When the Anger Management Tour rolled into the The Mark on November 5, the rage was evident. The reason behind it was not. Why are these guys so pissed? The show began with Xzibit, who doesn’t even have an album out but is opening for some of the hottest bands on the scene.
When you’re a blues singer and guitarist, it’s a little dangerous to lead off an album with a song called “I Ain’t Got No Blues Today.” Especially when there’s nothing tongue-in-cheek about it: “I ain’t got no blues today / No matter what them folks might say / I done my best / I paid my dues.
It's hard to believe that The Beatles have yet to authorize an official Web site, but in conjunction with the release this week of the 27-track number-one-hits collection, the much-anticipated site (http://www.
On September 30, to better my life and society, I stood in line at HyVee for tickets to this weekend's Limp Bizkit/Eminem show. I knew I was a bit out of place when the ticket lady came outside and said she could get floor seats for all of us, and I was the only one who said, "No! Lower bowl, please.
I dig Chicks. Not just because they have perfect harmony. Not just because they are superior instrumentalists. And not just because they are trendy, creative, and fun. I dig the Dixie Chicks because while they take their jobs seriously, they also know that they have to laugh along the way.
There might be nothing more difficult in rock music than crafting a good pop song. Except to make a couple albums full of them. Pop songs are so tricky because they need to sound effortless and ebullient while being catchy and tight – and that requires hard work, which makes effortless and ebullient all that more difficult.
After a summer of anticipation, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) kicked off its 86th season Saturday, October 7, at the Adler Theater. The mammoth performance of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, the intimate emotion of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, and even the rabblerousing overture to Verdi’s opera Nabucco delighted the senses.
With few surprising pieces, this year's Quad City Symphony Orchestra season is best described as "solid." By relying on repertoire mainstays like Beethoven's Third Symphony, Brahms' Fourth, and the Verdi Requiem, music director and conductor Donald Schleicher has created a season that will surely please the Adler crowd but offer them sparse originality.
You remember rock, don’t you? That arena sound that required no hair spray, no leather, no preening, no showy solos, no attitude? The only things you needed were guitar, drums, bass, and a singer. That’s exactly what the local band Blue Ash Ink has on its self-titled, self-released album.
Progressive rock has never been cool. It has sometimes been respected, but those periods have been fleeting and hastily apologized for. The genre had many practitioners in the early 1970s, bands unafraid of releasing 30-minute pieces (they can’t properly be called songs) rife with self-indulgence and pomposity.

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