Pop Rock Nation

You Think She’s Crazy? She’s Got Your Crazy! I Love This Crazy! Britney’s Circus

What a difference a year makes in the life of Britney Spears. It’s almost impossible to conceive that at this time last year, the pop princess career was a sad, sick joke of a thing – her ability to sell records apparently inextricably linked to her ability to make tabloid headlines.Â Her 2007 album Blackout was essentially the house that TMZ footage built and her patheticÂ appearance on that year’s VMA broadcast has become legendary for […]

By Paul Lorentz|December 10th, 2008|Reviews|285 Comments

FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #15: Pardon My Pussy

URGE OVERKILLÂ THE STULL EPÂ Â (Insipid Vinyl/Touch & Go Records IV-10, 1992)

Chicago power-trio Urge Overkill ultimately proved to be one of those “in-between” anomalies we sometimes stumble upon in the record world:Â too glammy and commercial for indie-rock snobs, yet too rough-hewn and tongue-in-cheek for serious corporate shilling.Â Like fellow Illinoisans Cheap Trick before them, UO should have been the ultimate teenagers’ rock group of their era, pumping out one hard-driving, head-banging smashÂ after another while […]

By David Middleton|December 9th, 2008|People|13 Comments

The New Music Files 12/9/08: Common, Maroon 5 & More

Common Universal Mind Control
The rapper formerly known as Common Sense is used to being one of the most critically acclaimed emcees by the music press. That apparently has stopped with Universal Mind Control. The Chicago wordsmith’s eighth album has been panned by just about every publication I’ve laid my eyes on. Common has forgone his usual soulful, thoughtful raps for a more danceable, electronic style-apparently inspired by an experience at a club in Europe where […]

By Money Mike|December 9th, 2008|Releases|342 Comments

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