Queens of the Stone Age were so unbelievably good on tour from 2000 to 2003, that when one of the multitude of their side projects or “linked” artists blew through your city, you had to go, hoping that a glimmer of that line-up’s brilliance had managed to spread. QOTSA’s first three releases were empirical proof of their rock acumen; they …

The people in Gang Gang Dance looked to be just getting up when I arrived in their green room for an interview. Vocalist Liz Bougatsos needed to brush her teeth. Guitarist Josh Diamond fixed his self-proclaimed “Jew fro” in a crappy mirror. Keyboardist Brian DeGraw still lay face down on the sofa. It was already past 9pm, but the band …

Second Chance: Gang of Four Solid Gold 1981 Sophomore albums get a bad rap. It’s the debut album that defines the band (at least stereotypically), it’s that first energetic manifesto that says what this music is going to do to you, at least until the zeitgeist shifts and there’s a sudden switch into Zooropa territory. The second album is generally …

One of the bravest men I ever met was a guy who wore a T-shirt declaring “Your Favorite Band Sucks.” This was at Built To Spill’s St. Louis show at the now-defunct and much-lamented Mississippi Nights nightclub, way back in those heady days of 2004. I don’t say he was brave because the crowd was particularly rough or violent that …

This was a performance I never thought I’d see. I’m no Texas resident, nor am I involved in the music industry to the degree I’d be at a SXSW event, so the odds were stacked against me ever seeing the legendary Roky Erickson live. Music nerds like myself love an outsider artist, someone who’s been lost to time, overlooked by …

Part musical wizard, part hobo and part pirate, Seattle based artist Baby Gramps is known for his Popeye-like rubbled throat singing, as a charismatic entertainer and as a collector of old songs. Gramps has recently enjoyed national media exposure for his contributions to Rogue’s Gallery -Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys, a compilation of sea chanteys that spun out of …

Stereolab don’t really rock like they used to; these days they can be easy to write off as atmospheric background music. Their albums are always enjoyable, but have tended to feel increasingly inconsequential over the past few years. That’s why their newest release, Chemical Chords, came as such a welcome surprise — it still doesn’t quite “got the rock” of …

Rediscover: The Moody Blues To Our Children’s Children’s Children 1969 Rediscover is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that have flown under the radar and now deserve a second look. Like most of us, I never thought much of the Moody Blues. They were a group I’d only heard in passing. My father and his wife went to one …

Richard Edwards, frontman of Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, was not pleased with my review of his latest album Not Animal. In fact, he was so enraged about it that he sent me a long, impassioned email voicing his displeasure at my take on his music. He called my review “wrong headed” and “misguided,” among other choice adjectives. …

Rediscover: Neu! Neu! 1972 Rediscover is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that have flown under the radar and now deserve a second look. I spent my last two years of college at a Pennsylvania State University satellite school in the topographically barren burg of Middletown. It was home to miles of dead, rusted steel mills as well as …