Nicholas Pell

Singer-songwriter Davy Jones, best known for his stint in The Monkees, died today in his sleep at his home in Indiantown, Florida of a massive heart attack. He was 66 years old. While primarily associated with The Monkees and their eponymous television show, Jones enjoyed a solo career arguably more......

The subgenre of hardcore called powerviolence is known for heavy riffs, blast beats and a wacky, off-beat sense of kitschy humor. It's also a very tight-knit community. While not immune to the drama and politics that plague every scene, powerviolence denizens tend to have each other's backs when the shit......

Jeffrey Weber is the author of the recently-released You've Got A Deal: The Biggest Lies Of The Music Business. Based in Beverly Hills, Weber is a longtime industry producer known for his work with Luther Vandross and Ronnie James Dio, and two of his projects won Grammys. But after 30......

See also: Steely Dan Fans Are Assholes I've long considered Steely Dan the ultimate Los Angeles band. Proof? They're not actually from here, like almost half the city. Like the best Angelenos, they have a healthy hatred for the entertainment industry. And, like all transplants, their memories of the cold,......

Every couple of years, garage rock rears its head again, whack-a-mole-style. Garage per se isn't the problem, but rather kitschy blues rock. Hello Black Keys! On the other hand, there's pub rock, a key component of British proto-punk. British R&B made even more rough, grimy and dangerous, it includes bands......

William Gibson called them "the most genuinely subversive" band in late-20th Century pop. Bryan Cranston sneaks winking references to them into Malcolm In The Middle and Breaking Bad episodes. Ice Cube sampled them and The Roots play them on Jimmy Fallon. Who are they? The gold standard in rock and......

See also: R&B Legend Etta James Has Dementia, Reveals Sordid Riverside County Money Lawsuit Etta James passed away today at the age of 73 at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside. James, born Jamesetta Hawkins, suffered a number of health problems at the time of her death, including leukemia and Alzheimer's......

​ A singer's voice impacts a band's sound so much that a replacement basically creates a new group. Black Sabbath, who single-handedly charted a course for dark and evil metal, replaced Dark Prince Ozzy Osbourne with Elven Wizard Ronnie James Dio. Ozzy reigns supreme among many Sabbath fans, but the......

See also: *The Talking Heads Were Way More Innovative Than The Ramones *Stravinsky vs. Schoenberg: Who Was More Gangsta? The alt-rock explosion of the '80s and '90s gave us titans like R.E.M. as well as also-rans, like Soul Asylum. Although the world has stuck with Michael Stipe through his many......

See also: The Worst Song Of The '90s? A Line-By-Line Dissection Of Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" August marked the 20-year anniversary of Pearl Jam's Ten. Yes, for 20 soul-crushing years we've listened to Eddie Vedder mumble. Which is somehow even worse than Jeff Ament's endless procession of silly hats. Somehow Pearl......