Rock N Roll
Story Stream
Please Don’t Ask Horsegirl to Rescue Indie Rock February 07, 2025
When she was in high school, which was not very long ago, Horsegirl’s Nora Cheng chose a Lou Reed quip as her yearbook quote: “One chord is fine. Two chords is pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.”...
Already Famous October 14, 2024
Not long ago, I received from a relative a gift subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. As it happens, I had a) been a dutiful reader of Rolling Stone as a kid throughout much of the 1990s; and b) basically forgotten it existed, finding myself a bit ...
The Decline and Fall of Rock October 11, 2024
Not only is rock music dead, it’s been dead for quite a while. Like the jazz, blues, and classical genres, it rests now in an afterlife of soundtracks and in the tombs of dark clubs and gilded concert halls, where the remnant priesthood still perform...
"The Boss" at 75 September 30, 2024
Bruce Springsteen is a force of nature.You may not like his music, his politics may annoy you, but there is no denying the charisma, exuberance, and raw power Bruce Springsteen brings to the studio and the stage. That music consists of 21 studio albu...
Born to Boss September 13, 2024
In the department of non-news, the recent revelation that Bruce Springsteen has moved from E Street to Easy Street and joined the billionaire ranks of Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Paul McCartney deserves a tick. Yes, the working-class hero from New Jer...
The Perversity of the Oasis Reunion August 28, 2024
In news that will surely have Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy flinging their arms around each other’s necks and belting out a half-pissed rendition of “Wonderwall”, Oasis are returning. Noel and Liam Gallagher are setting aside their grievance...
Why We Resurrected Oasis August 28, 2024
What are we going to talk about now? For a decade and a half, Oasis have been stranded in the subjunctive mood, caught between their warring brother-frontmen. But perhaps a reunion of some sort was always inevitable. Since they split in 2009, Chekhov...
Seventy Years of Spite and Sophistication August 26, 2024
As Elvis Costello enters his eighth decade on 25 August, it is sobering to reflect that he has now been a part of our musical furniture for almost half a century. He always looked older than he was, even at the beginning. Between the suit, the Buddy ...
'Hot Fuss' Turns 20 June 10, 2024
Let’s call it right now: “Mr. Brightside” is the white “Back That Azz Up,” the white “Gasolina.” If you play “Mr. Brightside” at a sufficiently loud volume around a crowd of sufficiently drunk white people, bedlam will ensue. The song is a shared exp...
The Rock ‘N’ Roll Humanism of Bruce Springsteen June 05, 2024
People forget how bad it was. They forget that day after day, week after week, month after month in the 1980s, the same small group of pop stars dominated radio, magazines, and TV. It was the big four: Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Bruce Spri...
The Oral History of Green Day’s ‘Dookie’ May 17, 2024
The bare butt was too much, even for Green Day.It was the early 1990s, and big record companies were courting the band. Hard. So the three East Bay stoners started making demands—some more serious than others. They got one label to take them to Disne...
With Arms Wide Open May 10, 2024
It’s high noon on a blazing April day, which is the ideal time to be sitting in an Irish pub aboard a cruise ship the size of a small asteroid. The bar is called O’Sheehan’s—yes, pronounced “oceans”—and it’s located deep within the belly of the boat,...
Steve Albini, Icon of the Rock Underground, Dies at 61 May 09, 2024
Steve Albini, an icon of indie rock as both a producer and performer, died on Tuesday, May 7, of a heart attack, staff at his recording studio, Electrical Audio, confirmed to Pitchfork. As well as fronting underground rock lynchpins including Shellac...
The Perils of Solo-itis April 19, 2024
Two of the most fearsome words in the entire rock ‘n’ roll lexicon: solo career. The genre is strewn with the wreckage of great and near-great bands that shattered into lesser side projects, seldom managing to summon the magic that attracted a mass a...
I Once Dissed Journey in a Concert Review. I Wrong. April 05, 2024
In August 2006, I was working as an arts writer for a newspaper when my editor sent me to review a Journey/Def Leppard concert at an outdoor amphitheater in suburban Salt Lake City. Thanks to the internet, I recently dug up my review.“If this had bee...
NEW HAVEN, CT (1982) “College Radio” April 01, 2024
In January of 1982, I flew from Portland to New Haven, Connecticut to rejoin my band after an extended trip home to the West Coast.Our band had formed at Wesleyan University (also in Connecticut) but New Haven would now be our home base. Our bass pl...
The Brilliant Discontents of Lou Reed January 24, 2024
To write about Lou Reed is to fight with Lou Reed. It is difficult to say, however, who started what, and there is more than a little evidence that the sourness of rock males and their broadsheets were a somewhat common culprit. It feels inaccurate t...
Master of Reality January 23, 2024
In the state of Utah today, there lives a 74-year-old British-Irish expatriate, a husband, father, and grandfather, dedicated football supporter, Ian Rankin reader, and committed vegan. Despite his quiet near-anonymity, this man was profoundly influe...
The Weird, Enduring Appeal of Tool January 19, 2024
If you were listening to rock radio in the early nineteen-nineties, you might have heard a song called “Sober,” which reflected the genre’s new mood. In the wake of Nirvana’s success, rock and roll was growing more sullen and more introverted, embrac...
