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Dennis Pernu
Classics: February 2024
Sean Slade’s 1964 SG Junior
They might not seem to have a ton in common aside from first names. J Mascis, Dinosaur Jr.’s co-founder and guitarist developed a style equal parts guitar heroics and left-side-of-the-dial insouciance. In Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar helped popularize the alt-country movement by merging influences from Doug Sahm to The Stooges. But that might be where…
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Dennis Pernu
Maps and Legends: The Story of R.E.M.
John Hunter
Any balanced rock-and-roll bio scrutinizes a band’s more-unsavory side. And scrutinize is exactly what John Hunter does in this unauthorized bio of ’80s indie darlings turned ’90s megastars R.E.M. The band’s more-egregious tendencies deserve the stink eye – like guitarist Peter Buck’s infamous reputation as an unreliable source and the band’s proclivity to privately contradict…
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Dennis Pernu
Steve Turner
The March To Fuzz
Thirty-five years after Steve Turner and Mudhoney became forever linked with two legendary pedals by coining their debut EP Superfuzz Big Muff, Turner has authored an autobiography, Mud Ride, and Mudhoney is touring its 11th studio LP, Plastic Eternity. He stopped for a bit to talk. You and Mudhoney’s Mark Arm were dismissive of the…
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Dennis Pernu
Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through The Grunge Explosion
Steve Turner with Adem Tepedelen
Mudhoney never really cashed in on the early-’90s grunge sweepstakes. In fact, its members have largely eschewed the G word. Until now. Lead guitarist and cofounder Steve Turner chronicles Mudhoney’s formation and career while providing a parallel (if sometimes jaundiced) primer on the incubation, hatching, and bloated death of grunge. In addition to his personal…
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Dennis Pernu
Mudhoney
Plastic Eternity
When it comes to writing music reviews, nothing’s more Lamesville than a critic swiping text from a label’s press release. But in the case of Mudhoney’s new full-length, one would be hard-pressed to top Sub Pop’s description of the quartet as the “ur-underground group.” Thirty-five years into their career, the band’s eleventh studio LP is…
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Dennis Pernu
The No Ones
My Evil Best Friend
This latest in decades of collaborations between R.E.M. guitar man Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey is the pair’s third collection with Norwegians Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen and Frode Strømstad. Listeners familiar with Buck and the prolific McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, The Minus 5, The Baseball Project) will not be surprised to discover a power-pop janglefest, in…
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Dennis Pernu
Mike Baggetta/Jim Keltner/Mike Watt
Everywhen We Go
Guitarist Mike Baggetta teams up with renowned rock drummer Jim Keltner (Harrison, Dylan, Frisell) and equally legendary punk bassman Mike Watt (Minutemen, Stooges) for the trio’s second album. As one might expect given their pedigree, this rhythm section is locked, allowing Baggetta to explore myriad styles and tones ranging from the Morricone-flavored sauce of the…
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Dennis Pernu
Bleeding Hearts
Riches To Rags
In the pantheon of ’80s indie-rock guitar heroes, Bob Stinson has been largely forgotten, except among fans of The Replacements, the band he cofounded in 1978. It hasn’t helped that Stinson was booted from the Replacements in ’86 and passed away in ’95, spending the intervening years bouncing between Minneapolis bands, the last being Bleeding…
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Dennis Pernu
Sex Pistols
The Original Recordings
Playing a ’74 Les Paul Custom straight (mostly) through a Twin Reverb, Steve Jones’ Faces-influenced swagger – landing somewhere between the militaristically precise rock of Johnny Ramone and the shambolic roll of Johnny Thunders – arguably came to define punk guitar. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Sex Pistol’s crass public persona vaulted them…
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Dennis Pernu
999
A Punk Rock Anthology 1977-2020
When it comes to first-wave U.K. punk, the canon favors a handful of bands while paying cursory attention to worthy contemporaries. Take 999. As this compilation proves, the quartet was the sonic equal of The Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, and The Damned. This set does an admirable job of distilling the band’s discography (11 studio albums…
