James may never exactly be forgiven in the minds of some listeners for getting “Laid” on the radio in 1993, and the band guaranteed they'd have a tough row to hoe when they allowed that same song to be the last thing people heard after watching a teenager defile a pie on the silver screen but, seventeen years after the first event and eleven after the second, the band at least deserves credit for surviving the stigma they called upon...

Since the band first knocked fans for a loop in 1996 and released the abysmally received Pinkerton (okay, the album's stature has improved over time, but it was considered their folly upon release), Weezer has upheld a tradition of putting out a blockbuster record (usually referred to simply by the dominant color on the cover) and then following it with a slightly less satisfying (for fans) return. It's shocking when one really thinks about it, but the band's catalogue really...

"Growth,” in the sense that musicians can change over time, can be a remarkably dicey proposition. That isn't to say that change in music is abhorrent – unless you're a member of AC/DC, it's impossible to justify making the same record several times over – but the gamble that comes with any artist's indulgence in change is that they also have to hope their fans will bear with them; musicians have to hope that, however they choose to augment their...

Alright there ya filthy animals,So how's things in your life? Feelin' pretty good feelin' pretty fine? Howzat itch on ya? Me? I'm ridin' a caffeine jag of Dave Grohl proportions – I mean I'm FLYIN' baby! And do ya know why? I been pillagin' and pilferin' my weaselly black guts out to find a new bag o' fresh, mountain-grown SWAG to lay on ya. Nobody works harder for ya than I do baby! So what'd I find for ya? All...

How is a “music scene” born or the name of a “geographic sound” coined? Really think about that; in some charmed moment, a few bands which are basically unrelated but happen to live in a reasonably close geographic proximity to each other all happen to put out records that, by coincidence, have a few common sonic traits and, again by coincidence, all happen to strike a chord within the record-buying public. Presto! In the eyes of the rest of the...

While the genre already boasted a large and very enthusiastic fan base at the time, there weren't many fans who wouldn't begrudgingly admit that punk rock had been played by 1998. By then, the genre was already steeped in around three decades' worth of history (give or take, depending on what a listener calls the “first” punk record) and had already undergone several stylistic overhauls and modifications; The Stooges lit the fuse before Patti Smith, The Ramones and The Clash...

There's a certain irony in the fact that, in recent years, the musical genre least toyed and tampered with, rearranged or otherwise altered and mutated has been pop. Seriously – pop has historically been the most conventionally accessible of any music but, now, the kid gloves immediately go on to ensure that pop tarts reign unchallenged at the top of the media exposure food chain. The upside to that for those who aren't huge on what is generically known as...

The psychology behind a musician's “second time around” band is always a capricious beast. When a player (or singer) who already cut his teeth or made his name in another band that enjoyed some fame strikes out on his own, he's left with a choice of how he wants to approach his music: he can hedge his bets and play off the strengths he established in the public eye before, or he can try and throw some distance between himself...

Where does the line between 'art' and 'farce' get drawn? That might sound like a cynical or priggish question, but it becomes perfectly valid when one considers the idea of side project endeavors made by the members of an established band. The question is further legitimized when the number of side project releases exceeds the number of proper full-length albums that a band has released, and even further still when members previously relegated to the position of “sidemen” follow suit...

It sounds contrary to contend this, but some musical mixtures are more easily imagined than executed and, most often, the simplest and most straightforward combinations are the most troublesome to successfully carry off. A perfect example of an idea that seems simple in theory but proves not to be so simple in practice is the mixture of rock, punk and soul. Sure – lots of bands have tried to make such a mix work, and occasionally they're able to pull...