STEVE SHELLEY: ‘IF I LIKE THE PEOPLE AND THE MUSIC, I’M USUALLY IN’
Drummer Steve Shelley was a driving force behind Sonic Youth for more than 25 years, in the boiler room of a group that helped build the foundation of the indie music scene that dominated the more re...
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STYX CONTINUES TO MINE WINNING BLEND OF PROG AND CLASSIC FLAVORS
A great number of music fans have misconceptions about Styx, but the band that has been together in one form or another for over 50 years sees the phenomenon as an opportunity, not a determent. “T...
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PETER HOOK REFLECTS ON NEW ORDER, JOY DIVISION AND ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION
Growing up in Manchester, the concerts Peter Hook attended represented an unreachable ideal. “When I went to see Deep Purple and when I went to see Yes, I never looked at them and thought that I c...
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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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