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Spins: Rush • Permanent Waves 40th Anniversary
Rush Permanent Waves (40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) (Anthem/Mercury/UMe) With the passing of beloved drum virtuoso Neil Peart early this year, the days are gone when Rush fans can anticipate new music from the Canadian progressive rock heroes. However, it’s a great time to celebrate Peart’s memory and rediscover the band’s rich catalog. The trio […]
Hello, My Name Is… Butch Walker
Mega-producer and solo artist Butch Walker fully understands the dire scope of our current coronavirus pandemic, which is forcing folks all over the world to shelter in claustrophobic place while the worst passes. But — truth be told — he’s noticed no tangible difference in his day to day Malibu activities, he swears. “I’m at […]
Q&A: House of Lords’ James Christian
One optimistic upside to our current coronavirus pandemic, wherever you happen to be in the world? You and your family are forced to shelter in place together. The downside? Err, you and your family are forced to shelter in place together. And House of Lords anchor James Christian admits that he’s learned some hard lessons […]
Featured: Jay O’Rourke Band
Like many musicians releasing music during the pandemic, Jay O’Rourke had different plans before the virus hit. His band’s new 5–song EP was originally scheduled as a full-length album, but COVID-19 changed all that. The acclaimed guitarist’s third release in four years shows he’s incredibly prolific. Boom Daddy Boom continues a course he charted on […]
Cover Story: Tim Burgess
Benjamin Disraeli believed that “Change is inevitable; change is constant.” John F. Kennedy reckoned that “Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” But leave it to Charles Darwin to summarize it best: “It is not the strongest of the species […]
Featured: My Back Pages
First, let me preface this with a little disclaimer. Call me a misanthrope, but — in all my 40-plus years of rock journalism — I have never really been a sharer, outside of my stories. I see no use for social media; I don’t care what your opinion of my work happens to be; this […]
Media – May 2020
The Mix Morning show (WTMX, 101.9FM) is now officially called Eric in the Morning with Melissa and Whip. After an unprecedented run of success during morning drive time in Chicago, everyone knows Eric Ferguson, the star of the show. Most also know Melissa McGurren, a trusted co-host for many years. But who in the world […]
Cover Story: Lucinda Williams
Many artists — when looking back on their catalogs — often wish that they could have done better, compositionally speaking. Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. But when Grammy-winning folk-rocker Lucinda Williams undertook her comprehensive tour last year, celebrating the 20th anniversary of her landmark third Car Wheels on a Gravel Road effort, she never once […]
Feature: Testament and Exodus – Coping with COVID
On paper, it looked like a brilliant idea — the recent comprehensive “Bay Strikes Back” month-long tour of Europe, featuring Bay Area thrash-metal stalwarts Testament, Exodus, and Death Angel. It was just the timing — Feb. 6 to March 11 — that proved a bit unfortunate. It happened to coincide with the appearance of the […]
Feature – The Claudettes
Symphonic cartoon-music maestro Raymond Scott meets titanic blues pianist Otis Spann meets punk iconoclasts the Minutemen. The Stooges meet Burt Bacharach, without the horns. French yĂ©-yĂ© pop at the old west saloon. These off-kilter combinations aren’t deliberately ironic; they’re legitimate attempts to make an elevator pitch for Chicago’s baffling, delightful, and utterly unique band The […]
Spins: Greg Dulli • “Random Desire”
Greg Dulli Random Desire (Royal Cream/BMG) Calling this “the first solo album” by The Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli isn’t technically truthful – unless it’s a deliberate attempt to erase 2005’s Amber Headlights altogether. Whether first or second, it was time for another musical road less traveled for Dulli. Surviving way longer than most rock […]
File: Q&A with Mike Campbell
Discovering your own particular avenue of expression is not always easy for a young artist. Take the late Tom Petty, for example, who started out sounding a lot like his vocal idols, Bob Dylan and The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn. He just couldn’t help it — that was his creative jumping-off point, which quickly developed into […]
Cover Story – Best Coast
Best Coast anchor Bethany Cosentino admits that her duo’s chiming new Always Tomorrow set, it’s fourth, just might be the Feel-Good Album of the Year. But in retrospect, she only wishes that she at first didn’t have to feel so incredibly bad just to compose it. And she isn’t waxing poetic when she describes the […]
Hello My Name Is…Tim “Ripper” Owens of the Three Tremors
Although the Three Tremors concept was initially conceived in the early 2000s by Iron Maiden wailer Bruce Dickinson, Judas Priest screamer Rob Halford, and QueensrĂżche belter Geoff Tate, it never came to fruition. However, in 2018, Cage vocalist Sean “The Hell Destroyer” Peck began tossing the idea around with journeyman vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (ex-Judas […]
Cover Story: Green Day
On the most instinctual gut level, Billie Joe Armstrong gets it. No question. A la cinematic director Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 visual masterpiece Koyaanisqatsi, life — nationally and around the world — has tipped completely, horribly, maybe irrevocably out of balance. On one recent day alone, the headlines said it all: Freakish, climate-change-spurred floods are swamping […]
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