Last year the Residents celebrated the 50th anniversary of their debut, Meet the Residents. But the theatrical, quixotically anonymous band, who’ve been in costume longer than KISS, are still full of piss and vinegar and recently released longtime-in-the-making true crime concept album Doctor Dark, based in part on the 1990 heavy metal trial around two […]
Looking back at 1982 in music, the headline is obvious: Thriller Sells A Bajillion Copies, Becomes World’s Biggest Album. But is it the year’s best album? Funny enough, Michael Jackson‘s sixth LP hardly even affected the charts that year — it snuck out in late November, just as Men at Work’s 1981 blockbuster, Business as […]
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has unveiled its contenders for the Class of 2022. The ballot features seven first-time nominees including Carly Simon, Eminem, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Beck, Lionel Richie, and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as Kate Bush, Devo, Judas Priest, MC5, New York Dolls, Rage Against The Machine, Pat […]
As the stockings get hung by the chiminea with care in hopes that Papa Noel soon will be there, you might be hard-pressed to find gifts that will bring true joy to the music-obsessive in your life. Especially if they seem to have every new album or box set that comes out. But fear not, […]
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, […]
Take it from Rob Halford: It is difficult pulling leather chaps over sweaty legs. The Judas Priest frontman would learn that lesson anew when his band arrived at the since-demolished John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia to perform as part of Live Aid, which unfolded on two continents 35 years ago today. “It was an […]
The late, great Ronnie James Dio would have turned 78 today (July 9). Though he wasn’t around to celebrate, his longtime pals did instead. In a video that was released by the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund, a number of Dio’s peers and friends honored the late-singer in footage that was […]