Category Archives: Music

The Rolling Stones threw their traditional warm-up club gig Saturday in L.A., before 700 people in a club called Echoplex in Echo Park. The surprising thing may have been the price, offered in a lottery to fans who heard about it on Twitter, only $20. The lowest ticket prices for their arena shows are about [...]

The Feelies fill a spot in rock history between the guitar drone and deadpan delivery of the Velvet Underground and the exuberant guitar pop of R.E.M. When they released their first album in 1980 (available at first only as an English import – odd for a Jersey band ) there was nothing quite like them. [...]

After a couple of initial, lesser attempts, Giacomo Puccini first found his footing in opera with “Manon Lescault,” an adaptation of a popular 19th century novel that had already been made an opera by Massenet a few years earlier. Injecting it with his own Italian sensibilities and drama made it a quick hit after its [...]

There’s a reason journalists went into the reporting business and didn’t become rock stars. It may have something to do with where one’s perceived talents lie. But there are still a surprising amount of writers, reporters and editors in the news biz who have their own side groups as a kind of musical outlet. There [...]

Jonathan Richman shows are kind of wistful serenades, instructional advisories, mini-Flamenco workouts with spontaneous dance breaks and eventually, welcoming multilingual pleas to join in the party. In fact, Richman may be better suited to a street corner, or  busking in Montpamasse than the vast stage of a rock club as he was at the 9:30 Club [...]

Buddy Miller is featured prominently on TV these days, but you have to look hard to find him. He produced or co-produced much of the musical songs on “Nashville,” and plays guitar on most of them. He was even seen briefly once in a stage scene. But at 60s, the grizzled guitar player in the [...]