If any band best exemplifies the musical stereotype of "sad-sack, maudlin college rock” it is Aqualung. Apparently, singer Matt Hale and gui...

Not since Cheap Trick has any quartet made such exacting power pop as Austin, Texas’s Cruiserweight on their debut bulldozer ride through th...

How is it that Winnipeg label Bacteria Buffet became the Canadian ska mecca? Following such fantastic releases as those by the Barrymores an...

With the news of Decahedron’s recent break-up on my mind, it’s impossible not to feel like the band’s efforts were wasted ones. Decahedron’s...

While comparisons to Rob Zombie are unavoidable where Scum of the Earth’s debut is concerned (for a variety of reasons — most notably that t...

Looking like the love child of Jackie and Blackie Onassis and dredging up an orgiastic frenzy of scuzzy, bottom-feeding riffs, Melissa Swing...

The Canadian lead singer/pop star scenario has another chapter thanks to Trevor Hurst. The solo debut by former Econoline Crush lead singer,...

The fact that Adrian Belew has had a storied career (stints with Frank Zappa, David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails) and is a wildly creative guit...

While many folk acts lately have gotten a lot of critical kudos by mining the gothic sounds of the American South (Iron and Wine, Jolie Holl...

Following her previous, totally homegrown (she recorded, produced, wrote and played everything) effort, Educated Guess, Ani DiFranco has tak...

It was once said that the only band in the Seattle scene of the ’90s that fit the term grunge was Alice in Chains. Following that line of lo...

Exactly how self-important must Gene Simmons be to have released Speaking In Tongues? The DVD is marketed as a sort of self-help video, à la...

Not unlike all of the instalments of Live By Request, Blondie’s contribution to the series was supposed to be a greatest hits live collectio...

Why Blondie even bothered agreeing to do a Live By Request set is something of a mystery. Did they honestly think anyone other than the host...

The F-Ups are the worst kind of pre-packaged pabulum: catchy yet vacant and inauthoritative and destined for mainstream airwaves. The F-Ups...

If it’s true that techno’s appeal for its fans is imagining the sound of a large, cosy waiting room where people can dance and relax until c...

The Barrymores are proof that ska and reggae music don’t necessarily need a message for the music to be good (a sentiment often forgotten th...

In support of my theory that even a mediocre punk band can sound fantastic if you put acoustic guitars in their hands, I submit the cases of...

How can doing something as simple as mixing hardcore’s urgency with ska’s inherent pogo and horn section sound as fresh as on the Ceremonial...

After Picture Show, Devinshire’s Buffseeds will probably spend the next couple of records distancing themselves from the barrage of Coldplay...