Crucial to the creation of this album was Daltrey's meeting with guitarist/songwriter Gerard McMahon, since Rocks In The Head, which credits "Musical Direction and Production" to McMahon, also features him as primary backup musician and writer or co-writer of ten out of the 11 tracks. Daltrey himself is co-credited on seven, a new high for him, but it's hard not to feel that he is acting primarily as McMahon's mouthpiece. McMahon updates Daltrey for the '90s, constructing hard-edged tracks based on harsh electric or acoustic guitar textures, suggesting everyone from The Who to The Police. The result is an album that does nothing to diminish Daltrey's reputation.
In the penultimate episode of his widely popular and critically acclaimed HBO series, Painting with John, its creator, John Lurie, sat in a Manhattan recording studio, working out musical parts for the show’s soundtrack. “After the illness started, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do this again,” said Lurie.
Although Cherry Poppin' Daddies became a popular act during the swing revival of the late 1990s, the eight-piece band formed one decade prior in Eugene, Oregon. Vocalist Steve Perry (aka MC Large Drink, a nickname intended to distance Perry from the famous Journey frontman) and bassist Dan Schmid initially crossed paths at the University of Oregon, and a shared interest in punk music convinced the students to leave school and pursue a band. After playing together in the Jazz Greats and St. Huck, the duo shifted gears in 1989 by forming Cherry Poppin' Daddies, a unique band whose lineup gradually encompassed guitarist Jason Moss, drummer Tim Donahue, trumpeter Dana Heitman, saxophonists Sean Flannery and Ian Early, and keyboard player Dustin Lanker. The musicians' dedication to ska, swing, jazz, and…
Scream for Me Sarajevo is the astonishing story of the most unlikely of rock concerts, performed by Bruce Dickinson and his band Skunkworks in 1994. Risking their lives, they were smuggled into the besieged city to play a concert for its citizens amidst the chaos of war.