Great artists use their talents to blow minds and fill up hearts. If you can’t do that, change your course or leave the room. But assuming you’ve already got those bases covered, can you predict the future? What would you call a band who made significant sonic advancements, refused to hide their sexuality and fomented […]
I was 13 going on 14 when I started working at a family-run supermarket in Whitehorse, Yukon called Food Fair. It was the summer of 1995; Toy Story was a new movie that challenged our expectations of animation and Randy Newman; we were beginning to grapple with the reality of the Frappuccino; and we flirted […]
Dusty Hill, who passed away on July 28, was born Joe Michael Hill in Dallas on May 19, 1949. He and his older brother Rocky were raised by their mother, Myrl, who moved the family to Memphis when Dusty was five. By night she was a nightclub singer and by day and she worked in […]
Dusty Hill, who passed away on July 28, was born Joseph Michael Hill in Dallas on May 19, 1949. He and his older brother Rocky were raised by their mother, Myrl, who moved the family to Memphis when Dusty was five. By night she was a nightclub singer and by day and she worked in […]
Carl E. Thompson, better known as Chucky, a producer who’d been making hits with artists ranging from Notorious B.I.G. to Mary J. Blige since the mid-’90s, died from COVID-19 complications on Monday at the age of 53. One of Thompson’s friends and proteges, longtime Jay-Z engineer Young Guru, broke the news on Monday that Thompson […]
Analog music instruments were rendered largely outdated by the 1960s, anachronistic just as the advent of electronics fundamentally changed what music could be virtually overnight. With the creation of new instruments there comes new conduits to summon new sounds it taps into from the beyond, playing and teasing sonics into novel shapes, sizes and textures […]
George Harrison released his third solo project, the expansive triple-LP All Things Must Pass, in November 1970. And its songs — like “My Sweet Lord,” “Wah-Wah,” “Isn’t It a Pity,” “Behind That Locked Door,” and “Beware of Darkness” — solidified the former Beatle’s signature balance of earthly and divine, from his soulful slide-guitar to the searching […]
Other than the mysterious sound the dinosaurs heard before being incinerated by an asteroid 66 million years ago, the greatest one-hit wonder of all time is arguably the quadruple-platinum Bayside Boys Remix of Los Del Río’s “Macarena.” On Aug. 3, 1996, “Macarena” mounted and held down the top spot on Billboard for three-and-a-half months straight. […]
For much of the last quarter-century, Vagrant Records has been synonymous with the emo and alternative scenes. Much like how Epitaph Records and Fat Wreck Chords have become well-established homes for punk, Vagrant remains one of the most significant labels in the world thanks to a catalog featuring hundreds of beloved albums and dozens of […]
When Neal Schon revealed in April that Journey was playing Lollapalooza, the collective world met it with an eyebrow raise, a shoulder shrug and everything in between (especially when you factor in that little pandemic thing that may or may not be shutting down the country again). It seemed like an odd match for one […]