Anyone that has become familiar with Sloan since they first appeared seventeen years ago can tell you that they are a rare sort of band. When the Peppermint EP and the following full-length Smeared erupted in 1992, they revived the precedent previously upheld by such classic rock bands as The Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones that a band needn’t have only one chosen face or voice; while groups like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden had Kurt Cobain, Eddie...

If one were to chart the trajectory of AC/DC’s career path to date, it would suddenly become noticeable that it flows together about like a gear-head’s Cinderella story. Beginning in Australia, the brothers Young, along with Phil Rudd on drums and Mark Evans on bass turned over the ignition and immediately got the engine firing on all cylinders (High Voltage, T.N.T.) before dropping into gear and cruising to the line (the North American release of High Voltage was actually a...

The terms “classic” and “timeless,” as defined by Webster’s dictionary, are “A creation of the highest excellence” and “unaffected by time” respectively and, particularly in the context of pop music in general and the work of Jimi Hendrix in specific, get thrown around an awful lot. Because of that fact, both terms have been devalued (because they’re so over used – not necessarily because they’re used in the case of Hendrix’ catalog) so much that their meaning should...

By the time Mountain Goats front man John Darnielle put pen to paper and inked a deal with indie-rock institution 4AD in 2002, the band had already made a significant impression on the underground. Formed in 1991, Mountain Goats (though the only consistent member in all that time has been Darnielle) had already released no less than thirteen full-length albums since 1995 (numbers vary, of course, because of the vortex around which the indie-verse revolves; eventually records fade into obscurity...

By the time Mountain Goats front man John Darnielle put pen to paper and inked a deal with indie-rock institution 4AD in 2002, the band had already made a significant impression on the underground. Formed in 1991, Mountain Goats (though the only consistent member in all that time has been Darnielle) had already released no less than thirteen full-length albums since 1995 (numbers vary, of course, because of the vortex around which the indie-verse revolves; eventually records fade into obscurity...