“The Heartbreakers blew everyone away, for no more reason than that they were just more experienced — they had their roots in R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. They were able to go onstage and draw on all that, whereas these kids (The Damned, Clash, and Sex Pistols) couldn’t draw on anything yet. Real rock […]
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“I’ve kind of gotten to a place where I’ve done that quite a bit where it’s just like, you can overthink things too much. And just say, I’m gonna write a simple riff, the simplest thing, and just put it together and not think about it and not over-analyze it and just see what […]
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The Rolling Stones have inspired approximately 40 billion words of effusive praise, irrational hate, and all points in-between. Yet, it’s astonishing how few of those words actually address how their various musical parts have fit together, especially at their peak. Voyeuristic tales of drug abuse, debauched sex, satanism (real or imagined), more drug abuse, intraband […]
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It’s not often I get to participate in a private anthropological field study, let alone one that’s pants-optional. However, this weekend I’m a cultural warrior battling mano-a-mano for the soul of American music. Hyperbole? Probably. Essentially true? That would be yes. Wiggins, Mississippi, is the site of Wigginstock, a two-day symposium on the future […]
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Once upon a time, Superchunk was the little band that could. Then, they were the slightly bigger band that did. From 1991-95, they were a melodic punk turbine of flawless, in the studio, as songwriters and arrangers, and especially as a live unit. They got slightly bigger, and while their live shows were still […]
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