Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know whatcher sayin'. Yer sayin', “Whaddaya talkin' about Don? We just did the twenty-first birthday gimmick naw-so-long-ago! Now yr singin' happy birthday again at twenty-five? Either time flies or yer workin' on a different calendar from the rest of us, dude.” Yeah, well whaddaya want chump? I do dis column once a week so it's gonna age at an accelerated curve awright? Whaddaya complainin' for anyway? It jus' means ya get more free loot don'cha? An'...
ZZ Top brought their 2010 World Tour to the Shoreline Amphitheater a couple weeks ago and, with direct support from the Eagles Of Death Metal, the band packed the house while delivering the songs from their back catalog that have made them a huge draw for nearly thirty years. ZZ Top have a handful of dates left in the US before hitting Europe, while the Eagles Of Death Metal will play the Voodoo Experience Festival in New Orleans on October...
Just the concept of this album makes my head spin. David Byrne and Fatboy Slim collaborate on a pop opera about the life of Imelda Marcos? The result is as surprising and as interesting as that concept, but not necessarily what one would expect. Musically, this album doesn't sound much like the previous work of either artist. There are moments that remind the listener of one or the other, but the sound is more straight pop than either normally produces....
After selling over thirty million records worldwide and selling out the Tokyo Dome a record-breaking eighteen times, Japan's answer to Guns N' Roses, X Japan, have finally decided to tour America, and will be hitting seven cities in North America starting September 25th. "We feel like a new band now, like we are going back to the beginning," said X Japan's leader/drummer/pianist/composer Yoshiki recently about the upcoming U.S. concerts, "and it's very, very exciting. We are looking forward to playing...
Oh, how times have changed for The Moaners since they first started out. When Melissa Swingle and Laura King first appeared in the earliest weeks of 2005 with Dark Snack, they almost seemed to come on the scene like the underground's answer to grunge and The Black Keys all at the same time; Swingle's guitar threatened to break loose from the singer's control at any moment while King's drums ran damage control and attempted to contain the mania. The sound...
Common sense dictates that the only way to move forward confidently through life is to know and take notes from the past. Think about it – those who live only in the present subscribing to Henry Ford's proposition that history is “bunk” run the very real danger of repeating the past mistakes of others. In the arts community, some folks are lucky enough to avoid the pitfalls that come along with making new work (music is just one example) in...
Someone wise once said that “Change is growth and growth is life” and, as unfashionable as it might be to admit, it's as true for entertainers as it is for everyone else – particularly given that the current pop culture climate has seemed (in some cases) to pare Andy Warhol's fifteen-minute time-frame for fame down to a matter of microseconds. Particularly in the case of pop music now, most bands are left in the uncomfortable position of having to prove...
"The drive was pretty long – it was a ten-hour drive – and when we were getting our shit together to go a couple of days ago, we noticed that our van had this massive oil leak but we went and did the first two shows and got it fixed today,” explains a mildly tired Chris Cresswell as he sits down backstage with his dinner at The Flatliners' tour stop in Kitchener, Ontario. “This tour with Against Me! started the...
Awright you so-an'-sos, I ain't gotta lotta time today, so I'll keep this short. "Why haven't you got much time today, Don?" yer askin', but we both know I didn't say it that way. Anyway, I got a bit of a concern brewin' 'cause I know ya wanna know, an' trust me – if it comes together, the ones that win in the end will be you, my loyal fans an' junkies. I can't talk about that right now though,...
After starting strong and hard three years ago with their self-titled debut, Grinderman discovered to their surprise that they had a sizable audience hungry for the dark, lecherous blues they were peddling. At the time, the response to the band far exceeded expectation because, to be perfectly honest, there was no expectation at all; the band slapped the songs together and recorded them warts (and stream of debauchery lyric sheets) and all to blow off steam, but listeners lined up...