Tag Archives: Alternative Rock

Besides being a founding member of the ur-punk band Velvet Underground, John Cale also produced three seminal proto-punk albums, the debuts of Iggy Pop’s Stooges, the Modern Lovers, and the Patti Smith Group. Cale met Elektra owner Jac Holzman in the late-’60s, who asked him to produce the first Stooges …

NoFX’s White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean, besides having a hilarious politically incorrect title, is ’90s punk at its dangerous but lovable best. Released eleven years ago by the original and best version of NoFX, the title refers to band members Erik Ghint (drums), Fat Mike (bass, vocals), Eric …

Edna Gunderson (has there ever been a less rock ‘n’ roll name) of USA Today has a nice overview of punk as it approaches the 30-year mark – trust no genre over 30? The monolithic din that rose up against disco and prog-rock in the ’70s has splintered into sonic …

I heard Gene Vincent’s 1956 coiled rockabilly great “Be Bop A Lula” on the radio this morning. It reminded me of something … December, 1989 – A woman came up to me while I was DJing at a Christmas party and asked me to work her upcoming 50th birthday party. …

I was looking for something else when I stumbled across this story from June about the Dead Kennedys suing each other – this is what happens to idealistic punks 25 years down the road. It depressed the hell out of me, so in order to counteract this, I put on …

As Dawn mentioned yesterday, we have been having no end of computer and ISP problems between the worms, virus and spybot scans, security patches, and every other manner of heinous horseshit. I had to download an anti-virus program from BitDefender, which is cool and all (that reminds me to run …

Australia’s INXS is still making a go of it – they just headlined the monsoon-plagued Live & Loud festival in Singapore with Jon Stevens singing lead in place of the late Michael Hutchence, who committed suicide in 1997. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost six years – I remember …

Perhaps after ten years it is time for Wales’ most important musical export since Tom Jones to break through in America. Super Furry Animals, led by singer Gruff Rhys, have a new neo-psychedelic gem out called Phantom Power, which doesn’t have a single as immediate and compelling as the techno-pop …

Vicious times require vicious music. Arguably, the most important industrial group of all time is Skinny Puppy, which came into being in Vancouver around ’81 when percussionist/synth player cEVIN Key left pop-electronic band Images In Vogue, and joined with vocalist Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie) in order to pursue the more …

Mark my words, it’s already been a good year for smartpop. Between the New Pornographers and Fountains of Wayne – now this summery disc from Grandaddy – canny popgeeks have had plenty of opportunity to taste the pleasures of hooks & harmonies, strummed guitars & rockin’ midtempos, subtle keybs & …