The popular theory is that Brian Wilson was the creative drive behind The Beach Boys and it’s true; Brian is the face of the band and his story is the one that most people regard as the definitive one for the rise and fall of the band that popularized the surf...
What a piece of work is Billy Idol. In the late Seventies, there was no arguing that the punk band he fronted, Generation X, was at the bottom of the British punk pile that managed to make it across the ocean. Idol was the embodiment of what Iggy Pop called the...
Sometimes when a producer begins to get legs under him and gets known as an “it” producer, anyone paying attention knows that the paths of the individual in question and a particular musician will cross. It’s a foregone conclusion; they’re...
In 2006, Bound Stems proved to the world that they are more than capable of writing great songs, which they did quite well on their debut LP Appreciation Night. But the soon-to-be-released follow up, The Family Afloat, exists at a different level entirely. Their debut...
There are few things more logistically difficult to sort out than the way that Broken Social Scene works. There’s no reason for that really, other than the fact that there are so many songwriters in the band—so many heads—that it makes bands like The...
Oh shit! It’s a triple! Hey kids, Today’s viewing is for a little band called Thunderheist. The only reason you could say that this band is little is from them not being on Wikipedia or iTunes, yet their music and lyrical abilities put their stuff at the...
Doesn’t anyone else marvel at how rare it has become to find a band brave enough to be creative without obsessively keeping an eye on their bottom line at the same time? It has become so rare, in fact, that sometimes when a band first starts, it’s difficult...
No matter what type of music you like, it seems like someone’s got something to say. Whether it be about social injustice, political injustice, loss of freedom or a condition that the artist in question deems important, there’s a punk, a rocker, an emcee, a...
Southern California has this way of dulling the senses, especially during early July. A toxic mixture of apathy, gloom and Sublime cause most of us to forget that So-Cal music isn’t necessarily meant to be enjoyed with a Corona and a blunt. This is especially...
Maybe it’s because the island’s surface area is so small – making a high population density and so very easy to hear and be influenced by the same things – or maybe it’s because any given band’s music has to travel such a great...