Columns

It’s a quiet night in mid-December and Jake E Lee has been talking a long time. You can hear it in his voice. The vocal chords are becoming just a little tired but the enthusiasm shows no sign of wavering. Jake E Lee is back and every guitar hero worshiper in the modern world is […]

With a springy hit single called “Anybody,” which debuted last year, and snappy killer performances at Lollapalooza and the Voodoo Music Experience, Bad Things have already perked up the ears of music fans who like a little synth- rock mixed into their daily iPod shuffling. Along with the punk “Fool” and the new wave-ish “Caught […]

Have you ever had one of those moments where you see someone new perform and you think, damn, he just kicked ass – and then you have that gnawing feeling that you’ve heard him before? I had one of those moments recently. I’m watching the Kings Of Chaos concert out in LA and Franky Perez […]

This Hungarian disaster isn’t worth your time — or your $31.50 for a DVD copy.

In light of Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes announcing their ABB departure, we rounded up six essential cuts from their dual-guitar era.

Since we’re in the spirit with all these ‘Twin Peaks’ rumors, here are the 10 best scenes from this surreal, thought-provoking, cancelled-far-too-soon series.

Hello 2014, what a great year you are looking to be. And what better way to kick off MY ROOTS than with Steve Stevens, the longtime guitar player for Billy Idol and, more recently, Kings Of Chaos. After thirty years in the business, Stevens is still redefining himself as a musician. In 1999, he released […]

Zevon showcased his stellar songwriting and showmanship during this solo show.

There are three things you need to know about Wild Mick Brown, drummer for both Dokken and Ted Nugent: First, his moniker is not by chance. The man knows how to party wild and there are many, many stories to prove it; most recently his little incident involving a “high speed” chase on a “stolen” […]

Before 2013 goes out with a bang via a big, fun, no-holding-back interview, I decided to spend our column this week taking a moment to reflect back on MY ROOTS this year. With 54 musicians interviewed, this column has been steadily evolving since it’s inception in late 2011 from a fun, simple, jump back in […]

For the misanthrope, the cynic, the atheist, the solitary, and the anti-consumerist among us, there are some “Christmas” movies which encapsulate the spirit of the season while not shying away from its dark underbelly.

Our relationship with art changes over time. In our instantaneous iPhone age, we don’t live with albums or movies or TV shows or books like we used to. With Re-Reviews, we re-explore our relationship with a piece of pop culture — and how that relationship evolves over time. We dismiss some art unfairly — or […]

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know – Pema Chodron When you sit down and have a conversation with Ian Astbury, he is always calm, he is always intelligent, he is always funny. He has a light in his eyes that dances one moment but can darken just […]

If you are in a position to egregiously waste 118 minutes of your existence, then I invite you to view ‘Battlefield Earth.’

Some of them are mainstays of the mainstream fringe; some have mainstream popularity despite their fringe sensibilities. And some are only just beginning to gain recognition. Regardless: Give these records a listen.

On April 10, 2012, the Pennsylvania hard rock band Halestorm released their sophomore album titled The Strange Case Of … Now, what makes this particular piece of information interesting is that it is now December 2013 and that record is still going strong, with another hit single this fall in “Here’s To Us” that features […]

Gallagher rants about ‘Yeezus,’ Miley Cyrus, Arcade Fire, Defecating on Boiled Eggs

Pat Metheny/Tap (Nonesuch): On his selections from John Zorn’s Book of Angels, Pat Metheny oscillates wildly from the near silence of carefully picked acoustic instruments to the cacophony of electric ones whose impact is only heightened through the muscular percussion of Antonio Sanchez. Sounding at once like everything and nothing you’d expect from a Pat […]

Dreading that dull family holiday? Nervous about your Friendsgiving festivities? Drew Fortune has you covered with this Turkey Day playlist.

Throughout the hour-long set, Tull blend then-new tracks like “Velvet Green” and “Jack in the Green” with the obvious classics.