Musings on the past and present state of music, film, and pop culture. Get off my lawn.
Royal Thunder ‘Wick’ Review: Atlanta rockers continue refining their unique blend of moody, anthemic metal. [rating=4] Atlanta’s Royal Thunder proved a revelation on their 2015 release Crooked Doors. That album showed a quantum leap in development of the group’s moody and muscular brand of hard rock. It also cemented Mlny Parsonz as one of the […]
Albums Revisited: Alice in Chains’ ‘Sap’ Turns 25: Seattle Grunge stars acoustic EP remains one of their most satisfying efforts. February 4th marks the 25th anniversary of Sap, Alice in Chains 5 song EP, which filled the gap between 1990’s Facelift and their 1992 full-length epic Dirt. And while Sap didn’t get the same attention and […]
20 Years Ago Danzig Made A Techno Album For Disney’s Record Label: remembering Blackacidevil, Glenn Danzig’s lost industrial techno album. When Glenn Danzig parted ways with his “classic lineup” in 1995 (guitarist John Christ, bassist Eerie Von and drummer Chuck Biscuits), it wasn’t on the best of terms. He would also jump ship from Rick Rubin’s American […]
Albums Revisited: Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ turns 30: our own Diamond Dave Dierksen looks back at the grunge underdog’s iconic debut thirty years on. By David Dierksen On August 27, 1991, Pearl Jam released their début record Ten. And no one really gave a shit. A little under a month later, Nirvana released Nevermind. And still, […]
Deftones ‘Gore’ Review: alt-metal titan’s latest rewards repeat listens. [rating=4] Sacramento’s Deftones have plugged away valiantly for nearly three decades, eclipsing, obliterating and transcending any affiliation with their late-90’s nu-metal peers. They’ve embraced elements of more experimental musical movements, integrating them into new and unusual shapes within their metal underpinnings. It speaks volumes to the […]
Albums Revisited: Alice in Chains ‘Facelift’ Turns 25 On August 21st, 2015, Alice in Chains’ début album ‘Facelift‘ celebrates its 25th anniversary. Good god. Really? I feel old. It’s interesting to look back on ‘Facelift’ and see just how important it was in the scheme of 90’s alternative music. Pre-dating Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’, it helped establish […]
20 Best David Letterman Alternative Musical Performances: counting down the best alt-rock musical guests over The Late Show hosts’ 33 year career. On Wednesday, May 20, 2015, CBS’s The Late Show with David Letterman will be signing off. The veteran comic host may still be entertaining us in some form or fashion, but his retirement from the late night talk show […]
April 5th, 2015 marked the 13th anniversary of the death of Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley. The singer passed away in 2002 after battling heroin addiction. Eerily, fellow Seattle grunge icon Kurt Cobain would take his own life on that same date in 1994. But while Nirvana are still seen as alternative icons, Alice in […]
Royal Thunder ‘Crooked Doors’ Review: rocky breakup = hard rock bliss. [rating=5] I don’t why some songs can induce the chills. All I can say is that it’s a rare occurrence, but when it happens you know you’ve heard something special. That was my visceral reaction to Time Machine, the powerful opening track to Royal Thunder’s new album […]
Albums Revisited: Alice In Chains ‘Jar Of Flies’ Turns 20: A look back at one of the biggest selling E.P’s of all time. I feel quite old today, because tomorrow Alice In Chain’s ‘Jar of Flies’ celebrates its 20th anniversary. Wasn’t I just in college, moping around to the sullen yet gorgeous acoustic driven tunes […]
