Early fans could be forgiven for barely recognizing Chicago by the 1980s, as fussy power ballads eventually flushed out the band’s signature horn sound.

Steely Dan explore the idea of people succumbing to their worst tendencies again and again, a theme that will get many return visits.

Steely Dan stuck with me through the years, because this brainy, Jack Kerouac-type hipster band remained appealing even as my tastes in music evolved.

In defense of Rush, a band that delved into Ayn Rand, sci-fi, songs about balding, fights between dogs and, well, whatever a Bytor is.

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 Gregg Rolie’s website by Nick DeRiso Gregg Rolie, a founding member of Santana and then Journey, is probably best remembered as this tiny speck playing keyboards in a sold-out arena. That makes the deeply introspective new EP Five Days, recorded live with just piano and vocals, an unexpectedRead 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

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