Released in September 1991, Nirvana's sophomore album and major label debut elevated Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl from cult band to generational spokesmen who'd unwittingly assisted in creating a cultural shift. Rising to Number One the world over by year's end and ultimately selling over thirty million copies worldwide, Nevermind would come to be much more than one of the most successful and influential albums of all time; the album that returned unaffected rock n roll integrity and passion to...
The album has only been out for a few months now, but a mythos has already begun to develop around The Black Lips' Arabia Mountain. While bassist Jared Swilley already told Ground Control that some pretty wild shit went down in the recording studio, tales and rumors of producer Mark Ronson almost dying from eating liver sashimi, using a real human skull as a reverb mic, Sean Lennon and Q-Tip secretly played on the album and more have begun to...
As recently reported by NME , The Guardian , AOL Spinner , NY Press , and a host of other news agencies, Heineken was forced to remove an advert which features a cover of the Dead Kennedys' 'Too Drunk To Fuck' because of complaints it would encourage binge drinking. Heineken had used the song in a commercial tie-in to promote its beer in banner advertisements broadcast via the popular music website Spotify. Spotify had been running a series of banner advertisements, which...
I often overhear conversations, and see Facebook postings that mention how terrible modern music is, especially in comparison to the glory days of the early Nineties alt-rock explosion. While I do have fond memories of the last decade of the twentieth century and its music, I strongly disagree with this perspective. Thankfully, I have managed to refrain from angry wall postings or public outbursts about the inherent laziness of this perspective and would instead like to offer a gift to...
As complicated as the rhetoric has seemed to become since the dawn of the millennium, there are really only two kinds of punk band: those who make punk rock reliant upon sound and form, and those who are punk in ideal. The most visible camp has traditionally been the “sound and form” set – they wear the uniform, are the most outspoken and have the biggest personalities – but the ones who tend to have a little more endurance (read:...
How's tricks ya punks?Awright, I'm not exactly sure wha's been goin' on lately, but has anybody else noticed how many cover songs're bein' released these days? Wha happened? Did bands start fergettin' how ta write songs or somethin'? There ain't been'is many cover songs on reckids since da 1980s – I need'is explained ta me. It's like heroin wasn't good enough no more, so everybody's turnin' ta designer drugs. Ah well, it'least I foun' some good ones fo'ya dis week,...
Discussions with Shilpa Ray are a surreal experience; there is a very clear difference between her musical persona and personal demeanor. Both onstage and on-record, Ray just unloads on listeners with a booming and tormented but soulful bellow not unlike what one might expect to come out of Shirley Bassey if that singer were to down a fifth of whiskey before a show. That voice is genuinely imposing and, if all a listener knew of Ray was that sound, it...
Playing on what may have been the smallest stage he has ever stepped foot on in the city San Francisco, Ted Nugent brought his I Still Believe Tour to the Independent last week, and also brought with him enough energy, showmanship and guitars to command an arena-sized stage. Judging by the roar of the crowd, an arena-sized crowd may have shoe-horned itself into the venue. When the Nuge and his band finally hit the stage and immediately ripped into "Free...
In the decades since rock n' roll first took off, there are plenty of records which “should have been huge,” but just weren't. There are as many reasons why those records didn't become classics as there are albums that fall into this ill-fated 'heartbreaker' category but, really, it can all be boiled down to a couple of nagging variables: either A) The record in question simply didn't get enough exposure or into the outlets where it would have generated the...
Gimme yer shoulda fer a minute junkie, I'm tellin' ya, it's been a long fuckin' week, an' it's only Wednesday! Damn! Lettin' my sticky fingas do da walkin' is busy, tirin' work – 'epecially when I'm doin' it all fer you little sos-an'-sos. I might be run ragged, but I gotta good haul fer you reprobates'is week, 'at's fer sure. First off, I nabbed the new Blitzen Trapper tune fer yer thievin' pleasure. Their las' reckid was great – it...