When last we heard from Pink Mountaintops (but not from mastermind Stephen McBean, he's stayed visible with Black Mountain along with a variety of other endeavors), they had just released Axis Of Evol and looked like the only band with the sand to try and wrest the championship of 'underground genius' from Microphones/Mount Eerie visionary Phil Elvrum. Axis certainly made the band sound like an able contender – the sound was bigger and breathtaking stacked against Elvrum's indie-informed and obviously...

There's no arguing that The Tragically Hip have remained Canada's most enduring musical export since Up To Here launched the group to the top of the rock pile in 1989, but it would be hard to contend that the band hasn't made some questionable artistic turns in the years since. After the lights went out and the cord was cut on the Phantom Power album cycle in 1999, The Hip knocked their fan base squarely on its ass with the...

I have a very interesting relationship with Bloc Party. When they first hit the scene in 2004 with “Helicopter” and “Banquet,” I was all about them because I was a DJ and these cuts ruled the dancefloor—and still do. But, since I was so focused on their upbeat jams, I didn’t really pay much attention to the rest of Silent Alarm. I know, it’s sad and stupid, but that was the deal unfortunately. And when A Weekend in the City...

I have a good vibe every time I'm told an artist is playing at The Music Box. It's so much fun to have every type of way to see an artist in one venue. Upper-level seats with good cushions, large up-front dance floor and an outdoor upper balcony, which happened to be turned into what was intended to be the after-party once the concert was over. When I first arrived at The Music Box, I was wondering who would be...

Even as NOFX kicked off their tour in October last year, the path was already set, the band simply hadn't had the time to start walking it. The songs for a new album were written and ready to go, it was just a matter of squaring away a little bit of time to sit down and get the job done; but that doesn't mean that singer “Fat” Mike Burkett wouldn't talk about what his band had in the pipe for...

It's been six years since Rancid released Indestructible and, in the time since, the band has weathered so many storms that it was questionable if they were ever coming back. The list of troubles that the band has experienced is not short: bassist Matt Freeman was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 which abbreviated his touring Social Distortion as well as work on this newest Rancid release, drummer Brett Reed left the band in 2006 (his replacement, Branden Steineckert, has...

When Bob Mould resurfaced after a three-year silence with District Line, he shocked the hell out of Hüsker Dü fans by singlehandedly recapturing the magic that he, Grant Hart and Greg Norton once wielded so powerfully twenty years before. The songs brimmed with urgency, anthemia and heart, the vintage power pop hooks in songs like “Stupid Now,” “Old Highs, New Lows” and “Very Temporary” were sound and the record as a whole bore no age in spite of the fact...

It's been three years since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs broke through with Show Your Bones and rode a tidal wave of popular and critical acclaim which took them from private underground pleasures to mainstream radio “it” band, but that doesn't mean they've been inactive in the intervening years. Sensing that they had a hot, in-demand commodity on their hands, primary YYY shareholders Karen O and Nick Zinner stayed busy by attaching their names to any and (presumably) every project goodly...

Sometimes it doesn't take much, but sometimes it takes something gigantic to make a pensive man smile. One would think that after all he's seen and done – toured the world, found love, religion, intimacy and isolation – the effort required to make the single most stoic musician on Earth smile would be one of epic proportions. Preconceived notions get bucked, however, when novelist/philosopher/poet/musician/monk Leonard Cohen boards the stage at a sold out O2 Center in London, and the first...

We are the World opens the night and these guys were on a whole level that I wasn’t ready for. I’m not sure if that was clear enough. Imagine you tell your mother you’re taking her to “Shrek the Musical,” and instead you take her to a Marilyn Manson concert. What you just said is what I said when the curtain opened. A group of four (Robbie Williams , Ryan Heffington , Megan Gold and Nina...