Ahh, Christmas and heavy metal music. Despite what little minds might think, the two go together like your veritable chocolate and peanut butter. In the hands of Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi — two of metal’s founding fathers, architects of the genre if you will — the myths, legends, and spiritual truths of the…
No big write-up on this one, as you already know the song, and if you know the theme to “Hawaii Five-O”, you know The Ventures pretty goshdarn well. We’re talking ’60s instrumental guitar rock at its most influential, and their take on the perennial Christmas classic Silver Bells is an easy addition to your playlist. Especially if…
Someday at Christmas man will not fail Hate will be gone and love will prevail Someday a new world that we can start With hope in every heart… There’s something about Stevie Wonder’s voice that gives me just the incredible sense of… I don’t know if peace is the word. Euphoria? No, that’s too strong.…
Well the Holiday Season is in full swing, isn’t it? People are still digesting their Thanksgiving dinners nearly a week later, legions of American consumers with peace and love and good cheer in their hearts are butchering their fellow citizens like pigs at the slaughter at Black Friday events all over the country, and DVRs…
While I’m not a Christian, I remain a Big Star acolyte… and quite frankly, I’d imagine this particular song is apropos for Christmas Eve. So that being said, I’ll just let this one play out without any further commentary.
From the unbelievably hilarious Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, which if you’ve never seen, you pretty much need to drop everything you’re doing right now and catch it on Netflix or whatever streaming services are available. The first time I ever watched this program — I’m thinking around 1993 or ’94, maybe — it instantly became one…
Talk to most people about bands like Weezer, Green Day, Foo Fighters, or any neo-power-pop band that emerged in the mid ’90s, and there’s always huge debate on when exactly they “sold out” or “went commercial” or “started to suck”, etc. etc. I dunno, man. Some of them were always commercial, or even perhaps “always…
It’s really, REALLY hard to talk up an Otis Redding song. Try it sometime. It ain’t easy. It’s freakin’ OTIS REDDING. But I realized I was missing some classic R&B from my list, and man there are some great ones to choose from. I’ll start with Redding’s 1967 cover of the classic Christmas standard Merry…
I’m not a particularly religious man, by any stretch of the imagination. I think that’s the rub, really. “Religious man”. As in, religion is a man-made construct: a home-made, grassroots means of interpreting God. And yet also a bureaucratic, flawed, collective means of interpreting the Universe, Creation, Existence, and Eternity. It just doesn’t work all…
“TWIST-ed SIS-TER?!!” Well sure… look no one can deny their place in pop culture history for such cheese- and amaze-balls rock anthems in ’80s rock video classics We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock (their catalog is surprisingly good before then, but those songs get zero airplay/recognition from anyone who isn’t Eddie Trunk), and Dee Snider,…