By Chris Gray
It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.
BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Go
Dengue Fever
The Rickshaw Stop
Jan. 3, 2008
Review by Ezra Gale
Good bands are like recipes. A dash of this, a dash of that, and all of a sudden you've got yourself a winning formula that has critics drooling and your public lining up to taste the sensations at your French Laundry-like haunt in the valleys of Napa.
So imagine the recipe that led to Dengue Fever and their show at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco Saturday night. It's the most improbable of rock bands, equal parts white guy ind
Feeling Lucky: Chris IsaakIf you've been wondering where local-boy-gone-pop-star Chris Isaak has been, the answer is, just about everywhere. In a career that's had more legs than ZZ Top in '83, Isaak's gone from an up-and-coming Rockabilly crooner/Elvis impersonator, to Big Time hitmaker ("Wicked Game"), to TV and film star. If there's one thing Isaak embodies, it's retro cool, and just when you thought we'd never see another musical variety show that wasn't "American Idol"-derived (rememb
Zakiya Hooker preserves the legacy of her father, blues legend John Lee Hooker, plans her own musical career -- and tries to keep tradition from suffocating both
The stereotype may be racist and classist, but that hasn't kept a generation from embracing the white trash aesthetic -- a disposable culture populated by trailer parks; junk cars; big hair and gaudy makeup; loud, angry music; and empty beer cans -- and i
Steven Tyler Though "Boston's Bad Boys"--technically they're Grandpas by now--jumped the shark several years ago, probably around the time "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" was featured in the God-awful movie "Armageddon," they're no denying Aerosmith have more stamina and staying power than the Energizer Bunny on Viagra and a double-espresso. There's also no denying that frontman Steven Tyler's lips rival Angelina Jolie's and Mick Jagger's for sheer mass. Or that guitarist Joe Perry is a more well-
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