written by CHIRP Radio DJ and Features Co-Drector Mick Reed The Muffs No Holiday Omnivore Records There is no reprieve from death. Dying is the one big thing everyone has to do. There is...
by Bobby Evers The early oughts was a tumultuous time. George W Bush was president, we were gearing up for a second concurrent war, and all the best celebrities were picking sides. The inter...
written by Joshua Friedberg At Pitchfork this week, Lauryn Hill is expected to give an electric performance of her one solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. With the album celebrating ...
by Kurt Conley May 30th, 1996, Benedum Center, Pittsburgh, PA September 12th, 1996, Warner Theater, Erie, PA When I think about certain musicians, I tend to think of them in relationshi...
When I was getting into country music as a teenager, the first country album that bothered me with its clichés was Randy Travis’s highly acclaimed 1986 debut, Storms of Life. It’s not th...
by Josh Friedberg I don’t know I’ve ever been so wrong about an album in my life. When I was younger, there were a lot of albums I called “overrated” after one casual listen becaus...
by Bradley Morgan Last Saturday, I ventured out to Soldier Field to see U2 play their masterpiece record The Joshua Tree in its entirety. I had been looking forward to this show for months....
written by Kyle Sanders In a pop cultural world soaked in nostalgia (remakes, reboots, and revivals--oh my!), even reissues can be a saving grace to a long forgotten, often underrated work of...
By Josh Friedberg Alison Krauss has been recording bluegrass, country, and pop since she was a teenager, and her 1995 compilation, Now That I’ve Found You: A Collection, first exposed her t...
by Joshua Friedberg Any discussion of Joan Osborne’s career begins—and often ends—with her one hit, the controversial “One of Us,” a song that was everywhere c. 1995. The problem is...
by Josh Friedberg Willie Nelson’s mainstream success began with a spare concept album (some would say “rock opera”) that went completely against the grain of country music at the time. ...
Preachy, saccharine, bloated, inconsistent—call it what you will, but Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life has held up exceptionally well over the last 40 years. Maybe it’s because the...
I’ve pretty much always loved Carole King’s 1971 blockbuster album Tapestry, but I’ve sometimes been conflicted about embracing its flaws. Yes, this is one of the most beautiful pieces of...
Jerry Wexler, the legendary Atlantic Records producer, once said, “Sam Cooke was the greatest singer that ever lived, no contest.” That’s some praise from the man who produced Aretha Frank...
by Josh Friedberg For many, Peter, Paul & Mary were the most accessible entry point for the folk revival of the 1960s. Surprisingly, this remained true in the decades following, and part of t...
by Jessi Roti Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, the Goblin King, or just Bowie –whatever identity he claimed, he shared with us and we loved him even more for it. Rock’s first champion...
To tell the truth, I have no idea where I picked up this record. In my head it was Mod Lang in Berkeley but I'm not sure in late 1988 I was hip to that little shop. I was doing most of my time l...
There was a point in my life where I wanted to be a filmmaker. I still might be one at some point. Who knows? If it wasn’t for my obsession with music, I might have been a textbook cinephile by...
When my friends and I first heard this album, we basically had a big laugh about it. The kind of boisterous but slightly forced and nervous laugh that comes from not really knowing what you're l...
I had been living in Chicago for a few months after relocating from Boston (where I lived for 8 years) with a short stint in Omaha, where I grew up. Not knowing anything about Chicago’s city�...