Duran Duran were the video band that killed the radio stars.

We’re at the tail end of that magical time of year when pampered artistes gather together to pat themselves on the back and make pretentious speeches while wearing dubious fashion – AWARD SEASON!

Every year, it seems like the Grammy awards get just enough right to keep us coming back.

It’s written in the stars… Ah, Valentine’s Day – the holiday that comes so close to Christmas you’re probably out of money and gift ideas to give that special someone. While chocolates and flowers are both traditional and romantic Valentine’s Day gifts, we recommend going deeper. Create a personalized, love song-filled playlist that will truly…

I am still searching for David Bowie. He is everywhere but he is nowhere.

I’ve been waiting to write something about Pete Shelley after hearing about his passing today.

X and Los Lobos in San Francisco X and Los Lobos, two classic Los Angeles bands each celebrating over 40 years in the business, brought their show to the historic Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco for a two-night stand this past weekend. Another LA veteran, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s, opened the show with her…

Garbage are the perfect house band for our dystopian nightmare.

Patti Smith, Flea, Bob Weir & more at Pathway to Paris Pathway to Paris – The Masonic Auditorium – San Francisco – Sept. 14, 2018   With extreme weather events very much in the news recently, the fourth annual Pathway to Paris concert at The Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco could not have been more…

Playlist: 24 Witchy Songs To Celebrate the Fall Equinox For most, the arrival of fall is more a feeling than a temperature drop. An ethereal shift in the winds perhaps or just your inaugural pumpkin spice latte order — whatever marks the change of the season, the collective gearing up for Autumn is here. To…

Summer draws to a close and cooler nights are on the horizon. No better time to put on headphones and spend some time with new music. 

Musical success is often attributed to sheer talent, hard work, and maybe some dumb luck. The high intelligence level associated with great musical talent, however, is rarely addressed. 

I fondly remember the sense of exploring the future via the mid-century modern prism of Epcot Center in Orlando, FL as a child.

Some call it nostalgia, I call it science.

The long, strange trip of Gorillaz has never been boring.

School’s out for summer which means more time to listen to music!

As we enter the thick of festival season, another kind of festival is heating up: the wellness festival.

Born in 2005, Soraia epitomizes raw power, unrelenting energy, chaos, and freedom.

Bowie Takes Over NYC Subway Station   As the ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibit continues to blow away fans at The Brooklyn Museum (as its done around the world), the museum has teamed up with Spotify and the Metropolitan Transit Authority to give New Yorkers an added incentive to make your way over to Brooklyn. Located…

Baseball Season is back!

Now Hear This: March 2018 Only three months into the new year and 2018 is already delivering some of the best music of the decade. Not surprisingly, women are at the forefront of this wave and here is the March edition of Now Hear This!   Soccer Mommy – Your Dog Sophie Allison’s debut album…

Love & Keytars – Howard Jones One of the most unique artists to conquer America during the second British Invasion, Howard Jones always set himself a little apart at the time even if I didn’t quite understand why as an awestruck 12 year old. In October, 1985, my dad took me to Miami, FL to…

Spring Break is just around the corner! Just because we’re not all school-aged, doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of this unofficial “holiday” or at least reminisce about the sun-filled glory days, right?

Early Influences: The DuCaines Who are your influences? When you are mixing with like-minded music people that question inevitably comes up. As much as I like to think it is Bowie, Velvet Underground, and Joy Division, the only real answer for me has always been the DuCaines out of New York City. If it wasn’t…

If you are one of those people who stream music (and by all recent accounts, that is most of you), listen up! Def Leppard has finally joined the party!!

Not being on a major label doesn’t mean you’re not a major player – and if there’s any band that can prove it, it’s Spoon.

Music has a huge impact on brain health and in turn, mental and physical health; so it makes sense that rhythm and music is an integral part of wellness routines of all types.

It always warms our hearts when musicians get together, using their talents to raise money for a great cause through the release of a charity album. The charity album trend peaked in the ’80s with all-star releases like “We are the World” and “Do they know it’s Christmas?” but thankfully many artists continue to use…

I have been told many times to not meet my heroes – that it is either not all it’s cracked up to be or that I will come face to face with an interaction that will leave me largely unsatisfied. It is a tale that has been passed down, a sort of innate understanding that…

Unlike boxing, rock and roll is not renowned for great comebacks. A few missteps and then it’s usually farewell, have a good life, who are you again?

November is halfway over and (in the US) elastic-waisted pants are ready for Thanksgiving – which means everyone is technically allowed to start listening to Holiday music, right?

Alt rock darlings Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett threw down at the historic Fox Theater in Oakland on October 18th. Our pal Aaron Rubin was there with his trusty camera.

Whether you realize it or not, you need more glam rock in your daily life. That is what I figured out back in February when the Glam Skanks delivered a dose of their glitter stomp on Las Vegas in support of Adam Ant.

With Halloween right around the corner, we’ve been revisiting our favorite spooky TV cameos by some legendary musicians. WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE! 

In anticipation of Dirty Heads’ 6th album, Swim Team, singer/guitarist Duddy B chatted with Jeff Nolan about the state of the group.

Tom Petty went to the Great Gig in the Sky last night. He was only 66 years old. RPM’s Jason Lent and Earl Douglas share their thoughts.

Welcome to PRETENTIOUS POETRY – where we take a look at classic rock lyrics as paraphrased by a sophomore English major. Today’s installment is the AC/DC classic “Back in Black”. Brace yourself for true idiocy.

Music and film have shared a close relationship since the golden era of Hollywood.

I fell in love with Julien Baker in a small club with 300 strangers.

Chris Cornell’s exceptional skill as a songwriter was unmistakable.  By utilizing alternate guitar tunings and some of the weirdest chords you’ll ever hear, songs like  “Black Hole Sun,” “Like a Stone,” and “Say Hello to Heaven” cemented Cornell’s place in rock history as one of the most poignant writers of his generation.

The 40th anniversary of his death got me to thinking – Does Elvis Presley still matter in the 21st century? The answer is yes, but with a few caveats.

Band names are almost impossibly hard to choose — they should be easy to say but not forgettable, original but not obscure, catchy but not too commercial.

It is Duran Duran Appreciation Day around the world and you’re probably wondering if I made that up. I wish I had!

In advance of the upcoming their covers album, Under Cöver, a video was just released of Motörhead covering David Bowie’s “Heroes”. It’s both glorious and poignant.

Some rides are so fast, so wild, so vertiginous that you never want to get off. And when they do end, they’re all the more dizzying once you’ve disembarked.

“Ladies and gentlemen, rock ‘n’ roll.” – August 1, 1981

Summer is here, so it’s time to lock in with some kickass songs to get yourself to and from the beach. We put together a few songs from around the globe that may not be getting airplay on your home radio station but they are huge in other parts of the world.

Here’s some grunge archaeology for you. This video is Nirvana playing at a Radio Shack store in Aberdeen on January 24th, 1988. HOLY MOLY.

It was 50 years ago that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play – and it was  released roughly 18 years before I was born.

Perfect weather and late spring wanderlust means only one thing: it’s time for a road trip.

The Hard Rock Rising global battle of the bands has concluded and we have an absolutely amazing grand prize winner – Alex Boyé of Park City, Utah.

We woke this morning to the shocking and sad news that Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell died in Detroit. He was only 52 years old.

Ladies and gents, summer’s here and it’s festival season. Time to saddle up, grab a comfy pair of shoes and go see some live music.

I have always had a passion for crafting playlists; starting back in the day with my two-cassette boombox.

Longtime Col. Bruce road manager Tony Hume shares his thoughts on the passing of his friend and Bruce’s indelible influence on the jam band scene.

The Twitterverse and teen/industrial complex is exploding today because Harry Styles did a failed stage dive. What no one seems to be mentioning is he appears to have a vintage Gibson ES-350 around his neck. Huh?

I hate to seem like I’m piling on, but holy moly is this whole Fyre Festival debacle insane or what?

So I went and saw Dinosaur Jr. a couple nights ago. Holy moly is J Mascis ever a badass.

With the recent unveiling of this year’s Warped Tour line-up, old school punk is again in the air as California legends The Adolescents, The Dickies and T.S.O.L are heading out with bands that weren’t even born when they put California punk on the map in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. Inspired by the music coming out…

When an artist achieves fame while still in their teens, it usually spells doom for any hope of a long-lasting career in the fickle world of popular music. One big hit and then they disappear as soon as the cuteness factor wanes. Michelle Branch has been a very conspicuous exception to this rule; which is why…

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Anyone who has ever sketched the KISS letters in a school notebook or safety-pinned a Ramones patch onto the back of their jacket knows that a great band logo resonates with fans and reveals their love for those artists.

Elvis wasn’t even close. Chuck Berry wrote the libretto for the opera that is the life of the teenager and in the process changed the face of modern culture.

Our man in Vegas – Jason Lent – runs down his nominees for the ten greatest soundtrack albums of all time. RPM editor Jeff Nolan provides the rebuttal. Enjoy…

We’ve all been there… someone you trust enthuses about a contemporary album while you’re having beers in your local pub (“Dude, you’ve never heard of them?”), but you forget to check them out. That’s why RPM’s man in Paris – Guillaume LaFon – put together a list of five albums you probably missed for your…

With their Motown-influenced blend of pop and soul, Los Angeles-based duo Electric Guest are the perfect group to be featured in Hard Rock Cafes worldwide as our Artist of the Month for March 2017.

The Filth & the Fury – Punk Rock in Seventies England, Forty Years Later Attending an all-boys school in West London in the mid-seventies was an experience. You didn’t know how many fights you’d see in the school yard on a daily basis or if you were going to be in one of them. It…

When you’re in a band, selecting the proper jam for an encore is critical to maximize your chances to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women. Everybody knows that.

In some ways, Brooklyn-based pop phenom Bebe Rexha personifies the 21st century music biz ideal – she’s predominantly known as a guest singer, she ignores the old-school concept of an album release, her image is perfectly crafted for Instagram and her voice is manipulated into what is essentially a computer noise. In short, she’s a…

Last week, I queued up in cyberspace to drop the better part of a week’s pay on tickets to see U2 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. Much like they did 30 years ago, U2 are selling out stadiums and playing songs from The Joshua Tree. For a band so wary of using nostalgia…

New York, New York.  It’s been said that New York City is so nice they named it twice.  Our first look at iconic album cover locales of NYC was so well received, we decided to dig further into the album crate, hit the streets and present more sites that have become part of our rock…

A truly seismic shift in popular culture happened 26 years ago today – but no one involved had any idea that what they were doing would fundamentally change the world, spell the commercial death of an entire musical genre and usher in what was the last true rock ‘n’ roll youth movement. On this date…

Damn you 2016. We thought you had your fill. You couldn’t leave us alone on Christmas Day.

Let’s be honest – 2016 was a bona fide annus horribilis, but there were still some pretty kickass records released in the year that shall be forever forgotten. We had the RPM contributors compile a list of their favorite albums of the year.

It’s that time of year again, kids! Gather round while we celebrate the commercial achievements of the usual suspects (many of whom are genuinely talented) and give token nominations to “arty” projects in order to preserve a veneer of credibility. It’s the 2016 Grammy® Awards!

New York City has its fair share of landmarks – the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Yankee Stadium, the Brooklyn Bridge… it’s overwhelming at times. But the streets of New York have also been the backdrop for some of the most memorable and iconic album covers of all time. RPM’s Earl Douglas –…

Recorded on November 27, 1987, Cowboy Junkies’ groundbreaking sophomore album The Trinity Session has lost none of its mystery or beauty in the three decades that have passed since the band dropped around $250 on a day of recording at a downtown Toronto church.

In addition to wacky cat videos, pictures of food and annoying political posts, the internet is chock-full of amazing isolated tracks from some truly iconic music. The wealth of isolated Led Zeppelin material online is fairly staggering – especially since so much of it is focused on the genius of John Henry Bonham.

You found the vibrations that made a generation of women too smart for their own good want to raise their boys to be gentle souls. Like so many wayward fathers, when we found you years later on our own, you told us the dark truth hidden in the folds of those verses.

We’ve all seen it a million times – a dingy club, maybe twenty disinterested patrons and a band of dubious talent hacking through some forgettable, derivative material. Inevitably, they finish their set and then huddle up on the side of the stage before making their triumphant, 6-foot walk back to their instruments like the conquering…

PRINCE ROGER NELSON 1958 – 2016 While you’re sifting through all the “man, 2016 sucks” posts in your social media feeds, take a moment to put the shocking death of Prince in a larger context. We’re living in a transitional time. A time of real change. The old guard is gone. The template of rock…

SCOTT RICHARD WEILAND 10/27/67 – 12/3/15 I woke up today to 17 missed calls and 43 text messages. “Scott’s gone”