I had this totally sweet dream the other night: Standing in a room surrounded by local musicians, I had the task of forming a superstar band via the same process through which we formed kickball teams in grade school or that hipsters did yesterday. I woke wondering whom I would invite to join my local dream band.

When The Candyman, Santa Fe’s self-described “community music center”, stopped selling albums to focus solely on “strings and things,” the days of buying albums in brick-and-mortar stores seemed all but lost.

Once you’ve read the complete list of Halloween activities elsewhere, come back here for SFR’s wrap up on the scariest, dopest, sickest, famliest, fundraisiest Halloween to-boos!

Last weekend, I went to a wedding in Seattle. While there, I hit up the Nevermind Turns 20 Nirvana exhibit at Seattle’s EMP Museum. However you feel about the band, you can’t deny the massive influence Nirvana has had on music, so here’s a rundown some of my Cobain-based memories in honor of the 20th anniversary of Nevermind, the band’s breakout album.

If you’re like me, Vanessie conjures images of overpriced steaks and a stuffy, pseudo cabaret. Indeed, for 29 years, it has played host to a smattering of pianists who perform what we in the biz refer to as “background music.” The downtown restaurant’s new entertainment and marketing director, RJ Laino, hopes to alter those very perceptions while opening the space’s schedule to attract a wider audience.

Metal outfit The Sword has been hastily judged and genrified as “hipster” or “throwback” metal. Certainly, the band’s most recent effort, Warp Riders (2010) is a departure from the earlier releases, Age of Winters (2006) and Gods of the Earth (2008), but the change is by no means a bad thing.

Local artist and musician C Merlyn (real name: Kit Evans) has a few choice words about rap and hip-hop in Santa Fe. “The rap scene—if you can even call it that—is plain pitiful,” Merlyn says.

When I was about 8 years old, my parents and I took a walk through Old Town in Pasadena, Calif.

In my mind, blues music really begins to suffer when the electric guitar is introduced.

James Reich is the epitome of the 21st-century Renaissance man. Best known for being half of top-notch local post-punk band Venus Bogardus, Reich recently became a published novelist (I, Judas comes out in October) and is an adjunct literature professor at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.