This was a rare thing: an album of guitar music where the guitar isn’t really the point. Put a different way, it’s the ideas that are given the focus, not the chops. You May Also Like: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – ‘Connection’ (2023) Bill Frisell – Music IS (2018)

For Killing Joke fans, 2007 was a pretty cool time. First, there was Inside Extremities, which offered a previously unreleased 1991 concert, and then there are these releases: two three-disc sets (at a very low price-point) of live material from the band’s career throughout the 1980s and early ’90s. OfRead More

This kind of “modern rock” does nothing for me. Even if I was able to ignore the ever-present my-life-sucks theme (which is pretty danged tough to do) the music alone would drive me away. You May Also Like: Modern Lovers, “Pablo Picasso” (1976): One Track Mind

Saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart’s roots come from both Switzerland and Guadeloupe, but his debut album for ObliqSound was informed by much more, including music descending from Morocco as well as American jazz and funk. You May Also Like: Brinsley Schwarz on His Eponymous Band, Graham Parker and New Solo Work ScaryRead More

It wasn’t enough that we got not only the amazing Blackfield II album, and one great album and an equally great EP from Steven Wilson’s main band, Porcupine Tree (Fear of a Blank Planet and Nil Recurring, respectively) in 2007, we then got this live DVD to sate the desiresRead More

Quite a few years back I had a discussion with a close friend about a certain ‘famous’ musician. I say ‘famous’ because the musician’s name has been dropped from both of our memories You May Also Like: The Knack – ‘Round Trip’ (1981): Forgotten Series

Best-of albums are starting to make sense to me. Is that nostalgia? Or perhaps I’m just getting old. You May Also Like: When Peter Gabriel Suddenly Decided to Open Up on ‘Us’ How Tesla’s ‘Real to Reel’ Set Redefined the Classic Rock Cover Album Robbie Dupree, Chicago, Yes’ Peter BanksRead More

After the blast of intensity and creativity of Remission, fans expected nothing less than more of the same. Oddly, Leviathon does not deliver and listeners are the better off for it. Instead of continuing where the last album left off, with an apocolyptic, dense roar, Mastodon opted for variety andRead More

I think it’s pretty cool that the band opted to not carry the Black Sabbath moniker for their tour in support of the material Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi and Co. recorded as Black Sabbath in the early 1980s, then again in the early 1990s, and once again this yearRead More

The secret of the Machines is that they have an addictively fun, poundingly-heavy beat that is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, and they have a penchant for really stretching out their compositions for texture and emphasis. It’s prog-rock without the slightest hint of twee frilliness. Road was an EP with aRead More