Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar said back in 1988 that “alternative music has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum.” That’s a great explanation of what started during the late-‘70s to early-‘80s as college radio features like Dead Kennedys… Read more
Photo Credit: Bryan Lasky One thing that’s impossible to deny, for better or worse, is that John Mellencamp’s voice is not what it once was. On his twenty-fourth studio album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, the veteran rocker’s singing sound deeper, rougher, and considerably more gravelly (part of this could be just aging, but probably has more… Read more
Photo Credit: Getty Images Before he passed away on January 20th at age seventy-four, singer Michael Lee Aday had never quite been able to successfully quell the common misconception that his stage moniker, Meat Loaf, was the name of a band (within days of his death, the “People also ask… ” feature on Google revealed… Read more
Photo Credit: Mat Hayward/Getty Images Ever since Lana Del Rey had her breakthrough back in 2012 with what some critics described as the “shallow,” “overwrought,” and “depressing” Born to Die, Lana has remained a contemporary pop mystery who rarely appears on TV shows or in interviews. Even though Born to Die would prove some of the most negative… Read more
After the release of her 2017 album Masseduction, Annie “St Vincent” Clark admitted that she had taken the angular sounds that had defined her music up to that point as far as she could. Since bursting onto the scene in 2007 with Marry Me, Clark’s music has progressively become starker and sharper; defined by idiosyncratic arrangements and… Read more
Photo Credit: Emma Viola Lilja Almost immediately after bursting onto the music scene, Britain’s Sam Fender was hailed as the future of rock music; winning the esteemed Brits Critics Choice award – previously awarded to the likes of Adele and Sam Smith. Fender’s full-length debut largely delivered on his early promise; filled with anthemic, timely… Read more
Photo Credit: Haris Nukem Creeper was formed in Southampton, England in 2014. From the beginning, Creeper created a type of rock that could be, and is occasionally, described as horror punk. Now, for me, if you aren’t from Lodi and you don’t have a one-rep max over 250 on the bench, you aren’t a horror… Read more
Photo Credit: Disney+ In 1963, the same year that the Beatles first became a phenomenon in the UK and Europe, Kurt Vonnegut published the novel Cat’s Cradle. In the book, the protagonist ultimately discovers that the founder of the religion that he follows devoutly is, and always was, just a man. This is sort of the feeling… Read more
Photo Credit: Jordan Hemingway When Wolf Alice is good, they’re really good. Brilliant. The second track on Wolf Alice’s third studio album is one of the most well-written songs of the year, telling the tale of a young girl’s quest for a spot at the top in the City of Angels (“I’m socially anxious and… Read more
We are heading toward the end of 2021 and it has been…real. As Shakespeare said, “If music be the food of love, play on.” The following records have kept our bellies full and our hearts pumping. Listen in hopes of better times. In no particular order, here are our top ten rock albums of the… Read more