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It's incredible how much musical values can change depending on what genre a band gets classed under. Obviously retro styling is almost universally abhorred in pop unless such trappings are used to instill a sense of irony, while rock tends to revere them. In punk,...

It’s a special moment in one’s life when a band “changes the game” for a listener. By “changing the game,” of course, I mean opening their ears to a new genre. Drag The River did this for me and country music approximately eight...

It has been said several times over that the best way to interview Mike Watt is ostensibly introduce yourself, ask your first question and let the tape run. The bassist doesn't so much 'interview' as 'spiel' everything one could possibly need to...

It has been said just often enough at this point that it could be taken as gospel: “Necessity is the mother of invention” but no one truly revels in that sentiment more than Mike Watt. First as the bass player for The Minutemen and then as the bassist in fIREHOSE,...

Jim Morrison once said that some of the best songs (and many of those that The Doors wrote) focused on the themes of love, death and travel – or a combination of the three. When one stops to think about it, there is a grain of truth in the notion; love and death...

As much as common wisdom might dictate that the best way for a pop star to rejuvenate his or her career is by re-inventing or recasting themselves in a different light or with a different focus, such traditions still don't explain David Bowie. Since first appearing...

It's been thirty-one years since the band broke into the mainstream and thirty four years since Debbie Harry walked out of Max's Kansas City  and onto the stage at CBGBs and in that time enough static mythology and reductive history has been written that...

It's been a pretty incredible year for Patrick Watson. Just eight months ago, the singer exploded onto the international radar with the beautifully abstract and orchestral Wooden Arms and when it hit, the rollercoaster ride started. Kudos flew fast and furiously,...

It was apparent to anyone listening that, as they balanced some stock smart-assed songs with some more singer/songwriter-ly and personal fare on Coaster, a change was in the air for NoFX. No longer content to just play court jesters in the punk arena, “Fat”...

Does anyone else see the hilarity in the idea of first-wave punk bands reforming and performing greatest hits sets? On one hand, yes, it's a testament to the longevity of the music and proof positive that, as much as youth culture may have changed in the last...