I got an email asking if I would audition to play drums for their upcoming tour of the US. I was thrilled to be playing with a band again, but it was also a chance for me to take photos on the road, which is my favorite thing in the world to do.
By Ronald Metellus How do you go from being a Chicago punk rock act to the nation's most ubiquitous rock band in less than three years? Not easily...
Rush fans can celebrate together that their guys have been accepted at last, and that they helped to make it happen. As a Randy Newman fan, I will still just quietly smirk at the acknowledgement that I am one of the few who gets it.
Radio Silence is full of great writers chronicling musically-induced epiphanies and musicians recounting ecstasies bred by verse and prose. Fans of both will feel giddy at this blurring of the lines between artist and audience.
For the second time in my still short life, I got to see Mr. King performing again. The Keswick Theater, a classic movie house, converted into a performance venue, is located just outside of Philadelphia. There was something especially fitting and refreshing for me to see him in such a setting.
LOS ANGELES — Rush fans can relax. The band is now officially in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Canadian rockers were welcomed into the mu...
By Alex Koenig Ten years have passed since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' breakout debut LP, Fever To Tell. A decade in the dynamic and unforgiving music bus...
Suffice it to say that sex "in my sixties" is not quite the same as sex was "during the sixties." Not that I don't still have sex, but after thirty years of marriage, I now embrace the concept of "cuddling with benefits" rather than the "Free Love" spirit of my hippie days.
"You Can’t Always Get What You Want," according to one famous Rolling Stones track. Fans might want to heed that advice, as a furious backlash has e...
It's hard to prove, one way or the other. But my critics do have some psychological science on their side.
By Alex Koenig The Exploding Hearts sought to finish what their punk forefathers started. The Portland quartet donned ripped blue jeans and dishev...
As oral arguments over California Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act begin before the Supreme Court, I can't help feeling that marriage equality will soon follow indecency and rock and roll into the halls of blasé consensus.
Dan Patrick keeps talking about creating "comprehensive history courses." What can you talk about in these comprehensive courses if you can't talk about race, gender, class... or rock 'n' roll history?
CLEVELAND — Usher, Carole King, John Fogerty, Spike Lee, Harry Belafonte and others have been added to the list of performers and presenters for...
By Alex Koenig Reviewing a Strokes album for a new generation of fans requires reminiscence so let me take you on a trip down memory lane: The fiv...
I'm not a Boomer, I'm a War Baby, born in October of 1944, the end of WWII. My generation survived everything, drugs, sex AND rock and roll. Hell, we invented them! We refuse to age; we will be dragged kicking and screaming into senility.
By year's end they had cracked the top twenty on the British charts with their first single and they had a second one on deck. Not bad for a group who had started the year off with little more than a local following in Liverpool and Hamburg, and was shuffling drummers like Spinal Tap.
In the age of Facebook, Google and Twitter, is rock really still as important a vehicle to convey the message of freedom?
Public Enemy hip hop sensation Chuck D stops by the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus at SXSW 2013 to talk about being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his Evil vs Heroes instrumental album, and the new digital label for independent artists, SpitDigital.
In 1968, protests erupted around the world. The protestors, most of them part of a new generation, demanded an end to war and dictatorships. Yugoslavia experienced youth protests in 1968 as well, though they too proceeded along a different trajectory.
The English musician Robyn Hitchcock, who turned 60 on March 3, says this in the press notes for his new album, Love From London: "Rock and roll is an old man's game now, so I'm staying in it."
Well into my forties, I still had two guitars from my boyhood and I had added a couple more when "IT" came along and transformed my love into an addiction. "IT" was eBay.
While an official confirmation of the category's retirement was never announced by NARAS, we pray for its return as rock women have NEVER gone away nor are they vanishing anytime soon.
He is a rare breed of singer-songwriter-musician, looking as comfortable behind the keyboard as he is holding an acoustic guitar. Browne's style is simple and straightforward, but that's where his elegance lies.
Suddenly tears started streaming down my face! I was shocked. And I stood there for the duration of the set weeping and feeling like a major weirdo. This? This is not what I expected.
