The problem with progress has always been that, as time marches forward and new ideas ultimately become the norm (well, if they're any good), invariably a few really good, established stylistic ideas lose ground and run the risk of being forgotten. It's unfortunate, but it's a by-product of the human condition. As true as that is though, sometimes a new document surfaces that pays close attention to some old (very dangerously near to forgotten) ideas and the effect is elating...

To say that the last five years (give or take) have been less than charitable to bassist Nick Oliveri is a polite understatement. Since his eviction from the bass seat in Queens Of The Stone Age, Oliveri has bounced to any and every outfit goodly enough to have him – from The Dwarves to The Blag Dahlia Band to Turbonegro to Winnebago Deal with one-off stints elsewhere in addition to maintaining his name as a solo act – with little...

If music is the food of life but every second of an album chronicles one man's struggles with addiction, might said record be considered a gateway drug? This is the sort of  question that comes to mind as a listener is ensnared by the answering machine message that opens Ko's debut album, Let's Blaze. The message – apparently left in voice mail by a social worker at the rehab center in which Ko (nee Ko Kapches) was kept in order...

On tour in the US for the first time since 1991, the Happy Mondays hit the road last week, kicking off their 26-city tour. Original members Shaun Ryder, Mark “Bez” Berry and Gary Whelan will be supporting their 2007 reunion album Uncle Dysfunktional. Along with the Mondays on this tour are ’80 stalwarts The Psychedelic Furs. The lineup includes Richard and Tim Butler, along with Mars Williams and Paul Garisto and more recent additions Amanda Kramer and Richard Good. After...

What a difference a few months can make in the development and growth of an entity. Nine months ago, Eagles Of Death Metal singer Jesse Hughes could (and was) quoted as saying, “Eagles Of Death Metal is a success story of the way it should be. Josh has been there for me every step of the way… He is the captain of our gang and...

There are times when, even from the very beginning of an album, it's very easy to tell where a band is from. That is not to say that it's simple to geographically profile a sound – most large city centers have a wide array of sounds at work in them and a wildly varied musical palette – but there are definitely some staple sounds that are inherent to some locations and bands from elsewhere have been known to lift them...

I’ll be honest. I do not know these guys. Which is a point of contention for a music reviewer; you pride yourself on knowing obscure groups that no one around you knows. It’s how you get cool points, and for a girl who spends her days shut in an apartment eating Chee-tos and writing notes about music tracks, like so many other reviewers out there, I need all the points I can get.  But this band from Portland (the no....

Over the last ten years, the notion that being glib is the height of biting sarcasm and criticism has spread like a virus, been refined and finally honed to a flawless edge before being sent out to hack down the previous crop of next big things suddenly and brutally. The problem with such slash and burn tactics is that there just aren't that many bands coming up that are particularly good at it; because they all pass through so quickly...

It doesn't happen very often in the business of being in a rock n' roll band but, every now and then, it's reassuring to know that things happen on the time line that was originally projected. Such is the case with Endgame's release; earlier this year, Megadeth singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine went on the record saying that his band would have a new release on store shelves in September, 2009 and, lo and behold, Endgame has not only appeared on time,...

The Mars Volta are one of those bands that you either get or you don’t. For the ones that do, their barrage of aural explosions come at you like a meteor shower, but somehow your brain allows you to make sense of it all like after looking at a stereogram for a few seconds. The beautiful picture hidden in the sea of dots separates from the background and you can appreciate it for all its glory. For others, unfortunately, that...