It's amazing how far punk rock has come over the last thirty-five years. Now, punk bands (most of them anyway) function within a framework of established paradigms using variables in form, subject matter, tone, tempo and timbre to write songs that – while superficially 'original' – closely adhere to well-worm and utilized formulas. Now, there are rules to being in a punk band that just didn't exist thirty-five years ago; now, all you seem to need is a crappy attitude...

It was only fitting that Norway's Apoptygma Berzerk opened up their show at the DNA Lounge with "Starsign," off of their 2006 classic synth pop release Welcome To Earth. The words "It's about time…" have never rung truer. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever have the chance to see Apop live again. After completing their recently released Rocket Science, three of four band members left the band, leaving founder Stephan Groth by himself and on the heels...

Hello readers,

 Here on the 777" column, we are fans of two numbers; 3 and 7. Seeing as this is the third installment of what I'm sure is your favorite column, it only felt right that we should provide something special to mark the occasion. After all, I didn't expect the column to last this long (believe it or not), nor do I expect to have the energy to keep up with seven, so let's enjoy ourselves while we can.

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How does one critically review the Bible? Who has that kind of audacity? To call one edition better than another could be viewed as the ultimate exercise in examining the minutiae of the typeface and declaring that the mole hill is indeed a mountain but, in the case of The Beatles' catalogue, such criticisms can be met with staggering vitriol. Some people like their tomes of John, Paul, George and Ringo a little more low-fi and view technological “improvements” upon...

It's funny when you think about how much the world has changed since the beginning of the information age. Prior to that point in history – when the scale of the world was reduced from a series of scale centimeters on a map to being measured by the number of mouse clicks it took to get to the other side of the world – while developments and changes in individual scenes and styles continued at the same rate, news of...

There has always been a single binding problem with tribute/charity/all-star compilations; the cast might be huge, some of the performances might be inspired, there may be phenomenal moments laced in that prove to be defining for one artist or another, but the set is only as good as the weakest moment on it. For whatever perverse reason, listeners always remember the 'suck' before they remember the 'sublime.' With that in mind, it's questionable how well 7 Worlds Collide – a...

For those unfamiliar with the history, Manic Street Preachers have, by turns, enjoyed and endured a very strange ride since forming in 1986. Originally one of the musical breed that generated the Britpop wave of the late Eighties (along with The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Blur, Oasis and innumerable others), the Manics crested to fame the old-fashioned way: on the strength of great songs, a killer live shows and a set of personalities within the band that were so mysterious...

When a band chooses to start operating in the rapturous realm of pop-punk, eventually they'll be presented with a choice: they can either crash and burn in spectacular fashion and spend the rest of their careers trying to make back the ground they've lost (see The Offspring), they can knickle under and become vacuous pop tarts (see No Doubt) or they can tough up, bite the bullet and become a rock n' roll band (see Green Day). While exceptions have...

Alex Turner doesn’t care about you. You may have bought tickets for him and his band at the beautiful Fox Theater. You may have sipped a pre-concert Greyhound at Café Van Kleef in anticipation. You may have waited around for the half-hour it took him and the rest of the Arctic Monkeys to hit the stage. But, they probably would have shown up and played anyway. You didn’t need to be there. You were just an extra set of molecules...

In art, as is the case in life, it has been proven time and again that the population of intelligent people in the world fall into one of two groups: those that consider themselves to be smart and those that simply are. So what’s the difference? Those that assume themselves to be intelligent usually come by the notion honestly – they might be scholarly, they might be good (if fairly humorless) conversationalists, they may be the ones that their friends...