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DANIEL BROCKMAN

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Interview: God save John Lydon

When Sex Pistols impresario Malcolm McLaren coined the phrase "cash from chaos," he may have been describing his own filthy lucre, but for the members of rock's most explosive group, the fiduciary comeuppance was and has been eternally forthcoming.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 10, 2012

Adam Ant tries to climb back on top

"Ridicule is nothing to be scared of," sang Stuart Leslie Goddard, a/k/a Adam Ant, on his seminal 1981 pop/post-punk smash "Prince Charming."

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 05, 2012

Fall-Nat-Pop-Bat-for-lashes-slideshow_list

Ten national pop acts that will dominate fall charts

When working on a sophomore follow-up to a successful debut, most bands react to the extra dough and time-as-luxury bounty given to them by trying to cram as much as they can into the confines of their new grooves.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 19, 2012

Getting loud with Lightning Bolt

What is noise?

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 19, 2012

Minimalists and maximalists

The xx | Coexist
When working on a sophomore follow-up to a successful debut, most bands react to the extra dough and time-as-luxury bounty given to them by trying to cram as much as they can into the confines of their new grooves.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 19, 2012

Peter Gabriel reflects on So, his pop oddity

Progressive by nature
In the annals of rock/pop history, 1986 is often an underappreciated year.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 11, 2012

Dragonette step into the limelight

Say hello
Do you think you could make it in the music world? If you answered "yes," then ask yourself this follow-up: how game are you?

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 07, 2012

Kitty Pryde takes her chances

Flak catcher
Can one artist ruin a genre?

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | August 15, 2012

The 30-year metal reign of Tom Araya and Slayer

Showing no mercy
Suicide, serial killers, Satan worship, demonic possession, hatred, violence, and depravity: succeeding as a heavy-metal band through the '80s and early '90s meant being able to withstand a gauntlet of accusations as the cause of all of society's ills.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | August 03, 2012

Baroness | Yellow & Green

Relapse (2012)
Saying that Baroness have strayed from metal orthodoxy with this, their third long-player, is to betray an ignorance of the sound and evolution of this Savannah foursome, who since 2003 have been wringing out more and more sheer beauty from a bedrock of sonic sludge.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 31, 2012

Charli XCX is ready for her close-up

No angel
If 2011 was a year of the general populace getting bombarded with new female solo artists coming out of nowhere to blow up our Interwebs and destroy our notions of the pay-your-dues career track, then 2012 is shaping up to be the year of reckoning.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 24, 2012

Refused reunite: should we care?

Old noise
Songs may exist for our entertainment, but bands often thrive not just as music makers but as exemplars of behavior.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 17, 2012

Slicing up metal genres with Black Breath

Power of the riffage
Anyone with even a passing interest in heavy metal knows by now that the musical style has become subsumed in an obsession with subgenres, warring factions under metal's big black hate-filled umbrella.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 03, 2012

Mapping Iron Maiden’s legacy in metal

Eddie with Mickey ears
Music is a universal force — able to foment revolution, sell culture, and communicate ideas both specific and diffuse.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 22, 2012

Panic! at the Palladium

Prepare to get wrecked?
This past week, rumors flew that the Palladium, the stately concert hall in downtown Worcester, was due for imminent demolition.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 13, 2012

Santigold remains just out of pop's reach

Make-believer
We, as music listeners, tend to think of the business of music creation as one of inspiration, perspiration, meditation, and perhaps inebriation.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 15, 2012

Sleep | Dopesmoker [re-issue]

Southern Lord (2012)
In the early-'90s metal drought, a strange strain developed through the cracks in the pavement, as downtuned strings, sluggish tempos, and vintage amplification led to the blossoming of stoner rock.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 05, 2012

The Cult survives rock's highs and lows

Sturdy temple
There is a difference between an unknown musical artist and a superstar, and that difference isn't necessarily musical — it's mythological.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 31, 2012

Razormaze adds focus to their thrash

Sharper image
For a kind-of goofy metal dude, Alex Citrone is pretty serious — especially when he talks metal, and especially when he's talking about his band, Boston shred titans Razormaze.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 15, 2012

Zambri | House of Baasa

Kanine Records
For those of us of a certain age who remember when school dances had a strict four-fast-songs-then-one-slow-one policy, the memory of bouncing around to "Let's Hear It for the Boy" with the anticipation of "One More Night" or "Take My Breath Away" still makes our palms sweat with hormonal anxiety.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 15, 2012

Confronting the Swedish gloom of In Solitude

Cold spell
When I am finally able to get through to the cell phone of In Solitude's tour manager, they have emerged from a massive dust cloud, their metal-mobile finding civilization after a long spell traversing the deserts of Arizona with no idea where they are going.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 08, 2012