In 2012, the very idea of a breakup record has been rendered something of an anachronism. The divorce-album-as-discographical-inevitability is a phenomenon that historically occurs deep into an…   Read Story »

An important thing to realize about Michael Jackson's Bad, a really great album that turns 25 today: Pretty soon after it came out, Warner Bros. spent $22 million making Moonwalker, a full-length…   Read Story »

A couple of weeks after I graduated college, as a sort of birthday present to myself, I drove down to Washington, D.C. to see a couple of my favorite bands to play a show together at D.A.R.…   Read Story »

Clipse’s “Grindin,” the first single from Lord Willin', sounded like it came from the future. It arrived, for some reason, on a VHS tape at my college radio station. We watched that video over…   Read Story »

Spoon had been around nearly a decade before they released Kill The Moonlight, and they'd been places. They'd gone from indie label to major, then to major label purgatory, and then back to the…   Read Story »

Turn On The Bright Lights is just one of those records for me. When it hit – ten years ago on Aug. 19 – I was at the age when hearing something you really liked mattered the most. I became sort…   Read Story »

On August 13, 2002, Saddle Creek Records released the third full-length album by Bright Eyes: Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground. Conor Oberst -- the band's sole constant…   Read Story »

On New Years Eve 1984, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen was driving his Corvette to a New Years Party when an Alfa Romeo challenged him to a street race. During the race, Allen's car sped off the road…   Read Story »

Having already culminated one legendary career as the voice of the Smiths, and now five years into creating what would eventually become a second legendary one as the voice of himself, Steven Patrick…   Read Story »

My favorite moment from Sonic Youth's bazillion-year history comes just after the four-minute mark of "Sugar Kane," the third single from Dirty. The band has just launched into one of its trademark…   Read Story »