At this point, doesn't every fan of any given punk band get a little chill when they hear that said band picked up acoustic guitars for a set one night? Ten years ago, it might have been a thrilling change, but now punk 'going acoustic' just seems to mean that whichever band has done it had to fill time while they came up with some new ideas for a proper release. Some naysayers could easily make such a claim of...

The beauty of pastiche music-making is that, while two listeners might like what a particular band is laying down – they may even become diehard super-fans – it could be for completely separate reasons. It's a remarkable phenomenon, certainly, and definitely one that The Constellations are likely to find; from the opening buzz of “Setback,” singer Elijah Jones and company lay out a full and tantalizing smorgasbord of sounds including Top 40 Pop, R&B, trip hop, rock, soul and electroclash...

In the grand scheme of rock n' roll history, there are a couple of records that many delineate a listener's taste in music and a significant number of them rest in the catalogues of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. For The Beatles, the biggest of big splashes were Sgt. Pepper and “The White Album” but, on the flip-side of that coin and handily balancing it is one record: Exile On Main Street. The releases of those records each had...

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Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the groups listed here are bad bands. They're not. They're all great bands. They each have at least one classic album in their catalog. I'm just saying they're not as great as people have made them out to be. NIRVANA.
Any band whose reputation as one of the greats rests on a single album is, by definition, overrated. It takes a full body of work to deserve that status. Yes, I know they put...

It gets said a lot, but does time really heal all wounds? Over the last two years, it seems to be happening more and more often that bands who first found success in the fertile underground music scene of the 1980s and '90s have reconvened; the members of those bands having reconciled whatever differences they may have had or, at least, buried the hatchet deep enough that it's easier to work around. Many of those bands – including Dinosaur Jr.,...

Wow – you think you know someone…. Since going solo in 1979, outside of a few minor alterations to his sound and style that were usually instigated by changes made to his band (from Randy Rhoads to Jake E. Lee to Zakk Wilde, for example), Ozzy Osbourne has been a steadfast image and fixture in metal. He's been the singer that metal heads have relied on for stability; no matter what everybody else might do or how they may change,...

Oh, what a strange race Buzz Osborne and The Melvins have run. Since first appearing on the popular radar as “the band Nirvana looked up to” and grinding out a peculiar, Concentrated strain of grunge that actually teetered on the line between “grunge” and “sewage” to spontaneously evolving into a metal band around 1999, listeners have never exactly known what they can expect next, but know enough to walk into each successive record with eyebrows already raised. 2008's Nude With...

It's always exciting to hear that about moment when a band really comes into its' own. For fans, there's a certain validation in it – as if the assembled mass is suddenly able to say, “I knew it all along” under  its' breath while everyone previously on the outside begins to gravitate toward the band because they have reached that all-important next level – because they were first and they were present in the beginning and they were able to...

Alright there you little so-an'-so-s, So here we go again an' man – I tell ya – I'm not scrimpin' on the portions this week. See, what you wanton wrongdoers and thieves don't know is that, innis game, ya hafta be quick on yer fingers. sometimes you'll find somethin' only for a minute and then, after you've got a taste and you're hooked it'll get taken away from you just so the taker c'n watch ya squirm. The music business...