To this day – twenty years after the album's original release – it's astounding how badly Nirvana sought to challenge their fans with In Utero. When Nevermind was released in 1991, Nirvana found itself landing in the right place at the right time with the right sound and the right set of songs and listeners rushed to the group en masse; the movement was so dramatic, it ended up totally the conventions of pop music in the process. Suddenly guitar-driven...

Nevermind David Bowie, Elvis Costello is the true chameleon of rock. His own style has evolved from angry punk through sophisticated pop to his current reworkings of roots Americana styles. Along the way, he has had no fear about trying out genres not only unlike his own, but often on the far side of the musical spectrum. As early as Almost Blue, his 1981 album of country covers, Costello has proved he can shift genres without missing a beat (pun...

I do not approach music as a musician, or a music historian or critic. I am a listener. I am a fan. With that on the record, when I was offered an advance listen to Seasons Of Your Day by Mazzy Star recently, I couldn’t resist the chance to say a few words about the experience. This is my summary of the highlights I heard in the album, track-by-track. “In the Kingdom” – Beautiful organs and that beautiful voice of...

Say what you want about Matt Good's personal politics and attitude, no singer is more capable of making the small and even inconsequential events in life seem like the most fantastic (and sometimes even life-affirming) observations like he is. When he gets it right, Good is the unheralded patron saint of catharsis and can win the undying adulation of fans who will then wait years and through the innumerable “passably okay” albums which are released in between the great ones;...

Some readers will remember that moment in the 1970s when disco was on its way out (around 1977) but still hadn't given up the ghost quite yet. Pop was in a transition period (again) where rock was reasserting its dominance (hard rock and punk rock were both on the way to mainstream exposure), but it still had to battle down the last remains of disco's glitz and glamor and so the foot soldiers sent in on the first wave were…...

Whatever lit the fire under John Garcia, Nick Oliveri and Brant Bjork and caused them to make Peace is anyone's guess (Josh Homme issuing a cease and desist order preventing the group from using the Kyuss Lives moniker might have had something to do with it), but there's no way to argue with the results: Peace is the best album by any of the three musicians involved in years. It is stoned, lean desert rock at its best and absolutely...

Listening to Krewella's debut full-length album, one has to marvel at how diverse the sonic palette for dance song composition has become. At one time, the average dance song was so simple; there were a finite number of digital sounds to employ, and technology was limited. Now though, new sounds, new technology and new ideas are appearing daily, and composers/producers are also finding ways to re-purpose “old” stuff too. To get an idea of just how far dance music has...

Every now and then, it's possible to encounter a band which has not only created a unique sound, but carved out an unmistakable identity. A band which provides an experience unlike any other you will find. Jail Weddings is such a band. Gabriel Hart, formerly of The Starvations, formed the band in 2006 in order to take his music into very personal, unexplored territory. Jail Weddings have just released Meltdown: A Declaration of Unpopular Emotion, their second full length album,...

Hey Junky,Haya doin' outt'ere, ya no accounts? I'm feelin' great – I had a good week… LIBERATING… a buncha new tune fer youse ta taste test. I gotcha some punk an' some rootsy stuff, an' even a little tasty poison thitcha jus' can't qualify. I's all good though! Like checkitout junky, I scoredja a tune from that band Mixtapes. I know ol' fi'dollar Billy's probably overdosin' onnat band still (when he gets hooked, he don' mess aroun') but dis tune's...

I must confess that I've never been much of an Arctic Monkeys fan. The band came along at the height of a period when hipsters were chasing every garage rock band they saw and calling them the next saviors of rock n' roll (this happened to Arctic Monkeys, Gomez, Wolfmother, Raconteurs, Butch Walker and many more – ALL IN 2006 ALONE), and I wasn't interested in believing the hype. The push behind the band continued to just be so crass...