Garth Brooks

The 20 Worst Albums of the '90s: The Complete List

Sure, you had the Bill Clinton blowjob scandal, OJ, Pakistan and India going nuclear, mad cow disease, the Rodney King decision, and Titanic. But what made the '90s truly awful was its music. That's not to say that there weren't bright spots -- early Beck, say, or Ok Computer and much of hip-hop's g ... More >>

The 20 Worst Albums Of The '90s: 20-11

Sure, you had the Bill Clinton blowjob scandal, OJ, Pakistan and India going nuclear, mad cow disease, the Rodney King decision, and Titanic. But what made the '90s truly awful was its music. That's not to say that there weren't bright spots -- early Beck, say, or Ok Computer and much of hip-hop's g ... More >>

Country Songs That Should Be Covered By Metal Bands

By Lauren Wise I was always one of those metal heads who claimed to listen to all musical genres -- except for country. But in the past year, I've realized that classic country songs, with their imagery and energy, are pretty hard to dislike. Take David Allan Coe's "If That Ain't Country," for exam ... More >>

Branford Marsalis on His Brief Time as an Angeleno Playing The Tonight Show

New Orleans-born saxophonist Branford Marsalis has been a household name since the early 1980s. Alongside his younger brother Wynton, he set the jazz world ablaze, earning his stripes on the bandstand with Art Blakey. From there, he found work in pop music (the Grateful Dead, Sting) and acting (Thro ... More >>

Garth Brooks Is a Genius, and He Revolutionized Nashville

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] Huey Lewis is a dick. It's not hip to be square -- it's square to be square, the thing that the hip will always fight aga ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Tim McGraw's Not Country and He's Not Pop. He's Just Awesome

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] For a true country aficionado, mentioning Tim McGraw in the same breath as Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, or any country ... More >>

If You Don't Like Country Music You're a Blue State Elitist

See also: Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup": Why This Song Sucks Asking people what kind of music they like can be a loaded question. People want to seem open-minded, yet cool, which for some reason tends to inspire this insipid response: "I like pretty much everything. Except country." (The hipster var ... More >>

Occupy Karaoke: 25 Days of Drunken Lyrical Lunacy (No 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' Please)

Karaoke maxim: There's more to life than karaoke, you know, but not much more. --Occupy Karaoke participant Ti, with help from Morrissey "So, have you heard of these kids who are doing karaoke for 25 days in a row? Occupy Karaoke?" we ask a fellow bar patron. We're in the Atwater Village watering ... More >>

Blue Note Records' Troubling New Direction

Few genres are as protective of their past as jazz. Some might say it's all they've got. The discipline is largely defined by the classic record labels that brought the sounds to the masses. Jazz nerds will argue the superiority of one golden recording era versus another just as stubbornly as baske ... More >>

Eleven Weirdo Rock Star Alter Egos

​Something about achieving major fame in music seems to drive creative artists to assume new personae. Whether it be fodder for an epic concept album, a stab at a different genre or just plain boredom, many of our favorite stars have conjured up characters in order to explore and indulge their fan ... More >>

The LA Times Uncovers Echo Park Gentrification with Insane, LULZy Trend Piece!

Echo Park: Gentrifying itself since 1984​It's generally a bad idea to mock our fellow old-media LA institution the LA Times too much because a) it's too easy and b) they've been known to hire LA Weekly music editors after their stint in our gleaming Culver City cube (hi Randall!) However, ... More >>

Today in WTF: Smells Like Teen Usher!

​For some unfathomable reason, celebrities often partner up with ginormous cosmetics cartels and release fragrances. These stunts are usually accompanied by some press conference and junket where, say, Britney, Kim Kardashian, the tattoed guy from Buckcherry who loves da cocane, or whoever is ... More >>

Buddyhead Redux

L.A.'s most loved and feared music Web site is back, leading the never-ending quest for music that doesn't suck

Silver Lake's CMH Label Strikes Gold With Two Oddball Ideas

Shows and Tickets Coming Up

Ryan Adams - Royce Hall, UCLA, Jan. 30 and Bridges Auditorium, Claremont, Jan. 22. Both shows on sale Saturday Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, Suicidal Tendencies - San Diego Sports Arena, Dec. 7 - All ages Andrew Bird, Handsome Family - Orpheum, Dec. 7 Black Ghosts, Mezzanine Owls, Tweak Bird, more ... More >>

Jailhouse Rock

Singing for supper in the Alcatraz of Arizona

Microsoft Wants to Kill Your iPod, Summer Goes Pop!

Blue Moon

After 20 years, Bobby Bare emerges with the year’s most beautiful album

George of the Jungle

Full Metal Jeer

God, the Marines and American Idol

Septic Infection

Stanton Warriors’ break-step-tococcus

Something for (Nearly) Everyone

Skull Skratchers

System of a Down’s cure for metal illness

California Country

It ain't what it used to be

Us and Them

The Code of the Cop Bar

Rock & Roll Jinx

Jobberwacky

Back to the Country

Randy Travis comes full circle (almost)