Of Note
Parental advisory: Wheeler Walker Jr is possibly the filthiest country singer on record. “But tonight it’ll do,” sings Walker Jr, about a man facing thin odds and even poorer options on the tail end of …
Surf rock, as written and performed by players who were raised on grunge. Otherwise, the Buttertones are all over the place, with sonic influences from bands like the Gun Club all the way back to …
Blackberry Smoke looks like they just stepped out of a 1960s promo photo shoot — wardrobe, hair, and all — that one where the band Blue Cheer posed on a pier with their mountain of …
“It’s the quintessential classic-rock tour.” Paul Cowsill checks in by phone from his home in Oregon. He and the band are on a little break from the Happy Together tour, a road show that travels …
Hip-hop, yes, but with a tuba player. Not many acts working the genre use live instruments like the Roots do, but then again, I love bands that focus more on groove than form. The main …
Los Angeles used to be the center of the music industry, back when there was one. Now, that distinction in the post-digital era belongs to three towns: Austin, Nashville, and Brooklyn. And you’ve got to …
“Let’s get a house/ you and me/ and your 12 cats,” sings Ron Gallo. “You’ll gird my mattress with nails/ one for/ every time something psycho came out of your mouth.” Remember Neil Young and …
How these things sometimes get started: in the case of the Black Lips, from Dunwoody, Georgia, the lo-fi garage-rock band may have never come to exist if two of the founding members had not been …
In 1996, when Luther and Cody Dickinson started the North Mississippi Allstars, blues-festival promoters and record-label hacks alike saw the band as the potential salvation of a very stale blues scene (i.e., better ticket and …
Imagine the world Chris Potter saw when he stepped into the role of Next New Jazz Tenor Saxophonist. He was 18 when he broke out in New York and by then there was virtually no …
Pass This Way, the new Holla Pointe song collection, reminds me a little of the John Spencer Blues Explosion: guitars frying on overdrive that melt away into the larger grip of some concussive, sexy, groove-blues-rock …
Three years out of a stint with Procol Harum, Robin Trower in 1974 released an album that would accomplish many things all at once. Bridge of Sighs introduced pop culture to the actual prison bridge …
The pedigree is deep and jam-packed with true musical genius for this genre in which Marcia Ball specializes, meaning roadhouse New Orleans swamp boogie. It’s a music that comes out of another time and place …
Who the hell names their brand new little baby boy Dweezil? That’s a rhetorical question. I know the answer, and so do most of you. Frank Zappa and his wife Gail is who. The two …
The Wedding Present is all about David Gedge: he’s been the one constant member of that band. It’s been 35 years since he and a friend plugged in their amplifiers and began making records that …
“Where’s that place in San Diego where they have all those little galleries and restaurants — is it the Gaslamp?” Richie Kotzen asks. “Is that what they call it?” He checks in by phone from …