Classic Rock

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Photos: Allman Brothers Band at the Orpheum Theatre

Orpheum Theatre | November 29, 2011
The Allman Brothers Band took the stage at the Orpheum Theatre November 29, 2011.
By MILES WEAVER | December 01, 2011

Video: The 12 acts you should've seen at Bonnaroo 2010

From the xx to Jay-Z
When I told my bosses here at the Phoenix that I was going to need some time off to attend Bonnaroo for my third year in a row, I expected to hear something along the lines of, "Have fun, don't die, and we'll see you when you get back."
By MICHAEL C. WALSH | June 22, 2010

Review: Green Day: Rock Band

Repeat, repeat
Activision has pumped out rhythm games centered on a single band — Aerosmith, Metallica, and Van Halen have all had their own Guitar Hero . Harmonix has offered only The Beatles: Rock Band . Until now.
By MADDY MYERS | June 24, 2010

Guitaristic

Ben Monder's unique space
As guitar heroes go — even jazz guitar heroes — Ben Monder flies under the radar.
By JON GARELICK | June 18, 2010

Pernice Brothers | Goodbye, Killer

Ashmont (2010)
In the four years since the previous Pernice Brothers album, Joe Pernice has published a terrific debut novel ( It Feels So Good When I Stop ), released an accompanying soundtrack, and had his name catapulted into Twitter infamy by his acerbic foil (and manager), Joyce Linehan.
By ZETH LUNDY | June 16, 2010

The Big Hurt: Enduring the Billboard ‘Active’ chart

Who charted?
If you're not in the radio business, you might not know the term "Active Rock." It's not a genre, thank Heaven, but a radio format — the worst radio format.
By DAVID THORPE | June 01, 2010

Bettye LaVette | Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook

Anti- (2010)
Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.
By MIKAEL WOOD | June 01, 2010

Gravity and grace

Mono’s tender post-rock gets even bigger
Like most post-rock bands worth their “post-rock” tag, Mono — who come to the Middle East this Friday — just can’t help sounding immense.
By REYAN ALI | May 25, 2010

Talking ’bout a revolution

The Gamm’s life-affirming Rock ’n’ Roll
It takes a theatrical genius like Tom Stoppard to come up with Rock ’n’ Roll, which merges the pulsing spirit of both until they feel like one. And it takes a theater of the caliber of the Gamm to make history feel like a Stones concert that becomes a political rally.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 05, 2010

Chinnock of the North

The re-release of Dime Store Heroes , and a look back
How did I not know that Bill Chinnock was Dick Curless’s son in law?
By SAM PFEIFLE | April 21, 2010

Interview: Ray Manzarek of the Doors

The return of the Lizard King, sort of
It’s been nearly 40 years since the death of Jim Morrison, but the surviving members of the Doors, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and percussionist John Densmore have kept soldiering on, playing in various reformations of the ground-breaking band. The meteoric rise of the band is chronicled in the new documentary, When You’re Strange.
By TOM MEEK | April 05, 2010

Joyride

The Worcester Art Museum shows us ‘Who Shot Rock & Roll’
It is May 1966, in the Prelude Club in Harlem, an Atlantic Records release party.
By GREG COOK | March 24, 2010

Excerpt: Patti Smith's Just Kids

Rock icon Patti Smith recalls burroughs and Mapplethorpe, the early days of CBGB, and saddling up for Horses in this memoir excerpt
The stars were lining up to enter the Ziegfeld Theatre for the glittering premiere of the film Ladies & Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones. I was excited to be there.
By PATTI SMITH | March 03, 2010

In good Company

Dark Hollow Bottling debut a new old-time sound
Dark Hollow Bottling Company take a piece of their name from an old-school folk/bluegrass tune, "Dark Hollow," possibly made most famous by the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia's Old and in the Way , but also recorded as early as 1926, with popular versions from Bill Browning, Jimmy Skinner, and Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, with Del McCoury singing.
By SAM PFEIFLE | February 24, 2010

Tom Caruana Presents: Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers | Wu-Tang Vs. The Beatles

Tea Sea (2010)
There were mash-ups before The Grey Album . (They were called "hip-hop songs.") And there will be mash-ups in the future.
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 09, 2010

Fela Kuti | The ’69 L.A. Sessions

Knitting Factory (2010)
Amiri Baraka put it best in his poem "In the Funk World": "If Elvis Presley is King/Who is James Brown, God?" So, by that logic, is Fela Anikulapo Kuti higher than or equal to God?
By ZETH LUNDY | February 09, 2010

The Big Hurt: Dispatches from Splitsville

FOB fall out; Scorpions subsist; Tyler frightens shoppers
Ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has happened: Fall Out Boy have split up.
By DAVID THORPE | February 09, 2010

The Big Hurt: The decade ahead

Music predictions for the pubescent millennium
As a new decade dawns, it's time to cast a curious eye toward the future.
By DAVID THORPE | January 12, 2010

Local heroes, ’09 edition

From Suicide Bill & the Liquors to Roz Raskin & the Rice Cakes
The Rhode Island music community flourished in 2009, with new full-lengths from the Coming Weak, California Smile, and the pride of Cranston West and official big-leaguers Monty Are I, who released Break Through the Silence in September.
By CHRIS CONTI | December 22, 2009

Sexiest video-game studs of 2009

The cream of the crop
Video-game characters get more realistic all the time - and by more realistic, we mean sexier. This year offered a plethora of digital delights and graphical innovations, and although developers don't cater to their straight female and gay male audience nearly as much as they could, we still had no shortage of contenders for this list.
By MADDY MYERS | December 18, 2009

Charlotte Hatherley | New Worlds

Minty Fresh (2009)
Charlotte Hatherley is to the 1990s as the Black Crowes are to the 1960s: not a revivalist, mind you, but a sympathizer — a careerist.
By ZETH LUNDY | December 16, 2009

The Rolling Stones | Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert

ABKCO (2009)
This live 1969 Madison Square Garden set was released at the band's peak, following Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed , preceding Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street , and recorded a week before the disaster at Altamont.
By JON GARELICK | December 09, 2009

The Doors | Live in New York

Rhino (2009)
In 1970, Doors producer Paul Rothchild assembled a tight “live set” out of a bunch of different concert recordings from the band’s 1969/early-1970 shows and Elektra released it as the Absolutely Live LP.
By GUSTAVO TURNER | December 09, 2009

Elvis Presley | Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight

RCA/Legacy (2009)
There's a plethora of Elvis Presley albums on the market, most of them compilations and box sets, each focusing on certain hits, eras, and/or styles.
By ZETH LUNDY | December 08, 2009

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust

Gift books to savor
Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 08, 2009

Kudos to Phish nerds, and other music matters

Sibilance
We stand corrected
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | November 24, 2009

The end that could have been

Three missed Aerosmith break-up opportunities
For a few wonderful days, it seemed that Aerosmith were finally kaput.
By DAVID THORPE | November 18, 2009

Them Crooked Vultures | Them Crooked Vultures

DGC/Interscope (2009)
One day, maybe in a decade or three, somebody will dig this LP out of the future virtual version of a record crate in a Salvation Army and be blown away by the deep grooves this supergroup generate
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | November 18, 2009

AC-DC | Backtracks

Columbia (2009)
How easy is it to admire AC/DC?
By ZETH LUNDY | November 10, 2009

Nirvana | Live at Reading and Bleach

DGC/Sub Pop (2009)
Here in the Internet Age, we tend to think that we made possible the overnight transformation from blog-buzz baby to arena-rock idol.
By MIKAEL WOOD | January 13, 2010