Vicious times require vicious music. Arguably, the most important industrial group of all time is Skinny Puppy, which came into being in Vancouver around ’81 when percussionist/synth player cEVIN Key left pop-electronic band Images In Vogue, and joined with vocalist Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie) in order to pursue the more …

With the critical and political tide (other than Democratic entertainment industry teat-hounds) turning against them – as evidenced by the Sen. Coleman statements and others from key Republicans, editorials from coast to coast, and across-the-board condemnation in the tech, education, and youth communities – the RIAA is busy backpedaling furiously …

The Rolling Stones, holdouts against the great digital music revolution, have joined us in the new millennium. Besides the obvious significance of Stones songs finally being legitimately available in digital file format, this should also inspire other holdouts, most notably the Beatles, to get with the program. Starting today, subscribers …

Another tale from the blackout – NYC handled itself rather well. Ted Leo did his part as Lookout Records’ Tristin Laughter informs us: 08/14/2003: South St. Seaport Pier 17 – New York, New York Seaport Music Festival- With: The Natural History; Doors: 5PM; all ages Having loaded in, checked, he …

DiFranco joins Willie Nelson for September 6 benefit concert in Cleveland. I don’t care if the Rolling Stones, U2, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, and the ghosts of Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Buddy Holly all endorse him and agree to …

I am not the prog-rock fan that some are – I see a fair amount of it as masturbatory noodling in search of an idea, but when it’s on, it’s majestic. For me the peak of prog-rock was a sequence of three Yes albums in the early ’70s. Since Yes …

Keen eyes will have noted I have taken a break from the RIAA-digital music wars for the last couple of weeks because while on vacation I realized just how absofuckinglutely sick of the whole ugly dispiriting mess I had become, and when I got back to work I had no …

Sonic Youth latest to be inducted into Hollywood’s Rockwalk: Critically acclaimed godfathers of alternative rock, Sonic Youth, have tirelessly charted new music terrain for nearly a quarter century. The underground American rock icons abandoned any pretense of traditional rock ‘n’ roll convention by redefining what noise meant within rock music, …

If Norah Jones (who is also on Blue Note) is a jazz singer, so is Van Morrison. From a press release: Van Morrison has signed a worldwide deal with EMI Music’s legendary Blue Note label, which will give one of music’s most creative figures a home at the prestigious jazz …

I feel superlatives coming on today. Though in general I love the ECM label, there are times when its euro-centric “chamber jazz” is too arch or attenuated for my taste. With the welter of Italian names all over the Gianluigi Trovesi Ottetto’s (“Octet”) Fugace, I must confess to a small …