s and...

Photo from Pete Rock at Hudson (c) Bartek Radwan The most authentic thing about Sex and the City is all the bitchy conversations New Yorkers have about relationships. Every single time I venture out for dranky dranks, the talk always turns to how batty single people are and how dating in New York is like lighting your head on fire. There's the girl whose ex-boyfriend used to beg her to go to crappy parties and then ignore her while he danced with other girls....

“Amplify is a big stew of a lot of different influences and sounds and grooves,” says JBB drummer and co-founder Tommy Benedetti. “I think reggae applies to us in the way that we definitely draw from drum and bass. That’s always the foundation of what we start with. We also tried to step outside of the normal reggae grooves‚ sounds‚ lyrics and topics on this one, and what goes on top wound up being very progressive and current." The new album, which also climbs to #10 on the CMJ World...

Photo of Jazmine Sullivan at STEVEN (c) Donna Ward When I'm not camping out in craptastic bars in the LES or at a concert furiously scratching notes like a geekazoid, I daydream about the most fantastical situations. Maybe one day I'm making Smores with Amy Winehouse . Maybe I'm taking a magic carpet ride with Diddy. Maybe I'm shaving Common's head. Or maybe, just maybe, I'm in the Midwest having the...

Forthcoming on Hear Music, Anjulie's Boom EP promises to make waves, and her song "Crazy That Way" already #3 on the MTV soundtrack section. Originally from Toronto, the LA-based 26 year old singer and songwriter's debut album is an eclectic mix from a Nancy Sinatra-esque '60s vibe to flamenco-flavored urban gems. Her Boom EP is out November 11th. You can listen to "Crazy That Way" here .