From the start, the Damned Things’ existence seemed unlikely: What were two dudes from Fall Out Boy doing in a band with the guy from Anthrax? But FOB lead guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley knew their hard rock, and ended up sounding right at home on the band’s …
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Rising country star Lauren Alaina travelled to Los Angeles’ iconic Sound City Studios to record a cover of Cheap Trick’s classic hit “Surrender.” Alaina and her band — composed of a guitarist, bassist, banjoist and drummer — gave the song their own country flair with amped-up acoustics. “We kind of …
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Last September, the Nigerian artist Davido was a guest on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, one of rap radio’s most popular morning shows. “You got American people singing Nigerian music,” said DJ Envy, one of the co-hosts. But even as DJ Envy praised Davido songs like “Fall” and “If,” the …
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Before the release of The Downward Spiral — Nine Inch Nails‘ 1994 industrial-metal masterpiece, which came out 25 years ago today — Trent Reznor felt the need to apologize to his label. “I said to the label, ‘Look — sorry, but I don’t think there’s a fucking single in here. …
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On Friday, July 10, 2015, the worldwide music business broadly agreed on something. Having consulted on behalf of 1,300 record labels, worldwide trade body IFPI launched Global Release Day (GRD), which united the music biz’s official weekly launch moment for singles and albums to Fridays across the world. There were …
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Recently, Josh Malerman was able to splurge in a way many indie rockers can’t. At a book store in East Lansing, Michigan, he stumbled upon a copy of Stephen King’s 1977 novel Rage, a school-shooting tale written under his Richard Bachman pseudonym that’s been out of print for years. Despite …
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“RealLife Rock Top Ten” is a monthly column by cultural critic and RS contributing editorGreil Marcus. 1. Rich Kreuger, “Kenny’s (It’s Always Christmas in This Bar,” from NOWThen (RockkinK Music). Years ago in Chicago, in the middle of winter, my friend Bill Wyman was taking me to a bar: “Chicago’s …
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By day, Jennifer Turner works in law enforcement in Vancouver. But on this particular late August weekend, she’s in Cleveland, attending JemCon, an annual gathering for devotees of the colorful Eighties cartoon Jem and the Holograms. Turner’s fandom runs deep. She grew up with a single father who supported her …
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On October 3rd, Michele McLaughlin got some exciting news: Her music has been streamed over one billion times. Young artists in popular genres are racking up streams like crazy these days — presumably McLaughlin is an ascendant rapper releasing 90-second battering rams through SoundCloud? Or maybe she’s the guest vocalist …
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In the spring of 1982, Ozzy Osbourne‘s life changed in an instant. In the years since Black Sabbath had fired him, in 1979, he’d picked himself up again, put out two successful albums that helped redefine heavy metal and garnered a following that rivaled that of his previous band. A …
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