[This piece appears in All the Rage.]

The Creeping Cruds and Halloween go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Their brief, aggressive tunes have plenty of shout-along chorus about “eating the living‿ and “M-U-R-D-E-R‿ but they’ve also got plenty of sweet guitar licks that land just on the tasteful side of shredding. In short, this Nashville-based horror-punk band owes as much to the Misfits as they do to ZZ Top. All The Rage got together with Jeano Roid, one of the Cruds’ two axe-murderers, to talk scary stuff. (more…)

[This piece appears in All the Rage]

The story of Sweden’s Shout Out Louds starts, like the stories of so many precocious bands, in an art school where singer Adam Olenius met guitarist Carl von Arbin. Adam taught Ted Malmros to play bass and the trio started gigging with an old drum machine. Eventually, as the trio honed their sound, they recruited an actual drummer and keyboardist. (more…)

[This piece appeared in the City Paper.]

Martina McBride
Timeless
RCA Records Label

“It all begins with a song‿—the old songwriters’ adage—proves perfectly apt in the case of Martina McBride’s newest album, Timeless. For this record (her first solo production), Martina chose to pay homage to her roots by recording an album of classic country songs. The result is an 18-song tribute to the beauty of country music’s heritage sung by one of the genre’s present-day greats. (more…)

[This piece appears in All the Rage]

Even if you haven’t yet seen Harper—one of the city’s newest and brightest pop bands—you may recognize the faces. Singer/guitarist Ben Harper played bass for Feable Weiner until earlier this year. Guitarist/keyboardist Raf Cevallos once played in The Pink Spiders and currently plays in The Darling Hearts. Bassist Keith Lowen plays in The Privates and was once a member of Lifeboy along with drummer Sam Smith. All the Rage gathered with the band in the studio where they are recording their debut album. (more…)