Tag Archives: Alternative Rock

I DJ’d my very first “radio show,” closed-circuit not broadcast, in 1974 to an audience of about 15 in the Chagrin Falls High School cafeteria. I was nervous as hell. The first band I played was Sparks – I was practically born cool. The L.A. band Sparks’ first two albums …

I was just going through some of my old radio playlists from the early-to-mid ’90s, and I was startled how much I played a band that I have barely thought of since: Helmet. Talk about rocking the rectum! The very respectable and preppy-looking band led by Glenn Branca-alumnus Page Hamilton, …

If nothing else, the controversial Rolling Stone list of greatest guitarists has generated much thought. I was sitting around thinking about the different guitar sounds I value, and it suddenly occurred to me how much I love James Calvin Wilsey’s (ex of the punk band the Avengers) neo-classicist work with …

My son Chris wrote this review – I forgot to post it, like a douchebag. On Tuesday the 22nd of July I went to the concert event of the summer, Ozzfest, at Blossom near Cleveland. That was the greatest day in my 16 years of life. I had many new …

The start of another tour, last night’s concert webcast, and the forthcoming R.E.M. greatest hits (from the Warner Brothers years only – ’88-03) remind me that the band has never made music I want to hear more than their very first full-length album, Murmur Murmur is still the group’s defining …

R.E.M. began their six-week North American tour last Friday at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, where they have been working on their next studio album. They have a new collection, In Time: The Best Of R.E.M., 1988-2003, coming out in October. The second show of the tour, tonight in Missoula, Montana, …

Though veterans of two EP’s and two albums on Lookout Records, the East Bay’s Green Day (Billy Joe Armstrong – guitar, vocals; Mike Pritchard – bass, vocals; Tre Cool – drums) were barely in their 20’s when they came to Reprise Records seeking Rob Cavallo for his work with the …

A sloppy, disgusting, glorious mess, and the first documentation of the London punk scene, the great The Roxy London W.C.2 (Jan.-Apr. ’77) live compilation beats you over the head with the earliest Buzzcocks (‘Breakdown,” “Love Battery”), Wire (“1.2.X.U.,” “Lowdown”), X-Ray Spex (“Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”), The Adverts (“Bored Teenagers”), and …

While most agree the Ramones’ astonishing first album – which roared through the competition like a 747 in a paper airplane contest – is their most important album, it isn’t my favorite. My favorite is one of the band’s most eccentric, produced by the enigmatic pop icon Phil Spector, and …

What can you say about the Ramones’ first album, other than that it is THE American punk album, an endless wellspring of monolithic noise, energy and attitude? Working for Sire Records, producer/talent scout Craig Leon became involved with the percolating New York underground music scene. One summer night in ’75 …