Rock

Pearl Jam’s gem

Entertainment / Music Backspacer, the new album out today from Seattle rock icons Pearl Jam, finds the band in a dramatically different headspace.      Nick Krewen Special to the Star, Published on Sun Sep 20 2009  Backspacer, the new album out today from Seattle rock icons Pearl Jam, finds the band in a dramatically different headspace. Oh, the aggressive energy crackling of the speakers from such fist-pumping sonic blasters as “The…


Remembering Shel

  Nick Krewen GRAMMY.com Nov/Dec 2005 Legacy Recordings’ reputation for mining its vaults and producing superb compilations received another boost this past summer with the release of such acclaimed packages as Johnny Cash‘s 4-CD box set The Legend, Miles Davis‘ quintuple-disc The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions and Bob Dylan‘s Martin Scorsese-driven No Direction Home. One watershed anthology, however, got lost in the shuffle: the best of Shel Silverstein – his…


Mike Wanchic strums for Mellencamp

NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator Thursday, August 18, 1994 Dance Naked, John Mellencamp‘s latest album that contains his hit remake of Van Morrison‘s ‘Wild Night’, didn’t only surprise the public — it also shocked his co-producer. Mike Wanchic, guitarist and co-producer in the Indiana singer and composer’s band since 1978, said he was astonished he received a phone call from his boss to head back into the studio within months of…


“I’m On The Guest List – My Name Is Satan”

Bad-ass Band Doesn’t Deny The Devil’s Influence   By Nick Krewen Special To The Star Tuesday November 2, 1999   Are Seattle’s Supersuckers the spawns of Satan? It’s an association the rogue quartet’s singer and bassist Eddy Spaghetti – Edward Carlyle Daly III to his mortal parents – will neither deny nor disavow. But judging the number of times ol’ Beezlebub is referenced lyrically in such halo-bending anthems as “Born…


Eternal Damnednation: Vanian Talks

       DAMNED AS THEY DO   By Nick Krewen     Damned Damned Damned. Whatever else fate has in store for London’s The Damned, the quartet’s 1977 Nick Lowe-produced LP for Stiff Records will be remembered in the history books as the inaugural British punk album to hit the streets. Although their popularity was quickly overshadowed by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and let’s face it, practically every other punk band…