Rancid is the perfect starter punk band. The group has the punk image down pat — just look at frontman Tim Armstrong’s liberty spikes and numerous tattoos. The cover of . . . And Out Come the Wolves is enough to make any aspiring young punk pick up the record to find out more…
American Idol Live! is a testament to how much smaller American Idol gets every year as a cultural institution. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still big. Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips’ debut single is still ubiquitous. But at the show’s peak, being a runner-up was its own way to…
When Nick Norris and a few other locals launched Hip Hop House last summer, the semi-regular event involved pretty much what its name implied: a rowdy showcase of rap, boom-bap, and urban artistry taking place inside a residence, which in this case was funky domicile/music venue Funny World. Norris, an…
by Alex Distefano Call it what you will — glam metal, hair metal, cock rock, or plain old ’80s metal — but there’s something to be said for a subculture that extended from the late ’70s into the early ’90s that refuses to wash off its makeup and die. Glam…
Much of the conversation about the Baptist Generals’ Jackleg Devotional to the Heart, the 10 years-in-the-waiting follow-up to the Denton, Texas-based band’s Sub Pop debut, No Silver/No Gold, has centered on exactly what singer/songwriter Chris Flemmons was doing during the decade-long stretch of national inactivity. In this week’s issue of…
The latest way to “shock” music video viewers? Nope, it’s not making gazers feel like they’re tripping out on drugs while they’re watching, a la Miley Cyrus and “We Can’t Stop.” It’s putting not just scantily clad ladies, but fully nude women, all over your video. Yep, that’s a naked…
At age 13, Phil Anselmo dove headfirst into what he knew to be his true calling: heavy metal. “I was playing my first gigs before I was barely a teenager,” says Anselmo. “I’ll put it like this: I used to come home from school and practice Judas Priest’s Unleashed in…
Michigan native and old-school rocker Ted Nugent may always be looking to ruffle a few feathers, but he is a bit of a softie at heart. Sure, he’s incredibly outspoken politically and musically and to about every hunted animal on the planet. He’s the same guy who named his 2013…
Since 1983, the Melvins have influenced countless bands and carved out a path that is all their own. They constantly explore unexpected paths, even relative to their own work — with every album they wind up even further away from what people have finally pegged as a their “sound.” Over…
The B-52s’ funky, flirty, and groovalicious party sound is as unmistakable today as it was when the band formed unexpectedly in 1976, after the founding members downed a flaming volcano drink at an Athens, Georgia, restaurant. “We never planned on having a band. We were friends and crashed parties together…
Certain records seem to appear, somehow, at virtually every yard sale: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Foreigner 4, Carole King’s Tapestry . . . and Psychedelic Furs’ Talk Talk Talk. The first three make sense, given how ubiquitous they were, but the latter is harder to explain. Released in 1981, Talk Talk Talk,…
Rodrigo y Gabriela are known for taking plenty of extra guitars with them on tour, and for good reason: The force with which they play the instruments usually leads them to a grisly end. The duo tends to wield their guitars as though the only thing standing between the virtuoso…
June was an incredible month for hip-hop releases, with new records by Kanye West, Mac Miller, J. Cole, and Quasimoto, among others, hitting the market. The downside to the deluge of hype was the failure to acknowledge the world-class work of Dessa. The Minneapolis-based MC (and slam poet and author),…
You’ll have to forgive The Crystal Method for taking a little longer than expected to unveil its latest studio album. Yes, the follow-up to 2009’s Grammy-nominated Divided by Night has been more than four years in the making, but the venerable electronica twosome of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland have…
At 43 years old, it seems safe to say that Jay-Z is on top of the world. Within the past year, he’s become the face of an NBA basketball franchise, had a beautiful child with his tremendously famous wife, and had a mega-collaboration with Justin Timberlake. Hell, he even picked…
Everything eventually turns into porn. Guitar porn–Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 is all about it–whiskey porn… well, regular porn. But recently, food porn has blown up. Which is great for me. You see, there are only a few things that I take voracious pleasure in consuming, and two of those…
Todd Rundgren’s breakthrough album, Something/Anything?, was a winding double-LP on which he wrote, produced, and performed nearly everything himself. That says a lot about 1972, but it says even more about Rundgren, who’s been seen as something of a pop-rock prodigy ever since. If it seems he’s never been quite…
What do you do when your once-formidable alternative bands fade into obscurity? Start an annual summer tour together! The Summerland Tour is the brainchild of Everclear frontman (and lone remaining founder) Art Alexakis and Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath, and it’s back in 2013 for its second go-round. This year, Everclear…
“Weird Al” Yankovic once parodied “Rico Suave.” He’s parodied two separate Milli Vanilli songs. He been making parodies so long that he donned a leather-jacketed fatsuit for “Fat” before Michael Jackson was a pariah, continued to wear it for 20 years afterward, and has gone on parodying Michael Jackson now…
Long before the “Harlem Shake,” there was “The Rockafeller Skank.” Doesn’t ring a bell, huh? It should, considering the 1998 plunderphonics-heavy groove was one of the more epic big-beat hits in the enormous arsenal of British-born musician Norman Cook. Still clueless, bro? Perhaps you know the Englishman by his more…
Rather than stick to vague genre tags or invent new hybrids, the members of Sun Bones offer the term “malleability.” It’s fitting for a classically trained band that somehow manages to fit four-part harmonies, bursts of punk, comforting pop melodies, and avant-garde excursions under a single umbrella and make it…
Long before the “Harlem Shake,” there was “The Rockafeller Skank.” Doesn’t ring a bell, huh? It should considering the 1998 plunderphonics-heavy groove was one of the more epic big beat hits from the enormous arsenal of British-born musician Norman Cook. Still clueless, bro? Perhaps you know the Englishman by his…
