Sex Pistols Interview

Hide Your Grandmothers, It’s the Sex Pistols! By John Pecorelli for Alternative Press magazine It’s just another typical Los Angeles day: sunny, 70 degrees, the Eagles’ “Desperado” playing quietly in a mini-mart next to a nondescript beach motel. Middle-aged bourgeoisie in colorful shorts enjoy a game of volleyball in the sand, sailboats wafting by on the water […]

Read More »

Nirvana: From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah

Originally published in Alternative Press magazine Contrary to recent mainstream-media imagery, Nirvana onstage weren’t much about Kurt Cobain sitting quietly in a fluffy sweater with an acoustic guitar. It seemed poignant at the time, but 1994’s Unplugged in New York captured only the frail, withdrawn side of the Nirvana pathos. For the other nine-tenths of the band, visit this […]

Read More »

Mudhoney: Since We’ve Become Translucent

Originally published in Alternative Press magazine Mudhoney’s return to Sub Pop after a 10-year hiatus couldn’t be more unlike their start on the famed indie label. Contrast the band’s first 1988 single—the 2:30 blast of nihilism called “Touch Me I’m Sick”—with the first song here, a sprawling, drug-damaged dirge clocking at 8:26 called “Baby, Can You Dig […]

Read More »

Calexico: The Black Light

Originally published in Alternative Press magazine That Joey Burns and John Covertino have a rock and roll resume a mile long (including projects with the Friends of Dean Martinez, Victoria Williams, Richard Buckner, and Giant Sand) isn’t necessarily relevant. That they live in Tucson, Arizona—home to the largest mariachi festival in the world—may not be relevant either, […]

Read More »

Korn’s Greatest Hits album liner notes

Liner Notes for Korn’s Greatest Hits (Epic/Immortal) “Everything’s been done. Nothing is new.” That’s what a well-known MTV veejay said about rock and roll back in 1992. And who could blame her? Hair metal was over, the indie scene was stale, and punk was 15 years old–nearly as nostalgia-oriented as the goofy rockabilly and surf bands cropping […]

Read More »

Thanksgiving with Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson: Manson Family Values For Alternative Press magazine “Music is one of the only things that matters. I don’t even think kids care who the President is… I think if someone like Adolf Hitler or Charles Manson were going today, they would be rock stars.” —Marilyn Manson Dateline: Thanksgiving Day, 1995, Omni Hotel, Detroit MI: “I don’t […]

Read More »

10 Unessential Rock Albums

Originally published in Alternative Press magazine Disclaimer: A.P.’s spineless editor in chief wishes to make it known that the opinions expressed in this piece are not necessarily those of the A.P. staff, our imaginary parent companies, everyone buying coffee at Starbucks right now, or the office cat. Ever force-fed yourself the likes of The Canterbury Tales or Citizen Kane simply because […]

Read More »

10 Essential Garage Rock Albums

Originally published in Alternative Press magazine Sure, you know all about the Strokes, the Hives, and the White Stripes. And maybe you even dig the snotty posturing, the carefully crafted trashiness, and the rudimentary guitar styles that form the crux of these bands’ sounds. Well, those are also the hallmarks of the great age of ‘60s garage […]

Read More »

Slipknot: Something Wicked This Way Rocks

Published in Alternative Press magazine “You keep a baboon caged up for 24 years and then let him out upon the world, he’s got some shit to work out.” —Joey Jordison Joey’s just told me that Fred Durst “might fuckin’ die” for calling Slipknot fans “fat and ugly”—because, Fred, there are two things you don’t mess with: […]

Read More »