NEW BOOK EXPLORES THE ‘MIRACLE AND WONDER’ OF PAUL SIMON’S ‘GRACELAND’
In retrospect, Paul Simon’s “Graceland” is venerated not just as a brilliant, timeless, genre-spanning album, but something more broadly important: a bridge between the west and Africa during the hei...
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METAL SINGERS PUT NEW TWIST ON ‘TRANSFORMERS’ SOUNDTRACK
Six years after the country was consumed with the death of JR Ewing on the TV drama “Dallas” in 1980, another character’s demise was rattling a different fanbase: Optimus Prime, the altruistic leader ...
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THE CRYSTAL METHOD: ‘WE DID SOMETHING MONUMENTALLY DIFFERENT’
In early August of 2001, the Billboard album chart was topped by Alica Keys’ “Songs in A Minor,” *NSYNC’s “Celebrity” and Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor.” Creeping in at No. 32 was “The Tweekend,” th...
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JOHN MAILANDER’S FORECAST PUSHES THEIR LIMITS ON NEW EP
Multi-instrumentalist John Mailander calls his band Forecast, but the project’s musical output is anything but predictable. Initially relying on his foundation in bluegrass, the group’s new EP, “L...
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FAMILY STEREO: ‘ATMOSPHERE INSPIRES ME JUST AS MUCH AS WORDS DO’
Family Stereo, the eclectic musical project of Blake Watt, has some momentum at his back as he releases his debut album, "The Thread." He's already played at festivals in his native UK like Kendal Ca...
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THE HOOTERS’ ERIC BAZILIAN BREAKS THROUGH THE ECHO CHAMBER WITH ‘BETTER TIMES’
Songwriting is a famously confessional exercise in which artists bare their innermost emotions and share them with the world. But Eric Bazilian, the lead vocalist of The Hooters, took a different app...
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BURIAL GROUND LIVES AGAIN: BRIAN QUINN RETURNS AS PA HARDCORE VETS HONOR THEIR FALLEN
A Pennsylvania band that was dead and buried – pardon the wordplay – is back with new music and a gig this Saturday at a benefit that is bringing together some of the PA hardcore scene’s central figu...
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REUNITED SIDE OVER FEELS SADNESS AND JOY IN HONORING LOST COMRADES
The surviving members of northeastern Pennsylvania hardcore band Side Over are certain of it: if their former bandmates were still alive, they wouldn’t be performing on Saturday. Or at all. “No, n...
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ROLLING STONES ARE GLORIOUSLY PREDICTABLE WITH ‘FOREIGN TONGUES’
That the Rolling Stones are still above ground is a blessing. That they are still making good music is a minor miracle. On "Foreign Tongues," their 27th studio album, the band is in top form as they ...
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‘PEOPLE OF SUBSTANCE’ CRAIG FINN AND PATTERSON HOOD — STORIES AND SONGS IN BROOKLYN
Craig Finn and Patterson Hood have been writing the storied "Great American Novel" for decades. Finn, with The Hold Steady and on his own, has been building a world of Midwestern scenesters and drug-...
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