Chrissie Hynde, the coolest woman in rock, is in excellent form in this freewheeling conversation highlighted by her naming her favorite three Pretenders songs. The occasion was the release of Hate for Sale by The Pretenders, the follow-up to 2016’s Alone. It features the return of original stickman Martin Chambers […]
Interview
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Steve Earle’s new album is called Ghosts of West Virginia. In this recorded interview, Steve chats with me about what inspired the songs on the album and covers some wide-ranging topics. Steve performs 4 of the songs in a WFUV Live session. The interview can be heard, and performances can […]
Photo credit: Natalia Mantini Kim Gordon’s No Home Record is a tough, sexy album and it sounds exactly like what you’d expect from her solo debut, after three decades spent in her former band, Sonic Youth. Often dissonant, occasionally menacing, and never boring, Gordon’s new album provides squalls of guitar […]
Photo Credit: Gus Philippas From 1986 to 1993, the body of work created by the original Pixies — the Boston-based quartet of singer/guitarist Black Francis, drummer David Lovering, guitarist Joey Santiago and bassist/vocalist Kim Deal — was as distinctive, exciting, and influential as any rock band of that era. After years of […]
Early in Jack White’s career, when he partnered with Meg White in The White Stripes, it would be reasonable to say that he was a disciple of Leonardo da Vinci, who is credited with the quote, “Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.” White consistently put limitations on the duo, […]
The Tedeschi Trucks Band is a rare outfit. It’s a group steeped in rock, in blues, in soul, in jazz, in American music, and with the musicianship and spirit to immerse themselves in songs and allow the songs to go where they want to go. It’s tough keeping any band […]
In September I had a golden opportunity for a lifelong fan of ZZ Top, an invitation to talk with Billy Gibbons for about an hour in front of an audience at The Iridium. The show was taped for Speakeasy TV who distribute the show through PBS. It is airing tonight […]
Bettye Lavette put on a typically thrilling show at The Iridium last night. She highlighted songs from her most recent album Things Have Changed which is up for Best Americana (Americana?) Album Grammy later this month. She has also been nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance (that sounds more like […]
The Revivalists, a New Orleans octet, are riding high these days. They’ve got a couple of big hits under their belt with Wish I Knew You and All My Friends and they’ve recently taken the bold musical step of adding a second drummer to their live shows. Vocalist and guitarist David […]
With ties to the Catskills as well as New York, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds have built a reputation as a stomping, brass-soaked, eight-piece live band rooted in traditional rhythm and blues. The band’s new album, Gold, is released as a solo work by Sister Sparrow although The Dirty […]
2018 is now in the rear view mirror (or as us Pearl Jam fans prefer rearviewmirror) but before I say Hey Nineteen, here’s some photos and words – with the benefit of some time to digest – about a couple of my fave experiences from the latest trip around the […]
Andrew Hozier-Byrne, who records as Hozier, is friendly and unassuming in person. I met him on a Friday afternoon in September in the photograph-lined offices of Columbia Records on Madison Avenue following a busy week in which the 28-year-old Irishman performed three sold-out shows at the Beacon Theatre and also […]
Bang! The Bert Berns Story is now available on iTunes and Apple Music. It is one of the best music documentaries I’ve ever seen and I watch an absurd amount of music documentaries! The film, narrated by Steven Zan Vandt is the vision of Bert’s son Brett Berns who I spoke […]
I spoke with Steven Van Zandt at Carroll Studios in Hells Kitchen before the group blasted through a pair of tunes from the Soulfire album for WFUV Public Radio. Vaz Zandt spoke about his latest album but also looked back on how a hurricane helped he and Southside Johnny create […]
Adam Clayton of U2 called me while I was on air at WFUV on Wednesday night! The occasion was the release of You’re The Best Thing About Me, the first new album track from Songs of Experience which will be released on December 1st. They also performed the song on the […]
The News: Walter Becker who, along with Donald Fagen, was half of the core duo of Steely Dan, died last week. It was only last October when The Dan played a glorious ten night stand at The Beacon. Footage from the video that reported on those shows was gathered […]
The News: Chuck D and DJ Lord of PE will perform at the Apollo on Tuesday, September 12th as members of Prophets of Rage with support from Living Colour. There’s no one who is more important from what’s come to be known as the golden age of hip hop than […]
The News: Rakim has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of Paid In Full by performing the album in its entirety. The enduring power of the album was remarked upon with some love in the New York Times recently. So I collect my cash then slide, I got my back, my gun’s on […]
The News: The new Andre Betts produced Living Colour album Shade was unleashed today! Living Colour is supporting Prophets of Rage at the Apollo Theater on this Tuesday. Prophets of Rage members are Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk along with DJ Lord and Chuck D of PE, and B-Real of Cypress […]
The News: Ethan Iverson is leaving the band. This is, of course, unwelcome news but the change certainly seems to an amicable one as he is finishing out the live dates scheduled for this year. As it is the end of an era, The Bad Plus shows at Village Vanguard […]
The News: The new Antibalas record, Where The Gods Are At Peace , will be out September 15th! Catch them on the 14th at Gramercy Theatre. Antibalas has been an essential NYC band since they came together around the turn of the century. In February of 2016, in a monthly […]
The News: Talib Kweli unleashed a new single on his site She’s My Hero this week and will play a DJ set at Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday, October 26th. As anyone vaguely aware of Talib Kweli knows, the man can spit with the best of ’em and arguably offers more […]
The News: Craig Finn will celebrate Halloween 2017 with a show at City Winery. Finn released his third solo album outside the confines of The Hold Steady in March of this year. Prior to the release of that disc, We All Want The Same Things, Finn dropped by WFUV for […]
The quintessential New Yorker will not be erased! Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed’s companion since the early 90s and wife from 2008 until his death in 2013, spearheaded the effort to present his complete archives to the NYPL in March. Lou Reed became synonymous with New York personifying its street smarts, […]
As a founding member of Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo etched his name into the canon of New York rock artists during his 30-year tenure with the group, from 1981 to 2011. His inventive guitar playing, built upon unusual tunings, sprung from the city’s downtown experimental ‘No Wave’ scene and had […]