John Lennon of the Beatles

John Lennon’s blend of pop instincts and restless experimentalism set the agenda for modern rock music. His driving, feisty rhythm guitar work energized the Beatles’ early singles, and his imaginative songcraft elevated the three-minute rock tune to an art form. Rock’s first intellectual, Lennon profoundly influenced all of the sixties great guitarist-poets, including Pete Townshend, Ray Davies and Roger McGuinn. To this day, on one level or another, every rock group defines itself in relation to the Beatles. Read more

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Metallica To Emphasize ‘Magnetic’ On Tour

Lars Ulrich of Metallica promises that fans will hear “a lot of new songs” from “Death Magnetic” on the band’s upcoming tour, which begins production rehearsals this coming Monday in San Francisco and kicks off October 21 in Glendale, Ariz. Read more

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Marc Bolan 1947 – 1977

On September 16, 1977, just after five in the morning, an Austin Mini carrying English rocker Mark Bolan and driven by Bolan’s girlfriend, Gloria Jones, swerved off a road in Barnes Common, England, and crashed into a tree. The 29-year-old Bolan, who had never learned to drive, was hurled from the passenger seat into the back of the car and killed instantly.

While he began his career as a trippy-hippy in an acoustic and bongo duo, Bolan is best remembered for his work fronting T.Rex, the electric-pop-boogie band that is often credited with giving birth to the British glam rock movement of the early Seventies.

On the strength of two classic albums,1971’s Electric Warrior and 1972’s The Slider, as well as a flurry of strong singles, among them “Bang a Gong (Get It On),” T.Rex enjoyed enormous success in England in the first two years of the leisure-suit decade, topping the charts repeatedly and inspiring millions of young teenyboppers to fits of frenzy unseen since the rise of the Beatles. Unfortunately, T.Rex, despite numerous attempts, were unable to repeat their success in the United States, and their popularity in the UK waned rapidly as the public grew tired of the band’s essentially stagnant musical formula.

Ironically, at the time of his fatal accident, Bolan was enjoying something of a comeback. His final album, Dandy in the Underworld, charted respectably and was proof positive that his creative juices were once again beginning to flow. At the same time, the diminutive rocker’s cred was given a huge boost when the leaders of England’s punk revolution, who had come of age at the height of T.Rex mania, frequently cited T.Rex as one of their most important influences, embracing Bolan as the “Godfather of Punk.”

After Bolan’s death, his body was cremated. His memorial plaque, along with those of the Who’s keith Moon, T.S. Elliot and Sigmund Freud, can be found at Golden’s Green Crematorium in London.

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Kerry King’s B.C. Rich Mockingbird & Jeff Hanneman’s Gibson Les Paul Standard

Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman’s paint-splattered Gibson Les Paul Standard and BC Rich Mockingbird have much to answer for. After all, they’re the axes that helped launch Slayer’s now infamous legacy of brutality. Read more

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Kirk Hammett talks about his Gear and Sound for Death Magnetic

When Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist of Metallica, was asked about his gear and tone for their new Death Magnetic album, this is what he had to say. Read more

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Kiss Gods of Thunder

Kiss is one of those definitive rock and roll bands—y’know, the ones both critics and parents loathe, but the kids love anyway. When looking back over the history of rock, however, one can surely ask why. Read more

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Coldplay Announce New EP Lost!

Coldplay have revealed details of a new four-track, digital-only single.

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Jimi Hendrix The Ultimate Guitar Hero -R.I.P

The Greatest Guitar Hero, Jimi Hendrix still remains one of the most influential forces in rock music. Pulling unprecedented sounds out of his Fender Strat, Hendrix challenged musicians and guitarists to explore a wild new world of tones and textures, dazzling and confounding guitar greats like Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton, who still speak of Hendrix with a hushed reverence. Other players before him might have experimented with feedback and excessive distortion, Hendrix turned those practices into an art fashion. He was the first player to use the whammy bar as an instrument unto itself, making his Stratocaster talk, scream and howl. Read more

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John Lennon Anthology

Capitol’s John Lennon Anthology Box Set sheds some fascinating light on rock’s first intellectual. The set’s four disc contain nearly 100 tracks, nearly all of which have never been officially released; many hadn’t even appeared on bootlegs. Read more

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Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance

Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance
(Columbia, 1982) Read more

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