It’s an all-too-familiar story, with a couple twists. Promising young major-label artist gets dropped, his band (here, the Freewheelers) breaks up, and a couple solo indie releases later, the guy wonders what happened to his career and regroups. In Luther Russell’s case, add on top of that a tough divorce. So he moved back to [...]

What’s most impressive about Kristin Hersh’s eleventh record since leaving Throwing Muses (eight solo, three with 50 Foot Wave) is her total and fearless commitment to artistry, owing nothing to no one, no hint of influence or desire to please any audience. As with a great PJ Harvey or Alejandro Escovedo record, effort from the [...]

The complex urban chemistry of Detroit has produced some of this country’s most enduring popular music. Its fabled industrial past attracted generations of laborers, particularly blacks and hillbillies from the south, in search of the American dream. More recently, the Motor City’s overwhelming troubles have marked its inhabitants with a tough determination and an indefatigable [...]

After releasing about twenty records over twenty years, shuffling the lineup twenty times, and playing more than 1,000 live shows, the absurdly prolific Robert Pollard is retiring his sort of legendary, almost famous rock band Guided By Voices on New Year’s Eve 2004 at a club in Chicago. But not until leaving their zealous fans [...]