Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul were nearly done with their set at London’s Roundhouse in November of 2017 when Van Zandt told the crowd that a special guest was going to join them on the stage. “I got a friend of mine that wants to come out,” he …
Read More »Grammys 2019: Alicia Keys Sings Songs She Wishes She Wrote
Midway into the 2019 Grammy Awards, the show’s host, Alicia Keys, sang a medley of songs that she wished she’d written. She kicked it off by playing Scott Joplin’s “The Maple Leaf Rag” on two grand pianos, one black, one white, sitting between them on a stool. “I wanna welcome …
Read More »Parkland, One Year Later: Fred Guttenberg, a Father-Turned-Activist
On Valentine’s Day 2018, a 19-year-old ex-student took an Uber to his old high school; he walked across the campus and into a three-story building, where he killed 17 people and injured 17 more. It was the sixth of 24 shootings in U.S. schools last year, but the incident at …
Read More »Blackface Is Just One Part of the Problem
Not long after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam immolated what was left of his political career, I got the Reverend Dr. William Barber on the phone. The fiery civil rights leader, known for founding the Moral Mondays movementand for revivingRev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign, did not focus …
Read More »Super Bowl LIII: See Maroon 5's Surprise-Free Halftime Show Feat. Travis Scott, Big Boi
Maroon 5 delivered a surprise-free set with a plethora of career-spanning hits including “This Love,” “Girls Like You,” “Sugar” and “Moves Like Jagger” during theSuper Bowl LIII Halftime Show. The Red Pill Blues band kicked off the show with singer Adam Levine leading a melodic performance of the Songs About …
Read More »Eight Questions About Robert Mueller, Russia and the NRA
Until now, the Russian infiltration of the National Rifle Association has looked like a sidecar to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election. The prosecution of Maria Butina, the lifetime NRA member who in December pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges of seeking to act …
Read More »Flashback: Pearl Jam Debut 'Lightning Bolt' at 2013 Wrigley Field Gig
It’s been a little over five years since Pearl Jam released an album of new material and it doesn’t seem like one is coming at any point in the immediate future. “It’d be fun to record or even just write a song together,” bassist Jeff Ament recently told Rolling Stone. …
Read More »Green Day Want Your Guitar to Sound Like 'Dookie'
It was 25 years ago when Billie Joe Armstrong first made his guitar sound like “dookie.” Now, he’s ready to (excuse the pun) dump his formula for the perfect gut-busting sound all over guitarists worldwide. Armstrong teamed up with effects company Jim Dunlop on a new guitar pedal for its …
Read More »6 Ramifications of the Longest Government Shutdown in American History
As of January 12th, the United States will be without a fully functioning government for the longest stretch in the nation’s history. The milestone will come a day after 800,000 federal employees did not receive their paychecks —and as hundreds of senior Trump appointees enjoy a bump to theirs — …
Read More »Fricke's Picks: Buzzcocks, Moskus and More
To start the new year right: classic English punk and a shot of what’s next; the definitive account of the greatest British white-R&B band of the Sixties that you still don’t know; and experimental vigor from Norway, vintage and immediate. The Buzzcocks,Another Music in a Different Kitchen; Love Bites (Domino) …
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