Jon Chattman

According to founding Beach Boy Mike Love, there has never been a post-1990s Axl Rose vibe going on with his band. Sure, the singer/songwriter admits he and the iconic band have had a bunch of bumps along the way, but it never got to a point where they truly lost...

Tron: Legacy. Chinese Democracy. A credible Cagney & Lacey reunion TV movie. Some things in life take way too long to come into fruition that when they finally do they fail to measure up to even reasonable expectations. Thankfully that's not the case with the new Garbage album Not Your...

I remember when I was in college, I was the first of my friends to buy the cassette tape (damn, I'm oldish) of Liz Phair and a bunch of other talented artists. When the 1990s edgy singer/songwriter broke, it felt so good to brag to friends how I discovered her...

I had it planned out in my head. The first question I'd ask Eric Benét would be to discuss "Hallie... " then I'd pause briefly before he could get a word in, and say "Steinfeld -- the teen star of True Grit." Depending on his answer and assuming he...

Photo: Alex Lake

Their first album, Hopes & Fears, spawned the epic hit "Somewhere Only We Know" and other standouts that packed an emotional wallop and charmed the pants right off of us (well, not literally). Their second effort, Under The Iron Sea,...

The music video for Adam Tyler's single "Like a Drug" features him wearing makeup, dancing around with scantily-clad men and women, and locked up in some kind of sex prison. The video feels like a sexier, dirtier and in living color of Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" music video, only it...

He's been a VH1 "You Oughta Know" artist, has played just about every late night show on the planet, and has had a bunch of hit songs since the release of his 2007 debut Sounds Like This. The one thing singer/songwriter Eric Hutchinson hasn't done, however, is perform a song...

It was April 5, 1994. I had just gotten home from high school, and was playing a video game while listening to late great New York alt-rock and new wave station WDRE when the deejay broke in to say a body had been found in Kurt Cobain's home. As the...

Who doesn't like to start their morning off with a Danish quintet? I'm referring to a band that plays exceptionally well versus a plate full of pastries by the way -- although both options are quite nice. In any event, the Coppenhagen-based Alcoholic Faith Mission stopped by the Music Conservatory...

"It's the one thing, as artists, that we get to keep to ourselves," Imagine Dragons' front man Dan Reynolds said when asked the meaning of the band's name. Yep, with apologies to fan boys all over the world and quite possibly Middle Earth, the buzzworthy Las Vegas alt-rock group didn't...

"And Now for Something Completely Different..."

That line is of course a Monty Python reference but it really applies to this particular edition of "A-Sides," which finds three completely different artists sharing their craft in a typical laid-back setting. First up are Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds, a Brooklyn-based...

Apologies to Wayne Campbell, but perhaps there's a lot more going on in Delaware than he first thought. The Spring Standards, a trio of musicians (James Cleare, Heather Robb, and James Smith) who hail from the Blue Hen State or close to it anyway, have magically swept us away with...

Jean Dujardin and The Artist danced their way to an Oscar a few months ago, but it could be a different "silent film" that could actually have more staying power. The Oxford-based band known as A Silent Film (hence the cornball intro) are on the verge of releasing Sand &...

Some bands refuse to play some of their songs live. Radiohead immediately comes to mind, because for the most part, they rarely perform their mega-hit "Creep" on tour. The reasoning varies from band to band, but in the case of Thom Yorke and company I'm pretty sure they nixed that...

To quote the classic rock "sexy time" song by Foreigner, it's been feeling a lot like "the first time" for Obie Trice lately, and I mean that strictly in terms of his music. The hip-hop artist's third album, Bottoms Up marks the first time in which he's released a title...

For the better part of the 1990s, plaid shirts and Seattle grunge rock were king. I'm not saying Biggie Smalls and Jewel weren't top stars of the decade, but for me, I was all about that lethal combination. Back in the "pogs" decade, my late best friend Stephen and I...

It seems the music industry -- charts and award shows anyway -- are too focused these days on Adele, her majesty's clones, auto-tuned hip hoppers and tween artists that appeal to the Twilight generation. Frankly, it all kind of sucks. I mean Adele is unquestionably amazing, but what ever happened...

Alt-rock was king in the early-to-mid 1990s with acts like Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Weezer dominating the music scene. But, as the decade drew to a close, the music well dried up with genre-bending acts like Korn and Limp Bizkit taking over. Then came Orgy. The California band...

In 1989, Debbie Gibson released her second album Electric Youth, and it blew up mainstream radio charts. The sophomore effort by the teen queen included the mega-hit "Lost in Your Eyes," the catchy title track with a cool accompanying video, and a personal favorite -- the ballad "No More Rhyme."...

Anti-Flag have been saying what's on their minds for over two decades. Why stop now? The punk rockers from Pittsburgh are back with their eighth studio album The General Strike, and like previous efforts, it finds the band speaking against injustices in the world and the government's abuse of power....