In June of last year Steve Lukather folded in Toto’s tent, declaring that “If there isn’t Paich or at least one Porcaro how can we even call it Toto?” Thirty years of recording, touring, enduring tragedy (drummer Jeff Porcaro’s death in 1992) and a revolving door of band members wereRead More

by Pico Times have changed a lot since Neil Young began his music career in the mid-sixties but Young’s keen awareness of the times hasn’t. And if he’s passionate about what he sees in front of him, you’ll likely see him put out music about it when the issue isRead More

Like Paul or Ringo, Roger Hodgson will forever be associated with his former band no matter much good music he’s made since he left the group. Granted, Hodgson never quite generated any more note-perfect pop standards such as “Give A Little Bit” or “The Logical Song” from his Supertramp days,Read More

The Sweet brings back memories of a time when a pop song could be ambitious, melodic – and still be popular.

by S. Victor Aaron Jeff Beck has long been at or near the top of a lot of people’s greatest guitarists lists and it’s not hard to see why. He’s a master technician, and possesses a highly unique, blues-based style that no one has even really come close to duplicating.Read More

Denny Laine — Fab, one time removed? — will forever be the other guy in Wings, the Paul McCartney-led 1970s successor band to the Beatles. Even if that belies Laine’s important earlier contributions to the Moody Blues (“Go Now,” a Wings concert staple), his occasional takeout moment with Paul’s bandRead More

by Nick Deriso There was no reason to believe that the Rolling Stones, 30 years into their dangerously debauched rock career, would make anything worth a damn out of the 1990s. In fact, the preceding decade — one in which, by far, the Stones’ best new thing was actually aRead More

by Nick DeRiso “Come Together,” a concert first envisioned as a benefit to raise anti-violence awareness through the work of John Lennon, was scheduled to be held on Oct. 2, 2001, at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall. Then came Sept. 11. This rangy event, featuring recorded snippetsRead More

NICK DERISO: “Whatever happened,” Van Morrison, erstwhile pop singer, old-soul blues gypsy, entertainer-slash-provocateur, sings here, “to the way it’s supposed to happen? And whatever happened to me?” Much, in fact, has happened. Morrison, it’s worth noting, could have settled in as a fixture on pop music’s hit-machine dead end afterRead More

Pink Floyd‘s A Momentary Lapse of Reason, alas, was no Dark Side of the Moon. Criticized then as now for being transitional and samey, though, it was far from the worst thing foisted on unsuspecting fans during the 1980s. You May Also Like: The Song That Made Pink Floyd’s ‘MomentaryRead More