Caryn Rose

A new archival box set collecting Blondie’s first six albums and assorted rarities and outtakes makes the case for their singular presence in American music.

The Sex Pistols didn't invent punk rock. That honor goes to American upstarts at CBGB. But the Pistols deserve—and accept—the blame for bringing it to the ’burbs. When a teen turns up with spiky hair, a dog collar,and a leather jacket, the response is “What are you, the Sex Pistols?” It’s a generic term now, like Xerox or Kleenex. The band blazed that trail. With flamethrowers.

What if you found out that there was another group who achieved twelve No. 1 singles, who knocked The Beatles out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 100 not once but three times?

The first time Ronnie Spector, who passed away this week at age 78 after a short bout with cancer, altered the course of music history it was as the central voice of the essential 1960s girl group the Ronettes. With hair teased up to the heavens, dramatic black eyeliner, and skintight outfits, the Ronettes — the name the family act stuck with after stints as the Darling Sisters and then Ronnie and the Relatives — transcended the art of hitmaking. They set trends. What was originally a gimmick...

Remebering Ronnie's mid-'70s ride down E Street

His most memorable moments with the Stones aren’t five-minute drum solos, but rather small, precise elements that could only have been created by Charlie Watts.

Squares and orbs of colored kinetic sand fall out of the sky from an unseen hand into a glass vessel. Then an implement descends, usually a cocktail muddler of some sort, wooden or metal or acrylic, to squish and tamp and compress the sand out of its initial shapes into a uniform glob. Then more squares and orbs, more tamping, more sand, and more compression until the container is full.

R.E.M. is your favorite band's favorite band. They've influenced countless musicians and had an immeasurable impact on the following decades of indie rock. Veteran music journalist Caryn Rose takes us through the lifespan and wide-ranging impact of Athens, Georgia's own R.E.M.

SPRINGSTEEN: HIS HOMETOWN, the exhibit currently on display at the Monmouth County Historical Society (located in — wait for it — his hometown of Freehold), opened in September 2019 with a splash. There are three more weeks left to check it out.

When discussing Joni Mitchell’s body of work, her second album, 1969’s Clouds, is almost always glossed over. No one claims it as their favorite Joni record, as it, understandably, lives in the shadows of albums like Blue, Ladies of the Canyon, and Court and Spark.

Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend tells you everything you need to know about his first real solo album[1], Empty Glass, with the (literally) iconic cover image: Pete as an angel, with his sacrament (brandy) in front of him, flanked by acolytes, two beautiful women offering their best come-hither looks. It is a record both casually and deathly spiritual, with Townshend engaged in the latest plane of the spiritual inquest he’d been engaged in since 1968’s Tommy.

Marsh conference brings together Nona Hendryx & Bruce Springsteen

Accepting Woody Guthrie honor, Springsteen talks and plays 4-song set