Tick tick, tock tock It's an anniversary even the band members probably would have forgotten without a reminder: R.E.M.'s Automatic For the People, one of the most masterful but also most unassuming albums of the '90s, was released 15 years ago this week. The music site Stereogum has commemorated this anniversary by launching a sub-site, Drive XV: A Tribute to Automatic For the People, an impres...

When the Drive-By Truckers returned to touring last year, singer/guitarist Patterson Hood was eager to get back on the road. Just 18 months earlier, though, the feeling within the band from Athens, Ga., couldn't have been more different. "We were burned out and we were tired and we were kind of angry and frustrated," Hood says. "We had built this machine and all of a sudden we realized the machine was driving us. We weren't driving the machine anymore. And we started...

Thanks to Cheap Trick, power-pop rock will forever live on. And based on last week's three-night stand at Potawatomi Bingo Casino, the boys are not only living on, they're full of the same high-level energy as when they started out 35 years ago. Wa...

For decades, male vocal harmonies were the foundation of R&B music, but since Boyz II Men, they’ve remained mostly dormant. Kings Go Forth, a prescient Milwaukee soul revival band, brings these harmonies back in all their late-’60s glory, though, pairing them with a vibrant full horn section, courtesy of members of De La Beuna...

For a cold snowy night in January, the Bradley Center was lit up and the stage ablaze, literally, as veteran thrash metalists Metallica unleashed their combustible power chords and speed-freak tempos on a revved-up, fist-pumping crowd that roared for...

Unplugged In New York, Revisited What the DVD outtakes tell us about Nirvana This summer, I wrote a blog post begging for a deluxe edition of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York, and my wish came true (mostly). Last week, Geffen finally released a DVD that packages the entire concert, the abridged, 44-minute cut MTV broadcast of the concert, a quick documentary and some insightful rehearsal foota...

While so many classic rock bands lost their way in the 1980s, ZZ Top actually found theirs. Instead of boogieing with just the traditional blues guitars, they boogied with guitars and cutting-edge synthesizers, scoring some of the biggest hits of their career, songs like “Legs” and “Gimmie All Your Lovin’.” Those synths turned out to be a blessing and a curse, though, as the band found it hard to evolve beyond the dated, robotic grooves that made them a fortune. Their scattered attempts to kick the keyboards cold turkey...

Though it’s quickly become one of Milwaukee’s busiest music venues, it was only a year ago the Turner Hall Ballroom opened its doors after being acquired by the Pabst Theater organization. Tonight at 8 p.m. the venue celebrates that anniversary with an encore performance by the very first artist to play the re-opened venue, Josh Rouse, a pop-obsessed singer-songwriter whose country-inflected albums recall the glory...