This feature has been updated (February 2012) since its original publication in April of 2010.  I swapped out the ninth band and added some honorable mentions.  The remainder of the text remains largely untouched. We can crank up the amplifiers and layer on the production, but the acoustic guitar — natural and authentic — just [...]

Let’s say you’ve got a ton of soul, a wealth of talent and a hell of a creative streak.  You get off on loud guitars and the deep rumble of the bass.  Your music is an extension of yourself, a vehicle of expression for joy, pain, melancholy, even anger.  Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Howlin’ [...]

Is it 80′s glam rockers Poison?  Maybe you’re more of a country fan and want to try your hand at a Rascal Flatts tune.  Something obscure?  Something popular?  Slow?  Fast?  Unintelligible?  Lucky for you, we’ve got them all…

Browsing the New York times a couple weeks ago, I came across the following story — Sinatra Song Often Strikes a Deadly Chord.  Apparently, murder has become such a common result after a poor performance of “My Way” in the Philippines, that it warrants its own subcategory of crime: “My Way Killings”.  A closer read [...]

As one of the most recognizable popular music icons and the first superstar from the third world, there are certain things that virtually every informed music fan knows about Bob Marley.  We celebrate him as the rare individual who could represent the disadvantaged and downtrodden while still communicating a message of empowerment and positivity, wrapped [...]

For many people, myself included, Mr. Blotto was the right band at the right time during the nineties.  With copious amounts of free time, a relatively robust entertainment budget, and residence near the beating heart of Chicago’s bar and club scene, we gravitated to Blotto to fulfill our insatiable desire for live music.  They were, [...]