Recent Articles
Paul McCartney live at Wrigley!
Paul McCartney managed to do in one evening what the Chicago Cubs haven’t been able to do all season: he generated countless hits in Wrigley Field.
Journey, Foreigner, and Night Ranger live!
For any gate-receipt certainty these days, package tours are a must, especially those that are so well stacked they’re impossible to ignore. For classic-rock fans, the idea of seeing Journey, Foreigner, and Night Ranger together in the same night certainly looked appealing on paper. But with significantly shifted lineups for those first two bands, only […]
Cover Story: Blink-182
Everything Hits At Once Tom DeLonge has noticed the smoke billowing from his hat. “Oh, my god,” he exhales. “I just got some gas in my truck – I’m in San Diego and Orange County is an hour away; L.A.’s two hours away.
Interview: Death Cab For Cutie
Speaking In Codes Back when Death Cab For Cutie had only begun peeking their heads above the underground, their annual Chicago stomping ground was the venerable Metro.
Interview: Tim Robbins
Going Rogue He must not have had the chops – seen the competition and promptly backed off. He’d been set up perfectly for a career as a lighthearted barroom rocker, giddily butchering Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” while seated on a tourbus in Bull Durham. Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, Eddie Murphy, and other actors […]
Interview: Cults
Frame By Frame The eponymous debut from joyfully jangling New York duo Cults is easily one of the best records of the year, full of Spector-plush arrangements, sugary Crystals/Ronettes choruses, and hooks so huge they reverberate inside your skull for days after just one listen.
Hello, My Name Is Rik
Q&A with Triumph’s Rik Emmett IE: What did your life look like throughout the ’80s during the Triumph whirlwind? Rik Emmett: I remember it being an exciting time and a pressure-filled time. We were a unique entity in managing ourselves and we had our own office, studio, and a pretty intense relationship with the record […]
File: August 2011
Timlollarpalooza In keeping with last month’s baseball-themed Pitchfork Festival preview, we’ve dedicated our Lollapalooza snippet to the playing days of former San Diego Padres pitcher Tim Lollar, who did his damnedest to help the Cubs win in ’84 (4 IP, 2 HR, 4 BB). Lollar also wears the distinction of having been traded to the […]
Around Hear: August 2011
Local Band Reviews Lyrical, if edgy note-phrasing binds the originals and covers on blues-rocker Joe Becker‘s Hot As Love. The instrumental, stripped-band recording vacilates from open-nerve rawness (“Nightshift”) to a demo quality that could stand some polish (“Who Do You Think You Are?”), which poses a lot of questions about the intention of this release. […]
Caught In A Mosh: August 2011
Four!!! I forgot, and I’m sorry. June was this column’s four-year anniversary, but like a horrible, drunk, stoned lazy, fatfuck of a father, I forgot my own child’s birthday and didn’t even realize it until two months later.
Digital Divide: August 2011
Deja Vu All Over Again D’ja ever find yourself watching the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day and think, “This is cute and all, but I wonder what the military applications of living the same day over and over again would be”?
Gear: August 2011
From Nashville With Love NAMM’s Nashville music trade show seemed to get back to a “guitars are king” theme not seen in 10 years at the summer event, leaving the button pushers and their iPhones and iPads to last year’s devices. Gear happily takes a look at some of the convention’s new introductions.
Media: August 2011
Best Radio You Have Never Heard Imagine a technically perfect freeform radio show where you’ll hear everything from Arctic Monkeys to Frank Zappa. Add clever drop-ins, seamless transitions, and cryptic humor. Then, imagine that every time you listen, you hear a new artist or song, or a version of a classic track that’s so obscure […]
Studiophile: August 2011
Local H At Million Yen Million Yen Studios owner Andy Gerber was a bit suprised to get a call from Scott Lucas about demoing material for a new Local H record. “Scott had kind of officially declared the ‘era of demos’ as over,” remarks Gerber.
Sweet Home: August 2011
Reflection Eternal As one of the most consistent contemporary bluesmen performing today, it’s a surprise to discover that Grammy-winning Keb Mo (a.k.a. Kevin Moore) doesn’t actually consider himself a bluesman.
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