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"Metal titans Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine delivered a night of chaos, nostalgia, and good fucking music to a sold-out Aragon Ballroom on Saturday night (April 26). Their co-headlining “The Poisoned Ascendancy Tour” celebrates two landmark albums, Trivium’s Ascendancy and Bullet For My Valentine’s The Poison, that ushered in a new era of metal. Both albums left their mark on the genre, and as the celebratory night proved, that impact can still be felt two decades later."

Read the full live review on Illinois Entertainer. Link in source.

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Ten Things We Learned From ‘Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival’

Perry Farrell didn’t want Green Day to play Lollapalooza 1994

Green Day’s 1994 album Dookie gave the band a huge mainstream push, so it was a no-brainer to get them on the 1994 lineup. Everyone was on board except Perry Farrell. He considered the California punks as a boy band and said “I don’t want to book a boy band.” Singer Billie Joe Armstrong recalls, “all of sudden, [Perry] comes back in and he’s like ‘I don’t want them on the bill.’ He thought that we were a band that was put together by Mo Ostin at Warner Bros.”

Organizers finally convinced Perry on one condition: Green Day performed half of the tour while the Boredoms played the other half. “For us, it was really disappointing because Perry was someone that we really respected,” continues Armstrong. “I think that made us want to play it even more, actually, because we wanted to prove that he had his head very far up his own ass.” They have since headlined the festival two more times in 2010 and 2022.

Read my new featured article at Genre is Dead!

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I still love these gifs. Trent looks like a goober.

Trent looking like he wants to die in Slam Bamboo.

The hair is on point, though.

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Josh Caterer on Green Day:

“We were one of those bands Green Day was talking about, which is what brought attention to us. So, we really have to thank Green Day for getting the ball rolling and giving our career a boost at the time. They were a crucial part of that. Playing that show with them was awesome. I mean, they’re just a great live band. I remember them being wonderful, friendly guys. Just really nice and personable and approachable. I have nothing but love for Green Day.”

Read my new cover story on Smoking Popes for Illinois Entertainer. In print and online.

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New concert review! I saw HANABIE. and Kim Dracula at Chicago's House of Blues! Here's a preview:

"HANABIE.’s set was wild. Take the hyperactive, frantic energy of their records and multiply it by a thousand. They dominated the stage with cutesy dance moves, undeniable swagger, bright outfits, and headbanging. Lots and lots of headbanging. Vocalist Yukina is mesmerizing on stage. Watching her effortlessly slip between high-pitched squeals, guttural screams, and demonic shrills is unreal."

Read the full review on genreisdead.com. Link in source.

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Saviors immediately clicked with me. It didn’t have to grow on me like Father Of All Motherfuckers and I didn’t skip around the record like Revolution Radio. As soon as I heard it, I fell in love. It’s a perfect amalgamation of everything that makes up Green Day: the tearjerking sentimental ballads, the upbeat songs about the innocence of love, the personal tracks about inner demons, the damning social commentary, and raging punk rock anthems. In other words, it was perfect.

Read my anniversary piece on Green Day's Saviors over at Green Day Authority.

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Here we are again. The end of the year. Somehow, 2024 was just as bad, if not worse, than 2023. Personally, it was another challenging year of balancing financial stress, mental health, and depression. But, as always, music was a bright spot. This year saw amazing albums from my old favorites, along with discovering new bands, and even an album I never thought would happen. Of course, there were plenty of underwhelming releases too. Before we wrap up 2024, here’s a look at albums I loved (and hated) this year.

Read my end-of-the-year list via musicalfiction3.wordpress.com

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Melt-Banana on the 11 year gap between albums:

Agata: I’m not sure how much time had passed after releasing our previous album Fetch, but maybe a few years later, I started making short demos, about a minute long, and would ask Yako what she thought of them. From those, we picked some songs and gradually developed them.

Yako: We tried out some of the songs live too, and little by little we were able to finish them and finally release the album.

Agata: So, it wasn’t like we went into the studio during a specific period and recorded songs that were already done to release the album. Over those 11 years, we worked on demos at home and in the studio, recorded sounds, refined the tracks, and made adjustments to the arrangements to finish it.

Yako: Yeah, 11 years might sound like a long time, but it didn’t feel that way to us. We were touring a lot during that time. In between tours, we would come up with ideas, so time just naturally passed.

Agata: I enjoy making music, but I didn’t feel any pressure like, “We have to put out the next album!” Although, a lot of people did ask when the next album would be released. In the end, it just took 11 years because we moved at our own pace.

Read the full interview on genreisdead.com

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Anyone remember Chris Gaines? The bizarre Garth Brooks project that no one understood, but people still seem to love to this day? Well, I reviewed a new book about the history of the project. I was excited to cover this entry in the 33 1/3 series because my mom was into this album. She's a huge Garth Brooks fan, so she bought the Chris Gaines thing. Needless to say, I think about Chris Gaines more than I need to because of her. Thanks, mom.

Read the review on genreisdead.com

Link in source.

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Unto Other's Gabe Franco on Stephen King:

GF: The only time I’ve ever actually been scared reading a book was IT. Maybe I was just weak mentally or hung over that day, but it’s the scene where they go to the library and a red balloon floats across. I was like, fuck this. My favorite Stephen King book is probably Salem’s Lot. I really liked the vampire story. Some honorable mentions – Dolores Claiborne, the one about the lady who murders her husband on the eclipse. I also like The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon because that wasn’t even horror. It’s about a girl who gets lost in the woods and there’s a bear chasing her. That’s it. I love that about Stephen King. He surprises you. You think you know what you’re getting when you open up one of his books, but you have no fucking clue. There could be gross stuff, horror, telepathy, fire, pyrotechnic, aliens, all this shit. And I love it. Honestly, I feel like that kind of bleeds into our music a little bit.

Read the full interview on genreisdead.com

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What does being a lifelong NSYNC fan get you? A chance to review Selena Fragassi's new book NSYNC 30th Anniversary Celebration. And one of my quotes is even on the Amazon page!

Read the review on genreisdead.com

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I recently checked out The Red Pears headline show at Chicago's Park West with support from Ultra Q and The High Curbs. So how was it? Read the full review on Illinois Entertainer.

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"American Idiot is special to me for many reasons. It’s not only the album that made me a fan, but it also came at a pivotal moment in my life. I was 15, finding my own identity and becoming more aware of the injustices in our world. I was forming my own beliefs, and questioning what I saw around me. This album echoed what I was feeling: restlessness, anger, sadness, angst. It encouraged me to forge my own path, fight for my beliefs, and speak out against society’s ills. It pushed me to keep moving forward when it felt like the world was trying to stop me. Whether it was following my passion for writing or standing up for myself, Green Day was there cheering me on."

Read my new retrospective on American Idiot and 20 years of loving Green Day on Green Day Authority.

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Slash on his love of the blues:

“I’m a blues guitar player, to begin with. Everything I do in the hard rock genre has always been all blues guitar, and then you mix it,” he says. “There’s a lot of different influences in, say, Guns N’ Roses, so it comes out sounding a lot more eclectic than just straightforward blues. But if you were to isolate all my stuff, that’s all my playing is. The biggest influence on me when I first picked up the guitar was all blues guitars and blues music. I used to jam a lot and still do sit in with bar bands and blues cover bands all over America and in other countries. Just go out and scratch that itch to play some laid-back blues with somebody.”

Read my new cover story with Slash, yeah THAT Slash for Illinois Entertainer online and in print.

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The existence of DREAMCAR, the rock group featuring three-fourths of No Doubt and AFI’s Davey Havok, felt like a fever dream. They came out of nowhere, released one album, and disappeared. Did this happen, or did we make them up? As weird as it sounds, they were a thing. They popped up in 2017 for a summer fling before returning to their respective bands. Seemed like a one-and-done deal. Yet, out of nowhere, the band quietly reunited this year. Not only will they play Pasadena’s Cruel World Festival this weekend, but they also released a new three-song EP dubbed Dream. A DREAMCAR reunion wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card. Even stranger, they returned just as I rediscovered the band.

Read my retrospective about DREAMCAR at genre is dead!

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Jon Anderson on "Owner of a Lonely Heart:"

 Well, quick story, I was working in the south of France, writing some music about an artist, a Russian guy called Marc Chagall. I just met him on his 90th birthday, and I was busy writing songs about his life. Then I went to London, and [Yes bassist] Chris [Squire] called me up and asked, “Do you want to hear some music [Squire’s band Cinema] is doing?” And I said, “Okay.” So, he came around with his Rolls Royce, and I got in his car, and he played “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” In the back of my mind, I’m going, “Wow, this is amazing!” I told Chris the chorus was a hit. I mean, it’s so commercial. The last thing Yes was, was commercial. Yes, it wasn’t built to be three-minute, 33-second pop energy. It was to create long-form pieces of music. That’s what I wanted to do.

Then Chris played another song and asked if I liked them. I said, these are great songs, but your verses are not very strong. And he said, “well, what would you do?” “Just be a bit more staccato with the verse.” “Would you come in tomorrow to the studio and sing an idea?” I said, “Well, if I do, it won’t be a Cinema song; it’ll be Yes, won’t it?” He said, “that’s what we want!” So, the following day I went in and the first thing I did was the [starts singing melody] “Move yourself/you always live your life/never thinking of the future.” Very staccato, you know, and they loved it.

All of a sudden, I saw myself in a band that was going to be a big hit. It was a magical period. Within a month we’d made a video of us on top of a skyscraper pretending to be different animals – eagles and snakes and things. Then we went on tour and played to thousands and thousands of people all because of one song. Blew my mind. It happens, you know. I had a great time on tour.

Read the full interview on Illinois Entertainer online and in print!

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StrateJacket on "Be My Drug:"

“Be My Drug” was one of the first ideas we had for the album when we started writing. Our label asked us to write some new songs because they wanted to know what we could write before we made an album. “Be My Drug” came out of that. It’s mostly a story about how people with impulsive behaviors might affect someone who’s more of an introvert to make those quick decisions to go do something fun. I’m pretty inspired by people like that. So, it’s that mixed with a young love story type deal. It’s probably one of my favorites. I like it a lot.

Check out my new interview with StrateJacket on Genre is dead! Link in source.