Anyone familiar with the history of musicians who try to make the transition from a punk label (like Epitaph or Fat Wreck Chords, for example) to a major conglomerate will understand why both Frank Turner's fans and the singer's critics are looking so awfully...
As much as punk rock has polished up its image in recent years and no matter how many punk rockers aspire to be “artists” now in the twenty-first century, punk rock music still lives, breathes and thrives best in clubs in front of a live audience. Some...
In the early twentieth century, a few very bold writers (including Earnest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald) attempted to illustrate in their writing that there is no hell worse than the drudgery of modern life. It's easy to understand why those writers were...
These days, every musician over a certain age (and some well under it) seems to be writing their memoirs. But, if you're a musician, why write them? Why not sing them? James Cotton, a blues harp player who has been recording for over fifty years, has done just that...
There is a recurring debate in the art world, especially in art criticism, about how important biography is to understanding a piece of artwork. Does knowing that Fitzgerald was unwilling to propose to Zelda until he felt financially secure help us understand The Great...
Awright, a moment o' silence is in order junky, so bow yer head, I came back early ta pay some respect ta a reckid store thit closed in my neighbahood, Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies Record Shop. Everybody will tell you dat it wis a dump cause it was; it wis...
As of this writing, it will have been about forty years since Iggy and The Stooges released their seminal album, Raw Power. More specifically, it has been 14685 days since Iggy and The Stooges' first album ("first" in that it featured guitarist James...
As one scans back through the last twenty-five years, it becomes pretty easy to see that one of the best producers of new label signing/ new music compilations has been Sub Pop Records. To be fair, the label comps that Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords used to put out were...
Remember back in high school when all the kids who could play instruments eventually began to break down into smaller subsets with the idea of starting bands together? If you looked around, you'd see four guys who all happened to like Neil Young congregate at the...
If one really looks at the Cold War Kids' history of releases, it's possible to see that a massive screw-up of an album was inevitable, the way the band was working. When the band started in 2006, they made an impressive mark with Robbers & Cowards, and had...