It's funny how revisionist in nature history can be. Whether intentional or not, some things just fall and disappear into the cracks because other events that happened around the same time were just bigger. Because of that, some minor details  get glossed over for the sake of continuity and making a good story flow. A perfect example of such historical revisionism exists in the early years of California punk's development, but one will only notice if the historical time-line of...

After a rousing response at the announcement of their return to active duty earlier this year, Primus closed out the annum with a two-night stand (December 30 and 31) at Fox Theater in Oakland, Ca. The first night (photographed here) saw the band performing its' seminal Sailing The Seas Of Cheese album in its' entirety and, while the lighting left a bit to be desired for photography, the sound was spectacular. Those who caught either show were in luck because,...

Who says getting drunk is tantamount to acting irresponsibly? The Johnstones posted the video for their newest single, "Let's Get Fucked Up" both on their web site and on youtube as of midnight this morning. According to the brief description submitted by singer Ryan Long, "The Johnstones found a way to waste thousands of dollars when making the music video for their new single. From the Camera Crew to the Extra's everybody involved was smashed." Needless to say, the band...

By now, the lives of most of those who were swept up in the holiday storm have to be reverting to some semblance of normalcy. “The most wonderful (and wildly stressful) time of the year” is over – and now we're left at the dawn of the new year to survey our new-found wealth. So how'd you make out? Did you get everything you wanted? Whether you did or whether you didn't, there are still a few loose ends left...

Classic Rock was born in 1965, with the release of The Beatles' Rubber Soul and Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home. It experienced its' peak over the next ten years before experiencing an inevitable decline, and eventually petering out by around 1975 or so. That makes Classic Rock – the art form, not the individual artists – between thirty-five and forty-five years old; prime time for a mid-life crisis. If you take a good look around, the signs of...

It doesn't happen often in this day and age where undue focus is placed on “the great musical/audiological novelty,” but there was once a time when the simple craft and care put into a collection of songs was enough to get an album over with listeners. That nature of great songwriting being enough of a hook to win fans was what made performers like Paul Simon and Neil Young superstars in the Seventies, and their songbooks have gone on to...

By the time of his passing in 2009, Michael Jackson's life had become public property – utterly and completely. There was shockingly little that happened in the singer's world that even passing fans or curiosity seekers didn't know about; the singer had become more a mass media and tabloid commodity and payday than a singer. That perception is so all-consuming that, now, it actually takes a second to remember that Michael Jackson was “The King Of Pop” – not just...

Hardcore punk has mutated into a multitude of monsters since the music first careened inland from both U.S. coasts thirty years ago. The initial germination of the genre was simple; bands like Black Flag, The Minutemen and The Descendents (to name only a few) appeared seemingly from nowhere on the southern West Coast while Agnostic Front leached out of New York and Minor Threat crashed out of Washington D.C., and both factions began making inroads (or trying to) toward the...

Some may argue this (including very possibly the singer himself), but Leonard Cohen has truly established himself as a musical treasure during his 45-year tenure as a performing artist. His is not the biggest or most senses-shattering name to grace a marquis, but that is at least due in part to how his fans treat him on the road; the shows are whispered of in awe, not bellowed about from mountaintops because such a jarring noise as that would very...

Sometimes the only thing a stagnated artist needs to do in order to be reborn is take a walk through the stacks at his local record store and keep his ears open, searching for new inspiration pressed into old vinyl. It might be a beat that gets the ball rolling, or a lick or a mood or a melody and it might even be found on a record he's heard one hundred times before but simply never noticed before but,...