Seventeen years ago, a global trust of disaffected youth found sanctuary in the aggressive rock of the Seventies (all genres included—hard rock, punk, metal and more) and the sounds of the early Eighties underground along with hardcore. Those with instruments...
Side projects undertaken by the members of established bands have always been funny things that, like it as not, have always been pretty easy o qualify when one looks at the players involved. The Breeders, for example, started out as a side project that afforded Pixies...
Times have changed at Epitaph Records. In the last few years, the label has seen the departure of several large-draw bands (including Pennywise, Rancid and Dropkick Murphys among others) and in their place have arrived less than punk-inclined names like Lyrics Born,...
When you're making a film whose premise seems strangely surreal and psychedelic (celebrity impersonators holed up in a mythical place), it seems only natural to have a soundtrack scored by a guy who has referred to himself as J. Spaceman in liner notes for quite...
Rock journalists have varied personal musical histories, and as far as I go, I have the worst. A.) My first concert was New Kids on the Block B.) My first vinyl was Chipmunks sing the Beatles and C.) My super Christian parents banned 95 percent of my record collection...
What can be said about Billy Bragg that hasn't been said since the singer first appeared thirty-three years ago? In that time, he's been revered in his native UK as a national treasure, he's had a celebrated solo career, and has also found time to sit in...
At some point, megalomania, ego and vanity eventually give way to genuinely bizarre, deviant behavior and with Soft Power, singer/songwriter/producer Gonzales has found – and crossed – that point. On first listen to Soft Power, the average modern rock...
Okay, here’s the history lesson for the totally clueless: John Lennon—along with The Beatles—didn’t so much revolutionize pop music as streamline it into a series of memorable ground rules that were easy for anyone to apply. They’re...
If superfluous memory serves me correct, I believe I lost my virginity listening to Scream, Dracula, Scream by Rocket From The Crypt. Thirteen years after the release of that monumental album, I found myself at the Mercury Lounge, near the famous Katz's Deli (where...