by S. Victor Aaron Love ’em or hate ’em, Styx was part of many an American boy’s soundtrack of the late 70s and early 80s. When I think of arena rock, the first two bands I think of are Journey and Styx; both bands encapsulated everything that was good andRead More

With each layer of studio gimmickry that falls away, we hear more distinctly the way John Lennon was coming to terms with middle age.

The Doobie Brothers return with the same rich blend of acoustic and electric guitars, the strutting rhythm and those sumptuous backing vocals.

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has taken his share of knocks over the years. But we’d like to give the former Richard Starkey his due.

Sometimes, we need reminding that Chicago was once a rock/jazz/blues/R&B/whack jazz band masquerading as a mainstream rock band.

by Nick DeRiso Led Zeppelin wasn’t always this thundering, then nimble, amalgamation. The band’s first album had, on its surface, only a copycat kind of appeal. Recorded over just 30 hours, these songs were presented in the same way Zeppelin would have done them on stage at the time —Read More

By Mark Saleski. It’s funny how ideas can get to bouncin’ around in your head. I mentioned this week’s PGA Championship tournament to a co-worker and after a little discussion about Tiger/Phil/Etc., I turned back to my computers. By then, I was a little distracted. OK, so I’m easily distracted.Read More

“Come Down in Time” works as a perfect metaphor, and a sad rebuke, for what later happened to Elton John and his songs.

Tonight’s “Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in Performance at the White House” — premiering at 8 p.m., and then repeating all week on PBS stations — had us digging through the stacks, looking for favorites from throughout his career. (Click through the titles forRead More

News that the Beach Boys were contemplating a reunion to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary (or not?), got us to thinking … Think Beach Boys, and many remember a group perhaps irrevocably reduced by its tragicomic storyline. Admittedly distracting plot points, beyond the 36 Top 40 hits (most of anyRead More