Biographer Billy James says it best right off the top of this documentary presentation outlining the initial appearance of Frank Zappa and his Mothers Of Invention in the 1960s when, in a very matter-of-fact and incontrovertible tone, he states, “Zappa brought something different that no other artist has. Music would not be the way it is today if it wasn’t for Frank Zappa.” Without trying to sound redundant, truer words were never spoke. There is no quadrant of pop that...

There’s no arguing that the Golden Age of Soul music and Rhythm & Blues was in the 1950s and ‘60s. As the style grew and developed quickly in the mainstream the biggest, most timeless names – Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Otis Redding, both Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown and Marvin Gaye as well as the innumerable talents on Motown and Stax – all seemed to appear at once as a voracious appetite for new sounds kept vinyl presses running...

“Where do bad vibrations come from, Raymond?” Johnny asked me last night, and I had no answer. But the point is though it’s long established Vermont is a place of strong white magick, a place friendly to adventurers of the mind and body, a holy place, though we and thousands of others know this and never take it for granted, yet we must risk the relatively inferior terrain and vibration of Massachusetts and points south and west, and the huge...

Download:The Decemberists – The Rake's Song –...

I arrive at 7:30 and Mark Lewis is on the main stage playing some trance to ease us into the night. The main stage is a giant white tent about three stories tall and its rectangular size covers the same size of about one NFL football field. Outside the tent there is a Ferris wheel and a cage where people are on display for aerial tricks on swings and hanging ribbon. There are a few carnival-style stands where you can...

I was having a bad week already, when I opened the paper and saw that Ron Asheton, guitarist for the Stooges, had passed away. What could I do, except put on Funhouse and crank it up. This is my blues music. By that, I mean this is the music I turn to when I'm depressed. This is the music which makes me feel better, or at least lets me work through my feelings. Funhouse has gotten me through more depressions...

I have definite opinions of what makes a great rock concert. Take the same things that make great rock music—energy and originality—and add one more factor: spontaneity. Ideally, the band should play a different set each night, rather than just memorizing a single list of songs. Play around with how they play their songs, not just what they play. If they play an encore, it should be an honest thing, not just another programmed part of the set. And use...

Kanye West: producer, rapper, blogger, sunglasses model, and much much more. He's proven that he can conquer basically any task he sets himself. With his latest, 808s And Heartbreak, he's crossed over into music criticism; there's no more accurate and concise description of his latest album than its title. It's a record of spare beats and depressive lyrics about myriad failed relationships. It conjures a world where everyone's worst fears about love spool out over simple and impossibly catchy beats:...

After seeing In Flames deliver a short but pretty kick ass set earlier this year as part of Gigantour, I knew that when they returned to the Bay Area on their own headlining tour that I would not be missing them. And when I saw that one of my favorite new bands, Gojira, was on board the tour as a support act, I was all over it. Up first was 36 Crazyfists, a "metalcore" band hailing from Portland, Oregon. As...

Given the nature of Rivers Cuomo’s previous raid of his own vaults which yielded the first installment of Alone, fans probably had a good idea of what to expect from Alone II – another collection of embryonic Weezer songs. That isn’t what Alone II represents though; it’s a far more finessed collection than that. There are no false starts that would eventually appear on a proper studio album years later, these are ideas that were aborted by an incredibly prolific...