The Haute Critique

For years, My Morning Jacket has been at the forefront of the chronically blazing jam band genre. They have released a live double album and played a late night Bonaroo set that strove to reach tomorrow’s dawn. With such strong herbal credibility, their new album, Circuital, along with anything else they release, should be of [...]

Following in the footsteps (a little too closely at times) of the great Hip Hop storytelling heavyweights and fellow NY natives Slick Rick and Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z the Renegade has been obsessed with being the Ruler since before he could write. To the core, the streets of Brooklyn trained Jigga to be a hustler, meaning [...]

— The Haute Critique would like to welcome a new contributor, XT Force. XT Force is a culturally obsessed author whose work has appeared in numerous print and online publications. His warped outlook has given him a perspective that is unique among contemporaries. Currently, he meanders much of the east coast. — Lined up outside [...]

The John Hughes Mixtape I don’t consider my self a child of the 80’s, but I was a child in the 80’s. One of the biggest distinctions is my experience with John Hughes movies. Reading through his numerous tributes and obituaries I realized I never saw one of his films in a theater, but I [...]

Last weekend THC was out at the club. The DJ was lily white, like the dance floor. He set it up and let the records spin. The first three tracks set the mood. Nickel Bags of Funk, I Love You Mary Jane and Snoop. Rolling off the G thang, it went a bit stale. It [...]

In honor of Comic-Con, this week’s Pack and Play is Phonogramed in. In the follow up to their hip shaking music lover’s wet dream of a comic book, Rue Britannia, (click here to read the first issue) they are currently tapping out The Singles Club. Every issue is set in the same club on the [...]

The clock struck 12 as I dropped the needle on The Dead Weather’s Horehound. Traveling down the devil’s highway, I pulled out my cell. It said this call would be roaming because I was in area code (420). I look over at the passenger seat and there she is, my honky tonk partner in crime. [...]

This week Pack and Play gets in touch with our.. er… well, a feminine side. More precisely, a look to the British isles at a few women making music right now. It turns out there may be more to British women than Bridget Jones and Kate Moss. The British invasion took the Elvis’s hips and [...]

This week it is going to get a bit heavy, but sometimes heavy is good. To go along with each track, I wrote a short blurb as a companion. When you are ready, press play and read along. Take a break and wait for the song to finish before moving down to the next entry. [...]

Sometimes artists slip through the cracks. Detroit in the late 60’s was a boom town for music. Motown had affirmatively earned the title of Hitsville, and the burgeoning rock scene (The Stooges, MC5, Ted Nugent) was in its most raw and primordial. One side, the Goliath of African American culture and the other a nebula [...]