For too many years, the amount of attention lavished upon David Lee Roth has steadily diminished. Amid accusations that he was spending too much time on his own material, among other sins, he deserted or was booted out of Van Halen around 1986 — different parties have different stories. But…

During a recent segment on Today, host Matt Lauer asked Celine Dion about her claim in a previous interview that she enjoyed changing the diapers of her first child, René-Charles. Dion replied that this was definitely the case, in part because when she opened up the wrapper encasing her tot’s…

The improvement in home-recording technology has caused an explosion of material from bedroom auteurs. But a not-so-funny thing often happens on the way to the iBook: Many performers spend so much time polishing their sonic rocket that their finished products sound slick and lifeless, thereby reducing the initial spark of…

Bill Doss, a key member of the Elephant 6 collective and a cofounder of Olivia Tremor Control, likes to refer to himself in print these days as “thebilldoss” or, when he’s in a hurry, “tbd” — both good examples of how he’s able to freshen up familiar ingredients by giving…

Writing reviews of recordings by freshly dead artists is a tricky business that frequently results in overrating, a critical embarrassment that keeps on giving. Think about all those poor schmoes who, rightly thunderstruck by John Lennon’s murder, found themselves raving about Double Fantasy, a modest album that’s not even within…

For years, decades, ages, and epochs, music journalists have been writing articles declaring that rock is dead — but it ain’t, my friends. The underground rock scene, in particular, hawks up good stuff on practically a daily basis, and less adventurous stuff is still selling in sizable numbers: Of America’s…

Upon its emergence in the early ’90s, the Dave Matthews Band was either critically ignored or dismissed by reviewers as yet another in a seemingly endless string of sincere, acoustic-oriented jam acts then headlining clubs in every college town in America. And even the decent numbers racked up by the…

That Jennifer Lopez. I mean, whew. Look at her. She has hair like a wheat field in the wind, brown eyes richer than all the Rockefellers put together, and full, luscious lips just made to shout “Yes! Yes! Yes!” And in the photo on the back of the package, and…

A few years back, when the record industry was trying its damnedest to stir up an electronica youthquake, Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, was the hit maker most likely to be denigrated. After all, how hip and underground could he be if every freakin’ tune he created wound up in…

Given that Ray of Light, Madonna’s prior studio release, was both a big seller and the best-reviewed album of her career (its quality briefly forced all but the most obtuse critics to consider her an artist first and a cultural icon second, rather than the other way around), it’s no…

Brian Wilson is easily confused. Ask him something that’s even slightly ambiguous, and he’ll respond with the verbal equivalent of a blank stare. “What?” “Again, please?” “What, now?” “I’m sorry, what?” “What do you mean?” It’s not that Wilson, a singer, songwriter, producer, and visionary whose work with the Beach…

Throw a stick and you’re apt to hit someone who thinks the current pop scene is the worst ever. And who, other than nine-year-old white girls, could argue with that logic? Britney Spears and Celine Dion, to name just two, seem more like actors portraying musicians than the real thing…

Kid Loco Kid Loco Presents Jesus Life For Children Under 12 Inches (Atlantic) Trip-hop never quite caught on in the U.S., in large part because of its subtlety; the boom-bap of hardcore rap provides immediate gratification, while the sonics associated with its more psychedelic cousin take time to blow minds…

Country music in the ’90s is Alan Jackson inexplicably hyping Ford trucks via a rewritten version of “Mercury Blues,” a venerable number covered during the early ’70s by Steve Miller (a space cowboy rather than the ropin’ and ridin’ kind). It’s Shania Twain, a singer whose producer/husband/Svengali, Robert “Mutt” Lange,…