Author Archive

GLENN ROWLANDSLIVING LIGHT EP2009 IndependentPurchase: MySpace.comReviewed by: Matt Crosslin
This is called a companion disc to Red Road and “a rock and roll tribute to the visions of Holy Man Black Elk.”  I would agree with both.  If you like Glenn’s solo discs, or classic-rock inspired hard rock that has an eclectic streak, this will be [...]

STARFLYER 59MINOR KEYS EP2009 Tooth & Nail RecordsPurchase: ToothandNail.comReviewed by: Matt Crosslin
The obligatory “between albums” ep from SF59.  This one is a digital ep, so you only have to get the songs you want.  The lead-of song, “Minor Keys,” is the same as from the album (would have liked a “radio mix” or something at [...]

EXTREMESAUDADES DE ROCK2008 Fontana RecordsPurchase: Extreme-Band.comReview by: Matt Crosslin
Hair metal in our magazine?  What next?  Rap?  Probably not, but hold on a second – Extreme never really was hair metal.  They got marketed that way, but never really fit that label.  Their first album was probably as close to hair metal that they ever got, [...]

SINCERELY PAULGRIEVE1991 Blonde Vinyl RecordsSlideMusicGroup.comReview by: Matt Crosslin
This album is being re-issued soon – probably in less that a week or so after you are reading this.  So let’s take a listen to the original first before we get a look at the re-issue next time.
I first heard Grieve when I was a recovering metal-head.  [...]

BON VOYAGELIES2008 Tooth & Nail RecordsPurchase: ToothandNail.comReview by: Matt Crosslin
In the beginning, Bon Voyage was an entirely different monster than Starflyer 59 (except for guitarist Jason Martin, of course).  Then the two sounds of both bands started to drift together.  Even though they still remain slightly different, Bon Voyage (featuring Jason’s wife on vocals) and [...]

MONEY ON THE DEADMONEY ON THE DEAD2009 IndependentPurchase: MySpace.comReview by: Matt Crosslin
My first reaction to listening to this album was that this would be a group that you would probably find on Brainstorm Records, if they still existed today.  It is one of those albums that combines many of the elements that also influenced those [...]

U2NO LINE ON THE HORIZON2009 InterscopePurchase: U2.comReview by: Matt Crosslin
So you can hear this album on their MySpace page.  The whole thing.  And you’ve probably already decided whether to buy this album or not based solely on one factor – your opinion of Bono.  Or maybe based on the hype surrounding the album in general.  [...]

An Interview with James Preston and Mike Baker
Interview by Matt Crosslin   |    Photo courtesy of James Preston

SLIDE (L to R): Mike Baker, James Preston, Sam Mitchell
It’s an all too common story in the music industry: band creates underground buzz, band gets signed, band puts out an album, label folds or drops band, and band disappears [...]

Steve and I get to have some interesting conversations in the course of putting together this magazine.  Usually, they are the cool kind of interesting.  Occasionally, they are the really off-the-wall, “what the heck?” kind of conversations with people.  Luckily, we haven’t had any of those “that ruined my day” kind of interesting conversations.
But, I [...]

“Walk between the raindrops if you can… what the heck does that mean?” I remember the conversation well – it was sometime around 1992 in San Antonio, TX. A group of college students had gone out to change the world by repainting a church in the poorer part of town. We had [...]