Berklee and Essence have teamed up again this year to bring the best young talent out to compete in the Hip Hop Songwriting Contest. If you are, or know, an eligible teen (unsigned and between 15 and 18) the time is nigh. Deadline for submission is March 9. It's all for a good cause, helping to balance the message in hip hop music and giving young songwriters a stage and training, not to mention......

Psychic Ills introduced themselves to T.T. the Bear's in Cambridge a few weeks ago with a tidal wave of guitar noise, immediately calling to mind the 4-piece set up of Sonic Youth, with two distorted guitars furiously flanking the stage. Periodic release into more structured songs recalled Sonic Youth playing both sides of the coin around “Silver Rocket” from Daydream Nation. The night would prove to be even more rewarding as a steady rhythm......

We live in an iTunes nation. It's easy to pull a track down to your pod for under a buck. Bostonist still longs for cover art, liner notes, and that masterwork that is a multi-track collection of songs we call an album. Listed here is our much discussed, unbiased by payola, top 25 albums of 2005. After the jump you'll find where some of us stand individually on the subject of the years best. (Apparently......