After an almost three-year absence, KISS returned to the Bay Area, stopping off at the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord with tour mates Motley Crue for an evening of music, guitars, and pyrotechnics. Billed simply as "The Tour,” both bands proved that although they are all significantly older, they still know how to entertain a crowd. Coming down from the rafters on a platform complete with its own lighting rig and plenty of explosions, KISS hit the stage and immediately...

The truth is that some compilations just don't need to have a bunch of bells, whistles, updates and whatever else a record label can dream up and attach to it; sometimes the music just has to have been good all along to move a few units. That's what the Deluxe Edition of Johnny Cash's The Number Ones illustrates easily; all the biggest songs the singer ever recorded – the ones which really made him a legend – are here and...

After thirteen years' worth of relentless renovation and several complete re-thinkings of form, style, taste and composition, it's good to know that some things are true, and that includes the fact that Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein remain two of the best songwriters in rock n' roll. Even now in 2012, the duo's talents exemplified by Sebadoh's body of work remain undiminished by time; the reissue endeavors that the band has undertaken and the tours they've done in support of...

The catch which most every scenester-ific band is ham-strung by at some point (usually early on) is that they'll start trying to work outside of every box they see in the name of “doing something different.” Eventually such a practice goes too far and the band who does it will discover that they've alienated every audience they may have been able to court. In the end, they may be happy with the music they've made but, because it's so deeply...

With the number of (ever-so-slight) stylistic variations on the music scene now masquerading as full-fledged musical sub-genres (never have phrases like, “It's power slop, but with an edge” seemed so appropriate as when one looks over the newest breed of white bread “rock stars”), it's reassuring and gratifying to hear a band working with little more ambition than to just rock the pants off of those who hear them. With that in mind, say hello to Too Much Of Jon....

Those of a certain age may remember events a little differently but, forty years after they started, it has become difficult to recall what Heart should have been known or remembered for – outside of maybe a few songs like “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda,” “Love Alive” and “Heartless.” How'd something like that get forgotten? Unfortunately for them, Heart broke through in Canada before they made it in the U.S. (in spite of being American) and they were regularly brushed aside...

It’s been nearly four years since the London-based Bloc Party released an album together and, despite swirling rumors of falling outs (compounded by the release lead singer Kele Okereke’s solo album The Boxer in 2010), there was never an official Bloc Party breakup. While the band’s prolonged hiatus saw the ascension of groups who may share some of their aesthetic sensibilities – The Temper Trap, Passion Pit, Twin Shadow all appear on that list – it certainly didn’t change their...

Can history really repeat itself even if the events are well aware they're unfolding the same way the second time? One almost has to wonder if the members of Judas Priest wondered the same thing when they began working on the deluxe edition, CD/DVD reissue of Screaming For Vengeance. Priest has, after all, seen a watershed renewal of interest in their work when they reissued British Steel in 2010; that release got the band back on the road to support...

Heya goons, How's it goin'ere junky? Time is gettin' short fer some o' youse, those chippy habits ya picked up ova da summa are gonna hafta go fer da school year comin' up, othawise yer gonna be dozin' off in class come Septemba. Ya gotta getcherself straight junky!

Awright, I done my community service fer the day, now le's getchu flyin' on yer otha habit: le's getcha hooked on what I foun'dis week. Dis week, I nabbed a little bitta everything...

No band in recent memory has been able to so perfectly encapsulate raw, urgent aggression like La Armada does on their self-titled album. That might sound like a bold statement, but listening proves that it's the only one which suits; La Armada's self-titled record (their third – but first since moving to Chicago from Dominican Republic) doesn't exactly make other new hardcore bands pale by comparison so much as just totally overshadowing them like a chilling pall. Part of that...