Category: Uncategorized

• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: What Can a Poor Boy Do?

  Background: BRMC were notorious for monosyllabic responses to interview questions, but once we established some common ground, they gradually warmed to my queries. The ice breaker? Chiefly Nicolas Roeg’s film Performance. The band originally considered calling themselves the Turner Purple Orchestra, after the fictional band fronted by Mick Jagger’s character, Turner, in the movie. Bassist Robert Levon…

• Slash: Welcome Back to the Jungle

  Background: I interviewed Slash on three separate occasions. By the third session I think he finally remembered we’d spoken before. In honor of Guns’ induction into the Rock Hall, here’s my favorite chat with the chill guitar hero, followed by an interview with Guns’ producer Mike Clink, who helped shore up Slash’s memory about the recording…

• Deftones: Moreno’s Multitudes

  Background: Deftones stood out from their cohort from the start and White Pony remains a personal favorite album from the era and beyond. It’s been great to see a new generation discover the group and also Moreno’s various side projects, especially Crosses, which showcases many of the then-unlikely-seeming influences (Sade, Radiohead, The Cure) he mentions…

• Smashing Pumpkins: Billy Corgan Resurrects the God Machine

  Background: Billy Corgan and a lean ensemble dubbed the Machines of God (and featuring Cleveland’s own Kid Tigrrr on bass) are currently touring behind a box set that celebrates Corgan’s “director’s cut” of a concept album originally released in truncated form as Machina/The Machines Of God, in 2000. It wasn’t a massive hit upon release,…

• Earwig: The Strange Case of Lizard McGee

  Background: Amazing things can happen when you stick with your passions long enough. Today’s case in point: Lizard McGee’s decades-long pursuit—and often successful capture—of the perfect pop song. Lizard (his real name, and he’ll arm wrestle you if you don’t believe him) and his Southeast Ohio-based group Earwig have recently reemerged with the Secret Studio…

• Lucky Pierre and Prick: Bright Side Up

  Background note: This feature originally appeared in 2004, when Kevin McMahon released a deluge of CDs comprising work from all eras of his stop-start career. He soon after closed down the website selling the catalog and retreated again from the spotlight. I ran into him at a restaurant, in 2024, and he seemed happy. He claimed…

• Tori Amos: America Trampled Under Foot

  Background: Tori Amos has always been attuned to a higher ground, so it was fascinating to revisit this interview, which took place a little more than a year after 9/11. Like all of us, she was still trying to make sense of the attack and had captured her response in Scarlet’s Walk, released in 2002.…

• AFI: Over the Wall

  Background note: This feature first appeared as AFI were making their transition from the indie world to the majors. Extremely nice people. Not sure if he ever followed through on the idea, but I remember singer Davey Havok was excited when I suggested the band launch their own line of make-up for dudes. AFI: Over the…

• Blondie: Permanent Waves

  Background: Who doesn’t love Blondie? I had an all-too-brief chat with Debbie Harry for a concert preview when the reunited group was touring through Cleveland. Twenty-five years later, she’s still out playing with the group and serving as a fashion icon and all-purpose inspiration for new generations. The ripples are too numerous to count, but…

• Duran Duran: Back to the Future

  Background: I was a teenage New Romantic, somehow surviving life in mid-’80s rural Ohio despite sporting full stage wear and eyeliner for trips to malls, grocery stores… basically everywhere. Duran Duran were a sartorial influence for a Chess King-enabled season, but Japan, Psychedelic Furs and Echo and the Bunnymen have remained more enduring musical inspirations…