Lil Wayne Playing With FireRegardless of what you think of Lil Wayne as an artist, or a human for that matter, it's hard not to be fascinated by him. By the time Wayne turned 16, he'd been shot, lost a parent, become a parent, become his family's primary breadwinner, and had an album chart on the Billboard Hot 100....Read More
Trent Reznor Further Down the SpiralThrobbing Gristle could never have imagined selling 30 million records when they invented the term "industrial music" in 1976. Then again, neither could 11-year-old Trent Reznor, who was attending elementary school in small town Pennsylvania at the time. But 37 years after the birth of this...Read More
Bad Religion Empire State of MindFew bands have weathered as many storms as Bad Religion have: break-ups, drug addiction, a failed stint on a major label and the defection of one-half of the band's songwriting team, the group have seen it all. Yet over their 30-plus year career the Los Angeles punks have reached as many highs as...Read More
Soundgarden The Ups and Downs of Screaming LifeKim Thayil never expected he would play with Soundgarden again after the group's on-stage meltdown in Honolulu in early 1997. "I think everybody had resolved that this was done and we were all going off in our own directions," the 52-year-old guitarist says. "But in retrospect, it wasn't a huge,...Read More
Propagandhi Nazi Baiting and Hardcore RagingAlthough Winnipeg punks Propagandhi have only released six full-length albums, they've had an incredibly storied and controversial career. Since forming in 1986, they've endured years of skinheads crashing their shows, with the band themselves self-sabotaging concerts with reckless crowd...Read More
Cat Power Solace and SolitudeBack when she was a mess, on stage as Cat Power and off stage as Chan (pronounced Shawn) Marshall, it was almost impossible to predict which version of the singer/songwriter would show up for an interview. For almost two decades, Marshall has reckoned publicly with quasi-sobriety, anxiety,...Read More
R. Kelly The Bizarre in R&BTo paraphrase the late Aaliyah, R. Kelly never wrote anything down, he'd just come up with the songs off the top of his head. We're talking about a lot of songs too. The most prolific songwriter/producer of his generation, Robert Kelly isn't called the Pied Piper for nothing. With more than 50...Read More
John Lydon The Rotten TruthCalifornia definitely agrees with John Lydon. And that's not just because the Public Image Ltd. front-man's natural attention-grabbing personality is ideally suited to the L.A. media jungle. At age 56, a large part of Lydon is still the same Johnny Rotten that first shocked Britain, then the world,...Read More
Jack White The Third ManIt's the day after Jack White has formally debuted his two new bands ― one all-female and one all-male ― at his Third Man Studio in Nashville and six weeks ahead of the release of his first solo album, Blunderbuss. There's definitely a sense of "mission accomplished" in the air....Read More
Cannibal Corpse Staring through the Eyes of the Banned[Editor's note: Cannibal Corpse are a death metal band who utilize horror-themed imagery, lyrical content, song titles and artwork that may not be to everyone's taste. Proceed with caution.] When the members of death metal granddaddies Cannibal Corpse got together back in 1988 they...Read More
Sinéad O'Connor Nothing Compares 2 HerHas there ever been a more conflicted, tragic, talented musician than the bald child advocate, bipolar-afflicted, anal-sex-loving, Pope-picture-tearing, angel-voiced former-priest Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor? In short, no. And though she's been recording and making music since she was 14 years...Read More
Leonard Cohen Beautiful LoserHe's the little Jew that wrote the Bible, who believes love is the only engine of survival. He is still the thinking woman's sex symbol, and has been for the last 40 years. He is the young wunderkind poet who set Canadian literature aflame. He is the 32-year-old who suddenly decided to become a...Read More
The Stone Roses They Are The ResurrectionIf you were to go by pure, raw talent, there may not be a better rock'n'roll band in history than the Stone Roses. With Reni's loose grooves behind the kit, Mani's effortlessly fluid bass lines, John Squire's iridescent guitar jangle and Ian Brown's Northern swagger, their DNA certainly presents...Read More
Kid Koala Starting From ScratchIf you watch five episodes of The Muppet Show, followed by five episodes of Kids in the Hall, then you read The Little Prince, then watch two Charlie Chaplin movies, and then check out any of my albums or books, they'll make complete sense to you," jokes Eric San, the Canadian...Read More
Ryan Adams The Heartbreak KidThere will probably come a time ― hopefully far in the future ― after Ryan Adams leaves this world, when music scholars will pore over the hundreds of songs he's written, looking for clues as to who he was. There certainly will be plenty of leads for them to follow, but today, 20 years...Read More
Red Hot Chili Peppers Miraculous Masters of MayhemBack in the early '80s, no one could have guessed that Red Hot Chili Peppers would go on to become one of the world's most successful rock acts. The band's original formula was hardly made for longevity: their goofy hybrid of rock, funk and rap initially failed to make much of an impression on...Read More
Sepultura Troops of DoomIt's tough to imagine that a group of clueless Brazilian kids who, in the mid-'80s, worshipped at the altar of pseudo-Satanist thrash metallers Venom would later achieve commercial success with an album that bordered on nu-metal. But so it goes: from their early raw death metal discs, to a...Read More
"Weird Al" Yankovic Alpocalypse Now… and ThenHe could've been a fad — a one-trick pony whose skilled mockery might get tiresome quickly. But for 30 years, "Weird Al" Yankovic remains the most successful and sharpest satirist of our time, absorbing trends in music and pop culture, and spewing them back at us, charmingly highlighting the...Read More
Dr. Dre The PioneerIt's hard to imagine what hip-hop might sound without Dr. Dre. The 46-year-old producer wields a formidable influence that extends deep into popular music; he's been involved in countless classic records in his more than 25-year career. As one of the original members of N.W.A., he helped to put...Read More
Sloan Never Hear the End of ItIn early 1991, four middle-class, self-trained musicians with a love for noise rock, punk, hard rock and the Creation Records roster drew an international spotlight on Halifax, Nova Scotia when they helped initiate a buzz around the city's growing music scene. Their success, their early deal with...Read More
Regardless of what you think of Lil Wayne as an artist, or a human for that matter, it's hard not to be fascinated by him. By the time Wayne turned 16, he'd been shot, lost a parent, become a parent, become his family's primary breadwinner, and had an album chart on the Billboard Hot 100....Read More
Throbbing Gristle could never have imagined selling 30 million records when they invented the term "industrial music" in 1976. Then again, neither could 11-year-old Trent Reznor, who was attending elementary school in small town Pennsylvania at the time. But 37 years after the birth of this...Read More
Few bands have weathered as many storms as Bad Religion have: break-ups, drug addiction, a failed stint on a major label and the defection of one-half of the band's songwriting team, the group have seen it all. Yet over their 30-plus year career the Los Angeles punks have reached as many highs as...Read More
Kim Thayil never expected he would play with Soundgarden again after the group's on-stage meltdown in Honolulu in early 1997. "I think everybody had resolved that this was done and we were all going off in our own directions," the 52-year-old guitarist says. "But in retrospect, it wasn't a huge,...Read More
Although Winnipeg punks Propagandhi have only released six full-length albums, they've had an incredibly storied and controversial career. Since forming in 1986, they've endured years of skinheads crashing their shows, with the band themselves self-sabotaging concerts with reckless crowd...Read More
Back when she was a mess, on stage as Cat Power and off stage as Chan (pronounced Shawn) Marshall, it was almost impossible to predict which version of the singer/songwriter would show up for an interview. For almost two decades, Marshall has reckoned publicly with quasi-sobriety, anxiety,...Read More-2---Randee-St.-Nicholas-s.jpg)
To paraphrase the late Aaliyah, R. Kelly never wrote anything down, he'd just come up with the songs off the top of his head. We're talking about a lot of songs too. The most prolific songwriter/producer of his generation, Robert Kelly isn't called the Pied Piper for nothing. With more than 50...Read More
California definitely agrees with John Lydon. And that's not just because the Public Image Ltd. front-man's natural attention-grabbing personality is ideally suited to the L.A. media jungle. At age 56, a large part of Lydon is still the same Johnny Rotten that first shocked Britain, then the world,...Read More
It's the day after Jack White has formally debuted his two new bands ― one all-female and one all-male ― at his Third Man Studio in Nashville and six weeks ahead of the release of his first solo album, Blunderbuss. There's definitely a sense of "mission accomplished" in the air....Read More
[Editor's note: Cannibal Corpse are a death metal band who utilize horror-themed imagery, lyrical content, song titles and artwork that may not be to everyone's taste. Proceed with caution.] When the members of death metal granddaddies Cannibal Corpse got together back in 1988 they...Read More
Has there ever been a more conflicted, tragic, talented musician than the bald child advocate, bipolar-afflicted, anal-sex-loving, Pope-picture-tearing, angel-voiced former-priest Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor? In short, no. And though she's been recording and making music since she was 14 years...Read More
He's the little Jew that wrote the Bible, who believes love is the only engine of survival. He is still the thinking woman's sex symbol, and has been for the last 40 years. He is the young wunderkind poet who set Canadian literature aflame. He is the 32-year-old who suddenly decided to become a...Read More
If you were to go by pure, raw talent, there may not be a better rock'n'roll band in history than the Stone Roses. With Reni's loose grooves behind the kit, Mani's effortlessly fluid bass lines, John Squire's iridescent guitar jangle and Ian Brown's Northern swagger, their DNA certainly presents...Read More
If you watch five episodes of The Muppet Show, followed by five episodes of Kids in the Hall, then you read The Little Prince, then watch two Charlie Chaplin movies, and then check out any of my albums or books, they'll make complete sense to you," jokes Eric San, the Canadian...Read More
There will probably come a time ― hopefully far in the future ― after Ryan Adams leaves this world, when music scholars will pore over the hundreds of songs he's written, looking for clues as to who he was. There certainly will be plenty of leads for them to follow, but today, 20 years...Read More---c.-of-Warner-Music-s.jpg)
Back in the early '80s, no one could have guessed that Red Hot Chili Peppers would go on to become one of the world's most successful rock acts. The band's original formula was hardly made for longevity: their goofy hybrid of rock, funk and rap initially failed to make much of an impression on...Read More---c.-of-Nuclear-Blast-s.jpg)
It's tough to imagine that a group of clueless Brazilian kids who, in the mid-'80s, worshipped at the altar of pseudo-Satanist thrash metallers Venom would later achieve commercial success with an album that bordered on nu-metal. But so it goes: from their early raw death metal discs, to a...Read More---c.-of-Sony-Music-s.jpg)
He could've been a fad — a one-trick pony whose skilled mockery might get tiresome quickly. But for 30 years, "Weird Al" Yankovic remains the most successful and sharpest satirist of our time, absorbing trends in music and pop culture, and spewing them back at us, charmingly highlighting the...Read More---c.-Universal-Music-s.jpg)
It's hard to imagine what hip-hop might sound without Dr. Dre. The 46-year-old producer wields a formidable influence that extends deep into popular music; he's been involved in countless classic records in his more than 25-year career. As one of the original members of N.W.A., he helped to put...Read More---Lisa-Mark-s.jpg)
In early 1991, four middle-class, self-trained musicians with a love for noise rock, punk, hard rock and the Creation Records roster drew an international spotlight on Halifax, Nova Scotia when they helped initiate a buzz around the city's growing music scene. Their success, their early deal with...Read More
