CAKE Brand New from the Showroom By Jay S. Jacobs Oh, the crazy life of a rock star. The wild parties, the girls, the screaming fans, the drugs, the hotels, the groveling sycophants, the long days on the road… It is all enough to go to a guy’s head. But not if that head is … Continue reading
Justin Currie Fighting the Great War by Jay S. Jacobs Justin Currie is in the midst of a somewhat common predicament for the former lead singers of popular bands. Is it possible to create intriguing, challenging music without riding the coattails of the old band or recreating the old sound? Also, as an older, more … Continue reading
Nickelback, Seether & Saving Abel – Wachovia Center – Philadelphia, PA – March 9, 2009 It’s sometimes a little easy to forget how many Nickelback songs you know and how ubiquitous their music has been on the radio for the last several years, simply because so many of their songs kind of sound alike. However … Continue reading
Little Big Town The Band Has Landed By Mark Mussari It’s an impossible task trying to define Little Big Town. There’s no one like them in country music – or in any genre of music for that matter. And their singularity goes far beyond their unique configuration of two men and two women. Flying high … Continue reading
Tyrone Wells-Hold On (Universal Republic) Effortlessly combining pop, soul, folk and rock, Tyrone Wells has masterfully crafted a perfect mainstream debut. The Seattle, Washington native recently released Hold On, his first major label offering. He previously released Hold On via the internet, building a buzz and gaining a loyal fan base. Hold On opens with … Continue reading
Fountains of Wayne – The Trocodero – Philadelphia PA – April 28, 2007 The best live rock band in the world – Fountains of Wayne? It’s not so far-fetched. The Fountains rocked the joint recently in this gig, a show which only benefited by the venue’s colorful history (it was a burlesque joint in the 1920s). This … Continue reading
Little Big Town Four Distinct Voices in Perfect Harmony By Mark Mussari As a vocal group Little Big Town exists on a rarified plane. The country-rock quartet – whose album The Road to Here has already sold over 500,000 copies and spawned a mega-hit in the stomping Southern anthem “Boondocks” – consists of two women and two men. … Continue reading
MTV Video Music Awards Rock (Paramount-2003) and Hip-Pop (Paramount-2003) As always, Chris Rock says it best. While hosting the MTV Awards in 1997, he observes that a good video can lead you to like a bad song. And that’s pretty much what this MTV Awards collection – saluting this hip, attitudinal underdog of awards shows – should be all … Continue reading
Rosanne Cash – Black Cadillac (Capitol) The past few years, since the release of Rosanne Cash’s last album Rules of Travel, have been hard ones for the singer. Not only did she lose her legendary father (Johnny Cash died in September 2003), but she also lost her mother (Vivian Liberto Cash Distin), her beloved step-mother (June Carter … Continue reading
MTV 20 Collection Pop/Rap/Jams/Beats (Image Entertainment-2001) Although music videos are no longer important, they still hold the power to mesmerize. MTV – the art director’s dream – hardly anticipated the influence that this frenetic form would hold over the popular culture when it debuted in 1981. Call it art or call it crass commercialism, music … Continue reading
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