Being Brazilian musical royalty seems pretty cool. Besides the benefits of being rich, you get to grow up with incredible musicians hanging out with your fam all the time, jet-set around the world, and live off the goodwill of millions. Then you can start your own career as a musical icon. Bebel Gilberto lives this life. Bebel is the daughter of singer-composer-guitarist João Gilberto, who is generally credited with creating the bossa nova genre, and singer-composer Miúcha, another star of that world. She grew up in New York, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro, like most of us. Not surprisingly, her parents … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Bebel Gilberto -Electro Bossa Nova Is Actually Pretty Great

Here they are, creators of the Avocado’s “Best” “One-Hit Wonder” song. Continue reading Get The Groove In Your Heart — Deee-Lite Artist Spotlight

“It seems to be OK for musicians to act, but it doesn’t seem OK for actors to play music.” — Rob Mailhouse, Dogstar Is Dogstar a celebrity vanity project? Or is it a legitimate musical act, hampered by the celebrity of its bass player? After all, that’s Keanu Reeves, a.k.a. Ted, a.k.a. Neo, a.k.a. John Wick, a.k.a. Keanu Reeves’s character from Speed. The answer, in no way surprising to those of us who appreciate life’s gray areas, is that it’s a little bit of both. Per last week’s Dare Me to Write a Terrible Artist Spotlight challenge, here is Dogstar. The band got … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Dogstar – Not That Terrible After All

Bill Irwin is a perhaps unique multi-hyphenate in an entertainment field full of people who claim to do multiple things. Sure, plenty of actors have co-written scripts or directed an episode of a TV show, but how many of them worked as professional circus clowns? Or followed up a MacArthur fellowship with a long-running stint on Sesame Street, in turn followed by blockbusters like Interstellaror juggernaut TV shows like Law & Order: SVU? I’m going to lead you through this story of Bill Irwin on the same path by which I came to “discover” and respect him as an actor and performer. It … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Bill Irwin – Robot Clown Tony Winner

This dude was a whistler. As in, he whistled. As a job. For money. And he was basically the best at it. You may have heard his whistling before:       That last one is not the original movie version. It’s a cover version that topped the US and UK charts in 1968. You might also have Marcellino’s whistling here: The birds are him. The bird calls. That’s him. Whistling. Whistling wasn’t Marcellino’s first foray into music, but it was his most interesting. You ever seen a record cover like this one before? https://s-media-cache-ak0.p… Like I said, there was … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Muzzy Marcellino