Little Richard

The Beatles' Please Please Me turns fifty

Fifty years ago today, the Beatles' electrifying debut album, Please Please Me was issued in the U.K. Designed to reproduce the manic intensity of an early Beatles' live performance and hastily produced to meet demand after the group's song of the same name rocketed to number-one on the British sing ... More >>

The 50 worst rock/pop lyrics: The Complete list

Well, here we are, at the end of the road of lyrical idiocy. As our countdown to crappiness finally culminates, we've trained our eye on some of the greatest lyricists in rock, who during select moments, greatly disappointed us with their valueless verse. These lyrics are all bad on their own terms, ... More >>

Ten Essential albums from the CBGB scene

It's easy to look at what's become of rock music over the last three and a half decades and find countless traces of the CBGB micro-culture and the fast-and-loud aesthetic it cultivated. During their now-legendary years at CBGB, bands like the Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie and Patti Smith were dis ... More >>

The ten traits of the perfect frontperson

The best frontmen and women all have something in common. Whether it's their ability to connect with a crowd or the swagger with which they carry themselves, their fashion sense, the intrigue that surrounds them or their reckless disregard for their own well being, they all have that ineffable "it" ... More >>

In Memphis's story of race and music, no happy ending is necessary

The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced turns 45

When he came storming onto the scene, Jimi Hendrix made weepy children out of the world's best guitar players, bringing a primal sexuality and grace to his playing that only a true master of the craft could muster. Guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Pete Townsend had spent nearly the whole ... More >>

R.I.P. Levon Helm, 5/26/40 - 4/19/12

See Also: At the Helm - A throat cancer survivor, the Band's Levon Helm can't sing anymore -- but the beat goes on Levon Helm, iconic drummer and singer extraordinaire of the Band, died yesterday at the age of 71, after a long and strenuous battle with throat cancer. Helm's imaginative drumming and ... More >>

R.I.P. Dick Clark, 11/30/29 - 4/18/12

See Also: Firefall's Jock Bartley on American Bandstand and the time Dick Clark called the band "Firefly" When Dick Clark died earlier this week from a massive heart attack at the age of 82, he left a musical legacy that's far too comprehensive and broad to easily sum up. Clark may have spent the l ... More >>

John Waters on beer, bathroom reading and his signature mustache

Interviewing some celebrities can be as excruciating as putting out a campfire with your face, but talking to John Waters is a lot like talking to a friend -- that is, if you have friends who have made freaks, gays, drugs, abortions and religion into delightfully irreverent movies that have defined ... More >>

Sounds of Blackness: Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in history. Before being gifted with a guitar at the age of fifteen, Hendrix used a broom stick in place of the instrument that would later become his most beloved method of communication. Born Johnny Allen Hendrix in November 1 ... More >>

Sesame Street's five best musical cameos

Elvis is everywhere​Elvis Costello finally made his Sesame Street appearance last week with a number-orientated rendition of "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes." The show is a well-tread, 42-year-old road that has included a charmingly sweet Tony Bennett, an unexpectedly fitting LL Cool J, ... More >>

Grant Hart contemplates his losses and the stories behind his music

Q&A with King Khan about reviving dying rats with weird prayers and the source of his blood curdling screams

Megan Cullen​ While this week's profile on King Khan focused primarily on his trip to jail and how he first got into garage music, it only scraped the surface of our interview with the guy. Known for some insanely great live shows both with the Shrines and BBQ Show, Khan gives almost an equal ... More >>

Q&A with Vaughn Harris of Nitzer Ebb

​Nitzer Ebb, from Essex, England, helped to define the musical style called EBM with its heavy industrial rhythms and stark vocals. As with emo, another much-maligned genre, EBM started out as a vital and relevant music whose pioneers never chose to name with a blanket term to encompass a music th ... More >>

JACK Flash

Folk art hangs at Oskar Blues.

Delegating Denver #13 of 56: Georgia

Soda Pop Kids Return

Ex-members of Kill City Thrillers, Scott Baio Army and Call Sign Cobra come back for a sort of homecoming.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of 7/26/2007

The Message

It's Alive

No Apologies

Junior Senior is proud to be a silly dance band.

Best Sunday Church Service Without the Church

Reverend Leon's Revival

Master Blaster

Hip-hop loyalist and rock-and-roll revivalist Cody ChesnuTT has guitar, headphones -- and will travel to the center of your brain.

Mojo's a No-Go

A grimy group of violent, English losers leaves this critic cold.

Stop Your Sobbing

In the wake of September 11, Ray Davies reconsiders his past and looks to the future.

Mos Def

Black on Both Sides
(Rawkus)

Hooked on Phonics

Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-fonics echo the happy days of Fifties rock.

The Wide World of Rap

Exploring the endless variety of today's hip-hop.

Songs of the Century

Part one of a pre-millennial salute to the music that made America sing.

Rats Race

The B-Movie Rats want to star as the next monsters of rock.

A Star Is Boring

Strip Show

Musically speaking, the Gaza Strippers put it all on.

The Schlong Goodbye

Snake Charmers

Denver's Boa and the Constrictors squeeze new life out of jump blues.

Pussy Whipped

The pulchritudinous charms of Nashville Pussy.

And the Winners Are ...

Handing out the trophies for 1997's best albums.

Do the White Thing

Playlist

Whores and Pigs and Ponies--Oh, My!

Heavy, Man.

The ten worst concept albums of all time.

POETRY IN MOTION

THE LAZY COWGIRLS GET BUSY

THRILLS

OHIO OR BUST

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM: GREAT IDEA OR SIGN THAT THE END IS NEAR?

PLAYLIST

AT THE FLOP

THE UGLY TRUTH

THE ROCK-AND-ROLLERS WHOSE FACES COULD STOP A CLOCK. UGLY A LOOK AT THE MOST FRIGHTENING FACES IN ROCK AND ROLL.

PLAYLIST

POOR UNCLE ALBERT

PLAYLIST

PLAYLIST