The 80s: "All Through the Night"

This past New Year's Eve, just before my wife and I headed out to partake in some New Year's Eve festivities, I caught part of the Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2013 special that was going through a list of the top 30 or so music performances hosted by Clark over the years on his signature program American Bandstand and others. From Jefferson Airplane to INXS there were many performers featured. One performance in particular started me on an enlightening trip down memory lane that I still haven't completely recovered from yet. That performance was of Cyndi Lauper singing "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" on Clark's American Bandstand.

Garbage on The Tonight Show 12-7-12

Seems like the 90s music revival is continuing. Not only did Soundgarden get back together and release one of the best albums of the year this year, but Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage also dropped some fantastic new work on us. With bands like Silversun Pickups, Joy Formidable, and Tribes leading the 90s rock revivalism it's only fitting that these bands start showing up on the late night circuit.

Soundgarden: Been Away Too Long (Review)

"I've got nowhere to go since I got back," wails Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell on "Been Away Too Long," the lead single off of Soundgarden's first new album since 1996's Down on The Upside, but it appears that (finally) Soundgarden found somewhere to go. For the band, it's full steam ahead into the battle to reclaim hard rock from the awful likes of Nickleback and Three Days Grace. "Been Away Too Long" embodies everything that is good about Soundgarden's sonic stylings and makes the most of Kim Thayil's droning guitar sludge, Cornell's powerful vocals, Matt Cameron's inspired drumming (I'm still convinced he's the best drummer to emerge from the whole Seattle scene), and longtime bassist Ben Shepherd's thick bass lines. Finally, a high profile rock song worth listening to in the vein of 90s grunge has arrived. 

Muse: Madness (Review)

Muse's new album, The 2nd Law is due to drop on October 2nd this year, but three songs have already been released/teased off the new album. "Survival" was the official song of the London 2012 Olympic Games, "Unsustainable," a brilliant dub-step like song created through traditional drum, bass, and guitar is visible and audible all over the web, and "Maddness," the album's latest single is now available through iTunes as part of the new album's pre-order. Like nearly everything that Muse does, it will perennially be compared to whatever Radiohead does, but at this point Muse is light years ahead of Radiohead sonically.

The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Review)

Several months since The Darkness won the Superbowl, we finally get their new album, and it's a good one. Is it Permission to Land? No. Is it just as good a rock album as Permission to Land? Yes. That's the thing that many people forget about The Darkness. They are some of the best note for note and riff for riff no frills straight up '70s inspired hard rocker song writers. Front man Justin Hawkins' Freddie Mercury meets Johnny Rotten voice, coupled with his brother Dan's guitar, Frankie Poullain's base and Ed Graham's drumming make for the best '70s arena rock that was never played in the '70s. Their more than that though. These cheeky English bastards have the best sense of humor in rock next to Dave Grohl's. Hot Cakes doesn't skimp on the humor, or the riffs.

Flea: Helen Burns (Review)

Red Hot Chili Peppers founding member and bassist, Flea, has put out an EP of music intended to help raise money for his Silverlake Conservatory of Music. At the Conservatory's website, Flea makes it very clear that the music contained herein is very much NOT like anything that the RHCP would make and release. He's definitely right on that account...in part. Helen Burns sounds like a mashup of progressive and, in some cases regressive, music that a music theory major would indulge in. (Flea attended music theory classes as USC over the past few years.) It's interesting, but nothing that you'll replay over and over like most RHCP songs.

The Beatles: Tomorrow Never Knows (Review)

Do we really need another Beatles compilation? Well, where The Beatles are concerned, I have to admit that the word on and sound of these original rock and rollers can’t be spread about too much. Even though The Beatles is a brand now, hence the need for ever recycled and repackaged compilations of their music, more than a fondly remembered and insanely influential group of four guys from England who changed the music world, the songs that they wrote are truly timeless. Recently though, there has been a great deal of Beatles music repackaging that touted them as the original “boy band” or pop stars whose most edgy music was the mass consumable “Love Me Do” and “Hold Your Hand.” While these songs are great little pop-rock ditties, other songs like “Helter Skelter,” “Revolution,” and “It’s All Too Much” are rock tour de forces that the likes of everyone from U2 to Pearl Jam to Metallica to Nirvana to The Flaming Lips have tried with varying success to emulate and build upon. So a collection that focuses on and compiles a powerful cross section of The Beatles most discernibly guitar rock/hard rock songs is welcome, if only for the fact that it helps point out that The Beatles could really, really rock when they wanted to.