Good songs, good musicians, an excellent CD and great live energy make The Explosion well worthy of carrying on the tradition of their punk forebears.

The fact that soldiers who die in Iraq are called heroes may bug Ted Rall, but no matter how you look at it, they died for their country. Whether we like what the country is - or has become - is the real question.

A recent discussion on Blogcritics along with this New York Times article about the separation of church and state in Italy have prompted the following thoughts. I live in Brooklyn, the Borough of Churches. There’s practically a church on every block, and where there isn’t a church, there’s a synagogue …

Eternal life may be changing from a death-defying fantasy to something more mundane, as this new book reveals...

I hear an awful lot of cookie-cutter singer-songwriters, so I have to be careful not to overpraise those who merely don't suck.

Add it all up and you have a CD with many high points, more good songs than most CDs by much more famous artists, and a gorgeous sound.

The Bush Administration's enormous unpopularity overseas leads me to worry that the rest of the world will infer from this result something dark about the American people.

This creaky solo effort from the Incredible String Band‘s longtime banjo player only hints at the accomplishments of the British folk revival. The songs are mostly forgettable and the singing is, well, not good. It’s true that great singing was never ISB’s strong point, but the band projected an everyperson …

This concert DVD will be a real treat for fans of Procol Harum and classic rock in general. It presents the band in all its glory, playing the final show of a world tour that ended in December 2003 at the beautiful and majestic Union Chapel in Islington, London. The …

Singer-songwriters Meg Braun and Ari Scott shared a set at Cafe 111 in Brooklyn last night as part of promoter Dan Herman’s Radio Crystal Blue showcase. The two have very differerent voices, but blended surprisingly well when they accompanied each other. Highlights of the set were Braun’s “Ohio Wind,” a …