The checkered past of Monster Movie could naturally lead one to figure that their latest album, Everyone Is a Ghost, was a weekend-project lark. For their first release in five years, it happens that the duo has produced a pop collection that’s engaging enough to tick off those who sweat with greater regularity over their craft.

It’s supremely odd to hear movie stars singing their own soundtrack material, especially since the characters they’re playing are actual musicians. The main attraction to the soundtrack from the Kristen Stewart/Dakota Fanning portrayal of ‘70s all-girl rock band, The Runaways, is not the period punk music included (fine tracks by David Bowie, MC5, The Stooges, and Sex Pistols). It’s the fact that Fanning and Stewart actually sing four of The Runaways tunes on the soundtrack.

With her 1974 self-titled album, Essra Mohawk was recording with her third label in five years (Asylum) and hoping to see a change in fortunes and a bit of recognition.

Had a few key elements of Essra Mohawk’s career worked out only a bit differently, her footprint on ‘70s music might have gone a bit deeper. Her 1969 debut album, Sandy’s Album Is Here At Last! (under the name Sandy Hurvitz), was hindered by botched production. Later that year she arrived too late at the heliport to be transported in time for her scheduled performance at the Woodstock festival.

Kicking off a career with a sabotaged debut album would most likely be the professional undoing of most artists. Sandy Hurvitz, better known today as Essra Mohawk, obviously subscribed to the “That which does not kill me…” dictum as she began her ill-fated life in music.

I adore the opera. The larger-than-life voices, the pageantry, the over-the-top storylines all-pointing to a singular theme (eat, drink and sing arias…for tomorrow you’ll definitely die)—it’s tough to beat. Which is why listening to the soundtrack version of The Knife‘s (in association with Planningtorock and Mr. Sims) first opera, Charles Darwin homage Tomorrow, In a Year, is such a frustrating experience.

Somewhere deep in the untamed wilds of MySpace, producers Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley discovered Evelyn Evelyn Neville—a pair of conjoined twins sharing three legs, two arms, three lungs, two hearts, and a single liver. Isolated in a hotel in Walla Walla Washington, the girls developed their obsession with The Andrews Sisters and Joy Divison into a series of lovingly executed ukulele covers. Or so the story goes.

Even if The Who are the only non-prog rock band that ever really pulled off what could truly be called concept albums, it’s been entertaining over the years hearing musicians hang songs around a theme. Usually. With The Monitor, Titus Andronicus co-opts the Civil War for use as a metaphor in a group of songs about someone who leaves New Jersey for Boston and is unhappy with his decision.

2001. Boy bands continued to reign, and music fans, for the most part, still bought physical CDs at some store called Best Buy (you might have heard of it). So naturally, when Gorillaz’s self-titled debut was released that year, there was something incredibly refreshing about it.