Here was Billy Joel: talented, confident and getting ready to bust out into superstardom.

What I want to do now is describe the “whatness” of the music of the band Rush.

Photo by Mark Seliger by Nick DeRiso “The Afterlife,” featured on Paul Simon’s forthcoming album So Beautiful or So What, is pulsing and sinewy — almost like a lost track from Graceland. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. See, Simon has said the premise of this new recording wasRead More

Photo from Todd Rundgren’s MySpace page by Something Else Reviews Todd Rundgren has announced five spring concerts, during which he will perform a pair of albums in their entirety, Todd and Healing. The first-ever live stagings of these two releases, held in September of last year, found Rundgren on stageRead More

by Mark Saleski While many “serious” jazz fans will turn up their precious noses at the jazzification of pop tunes, we here at SomethingElse! steadfastly believe that life is too short to be keeping that bow tie so tight. Sure, we love us some Miles and ‘Trane, but that doesn’tRead More

Was thinking about the aptly titled Buffalo Springfield Again, and this brilliant grungy mess, after hearing news that the band would reform for a tour later in the year. Recorded in 1967 for the second of what would be a brief three-album tenure for Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul”Read More

by Something Else Reviews It’s true, as Randy Newman once impishly sang, they were six fine English boys who knew each other in Birmingham. After that, things got tricky for the Electric Light Orchestra. Despite an impressive string of 1970s hits, they became an easy target. People knocked the strings.Read More

“Naw man, don’t buy that record, the rest of the album is no good,” said the long-haired, moustached guy at the record store. I had just heard Billy Thorpe’s “Children of the Sun” on the local album-rock radio station and I just knew that the long player of the sameRead More

Photo from petergabriel.com by Something Else Reviews Anybody who names his first four solo recordings after himself is going to require some deciphering, right? We’re here to help with a five-song spin through Peter Gabriel’s solo career, featuring both charting favorites and a few forgotten gems.             “HERE COMES THE FLOOD”Read More

by Something Else Reviews Gary Moore, former guitarist with Thin Lizzy and Skid Row, has died at age 58. The Belfast-born Moore, perhaps most famous for his 1979 hit “Parisienne Walkways” with the late Phil Lynott, was found dead in a hotel room Sunday while vacationing at the Costa delRead More