Some bands are simply unable to escape the comparisons they draw once they've been saddled with them at the beginning of their career, no matter how hard they try. In the name of growth, bands have been known to try some wild and odd stuff in an effort to escape the hole in which listeners have pegged them (Nirvana tried to scare off some fans, Dylan changes hats regularly, John Lydon calls his efforts under the influence of different muses...

Ooohhh, are you guys lucky or what? So this time, I took a couple of days and just fleeced everything that wasn't nailed down around the inter-webs. And I thought to myself, “Self,” I thought, “Here I am sittin' on a mudda-fuckin' mountain of free SWAG from the five points and it's an awful lot. Should I sit on some and parcel it out to my devoted readers every so often and make myself look like a golden boy, just...

Anyone that remembers when Jared Leto first broke onto the mainstream music radar in 2002 with 30 Seconds To Mars likely remembers the initial mixed reception the band received. Presumably, the public's undecided impression was the result of a couple of things; first, the public wasn't (and still isn't, really) accustomed to actors making a valid  attempt at career jumping from one art form to another and, second, they were unused to hearing anything other than mawkish, novel tones dribble...

Think the music business can't be a vicious, cut-throat field? The Subhumans can tell you otherwise and the existence of Same Thoughts Different Day is the proof. From the liner notes/explanation sheet tucked in with the disc: “For many years now, Subhumans fans from many countries have been asking us to re-release our album Incorrect Thoughts. We wanted to re-release it some time ago, but there was a problem. Originally, we recorded the album with a Vancouver record label called...

While he's released all manner of compilations, collaborations, one-offs and spoken word albums over the last decade or so, it honestly seems like it has been ages since Jello Biafra released an album of new music. The singer's efforts with Lard and The Melvins don't exactly count; either because generally weak or obviously not creatively focused affairs, albums like Pure Chewing Satisfaction and Never Breathe What You Can't See were okay but left nothing close to the impression that The...

As every fan of the band knows, AC/DC has gone on the record several times over as saying that the release of a greatest hits compilation would be tantamount to conceding their career is at its end; they'll do a retrospective examination like that when they have no intention of continuing on. Of course, reverse psychology being as effective as it is, such an announcement has had their record label looking very closely at options to compile such a set...

After the documentary film You're Gonna Miss Me came out five years ago and presented audiences with the image of what Roky Erickson had become, fans and other assorted hopefuls finally gave up the last dangling threads of hope they might have been harboring. It was unlikely that the singer would ever again assume active duties as a musician outside of the odd appearance onstage at a festival somewhere – and that wasn't even a given. The images of a...

Since indie rock in all its forms and glories first began to break onto the mainstream radar, those drawn to the music have noticed an unusual occurrence: while some fans might have been right on top of the game and “in it” since the very beginning, they find themselves joined at shows by a whole new mass of new fans drawn in by the band after they got a greater amount of exposure. As soon as they appear, the first...

The one constant in the major label music racket is that times change and musicians playing in that game have to change too – or risk being left behind. Sure – a classic album can live forever as a photograph of a moment and the powers possessed by those in the shot, but if a group is still working, they can't afford to rest on laurels. Cypress Hill know this and also know that, after six years away, they had...

In the context of rock n' roll, some albums are just inarguably timeless and of eternal value to listeners; they sound as good now as the day they were released, and pack the same emotional wallop no matter how much times may have changed. The list of such albums is not large, but is debated and quibbled over constantly – by turns, fans have questioned whether The White Album is of greater artistic value than Sgt. Pepper and Revolver, whether...