Ian Brown | Ripples
Time flies when you're revisiting your past. Thanks at least in part to The Stone Roses' unexpectedly long-lived reunion, it's been nearly a decade since frontman Ian Brown released...
Le Butcherettes | bi/MENTAL
Suffering for your art is one thing. But what Teresa Suárez Cosío supposedly endured to create her band's fourth album takes it to another level. According to reports, the...
Guided By Voices | Zeppelin Over China
It's been almost 25 years since my first Guided By Voices gig. It was at the old Crocodile Cafe in Seattle in 1994, on their Insects of Rock Tour,...
The Specials | Encore • The Beat feat. Ranking Roger | Public Confidential
It may not be the dawning of a new era. But it is a reasonably enjoyable facsimile of an old one. Reconstituted 2-Tone titans The Specials and The Beat...
Big Star | Live on WLIR
For some weird reason, things almost always seemed to work out for me when it came to Alex Chilton. I was at the Knitting Factory in 1997 when he...
See Stella Donnelly Connect in the Charming Video For Lunch
At some point, it seems almost every touring musician writes a song about being a touring musician. And for the most part, they fall into one of two camps:...
Back Stories | My Album Reviews From Jan. 29, 1999
Two decades ago, new albums from Fun Lovin' Criminals, Chuck E. Weiss, Cesar Rosas and others were spinning away in my portable CD player. Here’s what I had to...
James Brown | Say It Live And Loud: Live In Dallas 08.26.68 Expanded Edition
Papa's got a brand-new reissue! James Brown certainly lived up his rep as The Hardest Working Man in Show Business when it came to live albums. The soul and...
Bruce Springsteen | Madison Square Garden 1988 • No Nukes 1979
For most artists, self-releasing five historic live recordings in little more than a month would be seen as egomaniacal overkill. For Bruce Springsteen, it's no big deal. In fact,...
Lee Harvey Osmond | Mohawk
You'd think Tom Wilson already had enough identities, personas and alter egos. But as the former Junkhouse frontman, sometime Rodeo King and current Lee Harvey Osmond leader outlined in...
Rat Boy | Internationally Unknown
Methinks the Rat Boy doth protest too much with the the title of his album Internationally Unknown. Granted, British rapper Jordan Cardy isn't exactly famous on this side of...
Hunt Sales Memorial | Get Your Shit Together
You might not have heard of Hunt Sales — but you've definitely heard him play. He was the hard-driving, big-swinging drummer who laid down the unforgettable bouncing backbeat on...
Dandy Warhols | Why You So Crazy
There's a fine line between freewheeling and freefalling. And sometimes it's hard to tell which side Portland trailblazers Dandy Warhols land on — or even where they're aiming —...
FIDLAR | Almost Free
Almost? Who the hell do they think they're fooling? One spin of Almost Free is all you need to realize that the bro-dudes of SoCal's FIDLAR — for those...
Santana | In Search Of Mona Lisa
Old soldiers never die. And old hippies never come down. That much seems obvious from the back story of Carlos Santana’s new EP. The short version: During the Woodstock...
