BY MIKE METTLER — NOVEMBER 19, 2013
“Same three guys. Same three chords.” It’s a refrain that ZZ Top guitarist extraordinaire Billy Gibbons has been preaching from the stage for years, but it’s how this little ol’ band from Texas mixes up that deceptively basic formula with its own brand of down-home, blues-slathered gee-tar grease […]
Above, an exclusive YouTube clip of Levin Minnemann Rudess jamming on “Marcopolis”
BY MIKE METTLER — OCTOBER 25, 2013
“I work hard on the music end of things, and record my bass parts as high quality as I can.” That, in a nutshell, is the mission statement for Tony Levin, noted bassmaster and Chapman Stick innovator […]
BY MIKE METTLER — OCTOBER 21, 2013
Get Tommy Shaw and me, Mr. SoundBard, in a room talking about music, and chances are you’ll have to drag us out by our respective ears to get us on the way to our next destinations. (Just ask Styx’s ever-patient, ever-gracious tour manager and assistant tour manager.) Tommy […]
BY MIKE METTLER
“Music is astounding, isn’t it?” Graham Nash is genuinely enamored with the wonders of sound — and so am I. There’s always a special twinkle in his eye whenever we get together to talk about the indelible music he’s made since the early 1960s, the new music he’s planning to make next, […]
BY MIKE METTLER
“Everybody loved it — except me. I was so not satisfied with it. It was my fault.” That’s Robbie Robertson, telling it like it is back in August 2013 about the original mix of The Band’s acclaimed 1972 double live album, Rock of Ages (Capitol). It only took 40-plus years for Robertson […]
MIKE METTLER: What was the first record you ever bought?
ROBBIE ROBERTSON: The first record I ever bought with my own money was Here’s Little Richard [released March 1957, on Specialty Records]. I was addicted to his song “Rip It Up.” It was the most amazing shuffle. It still is, to this day.
METTLER: Do you […]
In the above YouTube clip, Wayne Coyne and I discuss “You Are Alone,” the song that opens Side C of the 2 LP set of The Flaming Lips’ latest full-length aural delight/challenge, The Terror (2013). Notes Coyne of the song, “it consists of a strange emotional chord that was the true spark for the […]
