Steve Wynn has the patience of a saint. When he formed the Dream Syndicate in 1981, he was up against it, as all the hip critics were falling over themselves to tell the world how little they cared about guitar-based… Read More
At age 13, I encountered my first bootleg: a murky cassette of a Nirvana performance from 1988, seemingly recorded from a toilet stall in the building next door. Over the years, I’ve counted myself fortunate to have had this early… Read More
In the summer of 2011 the Syrian civil war broke out. After struggling for four years to hold on in the capital of Damascus where they lived, the Al Khatib family – ranging in age from teens to grandparents –… Read More
Prince’s 1991 album Diamonds and Pearls, which introduced his band the New Power Generation, is by some counts his second best-selling album period, after Purple Rain. It went double-platinum. It contained his fifth, and final (to date), #1 single. Yet… Read More
On the 28 March 1977, while This Heat were recording their first radio session with producer Tony Wilson and engineer Dave Dade, the Sex Pistols were over at London’s Notre Dame Hall ushering in their end of days with Sid… Read More
“Rockit” by Herbie Hancock, an unlikely sound track in 1983, arrived as a completely tangential entry into the world of pop. But besides reaching the Billboard #1 dance hit that summer, it broke a number of other thresholds as well.… Read More
At one time in the distant-seeming past, DOC NYC was one of the highlights of any self-respecting nonfiction movie geek’s calendar. Sure, American Film Institute and Hot Docs clue people in to some highlights of the year’s offerings. But if… Read More
Bassist and composer Charles Mingus used to be a figure of controversy for ten different reasons, some political, some personal, and—though this all seems silly in the new century—some musical. Mingus could be difficult with audiences, tough on fellow musicians,… Read More
Not much has changed for Kurt Wagner since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nashville native spent most of his time in the house, anyway — listening to music, tinkering with songs for his long-running band Lambchop, and carrying… Read More
At the start of the century, in the UK at least, Travis were everywhere. Their brand of earnest, plangent indie rock was a soothing balm for the pre/post-millennium morass, which threatened to make airplanes crash from the skies and terminally… Read More