So, uh, it’s probably best to get this out of the way before continuing on with our series on Bob Dylan. Although this will be painful, it’s best if we just come clean with it, right up front. Admit it, and move on.  

Here’s the thing readers: Bob Dylan is… Read full post »

Drawing from the same mythic and romantic American folk well that other indie-folksters have been drinking deeply from (think Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Avett B… Read full post »

“O where ha you been, Lord Randall, my son?

And where ha you been, my handsome young man?”

“I ha been at the greenwood; mother make my bed soon,

For I’m wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down.”

--Lord Randall (English/Scottish ballad, 16^th century)

   &… Read full post »

I remember first getting into Scott-Heron about ten years ago. I had mentioned an affinity for Beat poetry and jazz to a prof one day after class, and suddenly here is Gil Scott-He… Read full post »

Harry Smith on Chubby Parker's  "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O (Froggie Went A-Courtin')":  "Zoologic Miscegeny Achieved in Mouse/Frog Nuptuals, relatives approve!" 

What a great, romantic song! It's got it all man: Zoologic m… Read full post »

                         

 
There's a moment in the middle of Alberta Cross' hard-driving and spectacular single ATX where guitarist/vocalist Petter Ericson Stakee howls darkly, "how does it fe/… Read full post »

Link in the Chain (roots and beginnings) 

American folk music.

Blind Lemon Jefferson, Doc Boggs, Buell Kazee, Mississippi John Hurt, Clarence Ashley, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, the Carter Family—these artists, among many others, didn’t invent folk music, but they are responsible f… Read full post »

The research staff at the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame has spent long and hazardous hours exposed to songs that are considered crimes committed against rock. This includes good bands gone band and bad bands that got...badder. 

To aid our prosecution we enlisted the help of our friend and… Read full post »

                      THE DYLAN FILES:

1. Link in the Chain (roots and beginnings)
2. 1961—1964     The Folk Years
3. 1965—1966     T
… Read full post »

 What ever happened to the boogie? If you’ve asked yourself that question when contemplating music of th… Read full post »

Boiling Springs is our little village. Originally settled in the 1730s, Boiling Springs became a popular weekend destination during the late 19^th century. It remains a popular weekend retreat. Pe… Read full post »

Are you still holiday shopping? Do you know any aspiring writers? Here are four gift ideas for the writer in your life, or for anyone who simply loves a great story. 

The New Kings of Nonfiction (ed. Ira Glass)(2007)

               … Read full post »

Well, here it is: the ten worst songs of the decade. We were unable to provide a bigger list as there was a lot of dreck released this decade; our heads are hurting, and I have an/… Read full post »

Charles Brockden Brown is America’s first important novelist. Arthur Mervyn, Ormond and Edgar Huntly are fascinating studies in not only the writing of the ear… Read full post »

 Music is like the shorthand of history. Listen to the opening chords of “Johnny B. Goode” and one is able to conjure images of fin-tails, greased hair, and sock-hops. Or take a song like “For What It's Worth” and it is hard not to imagine hippies, protests, and love-ins,… Read full post »

 I’ve been spending the past few hours working on the second post for my “Decade in Music” series: The Decade’s Biggest Moments in Music—the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (hint: “nipplegate” is there).

See the first post in the series, The 50 Best Songs o… Read full post »

I have a vivid memory of listening to Christmas songs while my Ma would make Christmas cookies. Her two favorite were Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christ… Read full post »

 Here’s the plot: a lower working-class Italian-American goes the distance and takes a shot at the championship. Along the way he learns about life and love, and what he is really made of.

In 1976 Sylvester Stallone and John Avildsen brought to film the great American underdog sto… Read full post »

In Theodore Sturgeon’s classic science fiction novel “More Than Human,” the misfit heroes, shunned and scorned by society, “bl… Read full post »

As we enter the last few months of the 00s (or the Aughts or whatever the hell we're going to call this decade), Crux of the Biscuit will explore the best and worst in the past decade of music.

To kick things off I offer 50 Songs of the… Read full post »

We here at Crimes Against Rock have enjoyed the various posts of people confessing to loving horrible songs.

We’ve also had some fun in the past pointing out various artists’ own transgressions against the good name of rock n roll.

Perhaps it is time we also admitted… Read full post »

I remember I kept stopping at the stop signs.

Driving through New Orleans a week after Hurricane Katrina was like driving through the ruins of civilization. Although there was no tra… Read full post »

To Vin Diesel Mr. Gary Cherone and Ms. Mr. Nuno Bettencourt

Dear sir and madam Dear sirs, many of the women who work here at Crimes Against Rock have long taken issue with your early 90's song More Than Words. Besides the utter vapidity of this faux-Everly Brothers song,… Read full post »

Remember when you were a teenager, listening to your favorite rock record, and your parents hollered at you to “turn down that infernal racket”? Well, fa… Read full post »