Steve McLaughlin

Here are some words I'm not going to use in the following article: day-glo, nerd, neon, hallucinatory, spastic, spazz, demented, frenzy, wacky, ebullient, man-child, shenanigans, awesome.
February 7, 2008 at 12:00 am

As an angst-addled adolescent, my favorite Nirvana song was "Oh, Me" from the MTV Unplugged record. When I eventually replaced cassette with CD, I discovered in the liner notes that "Oh, Me" and two other tracks were in fact Meat Puppets covers.
September 27, 2007 at 12:00 am

When they took the stage at Johnny Brenda's last Friday - their first ever sold-out show - the five men of Dr. Dog were appropriately West Philly in appearance.
February 22, 2007 at 12:00 am

There's a lot of messed up stuff in the world. But there's Big Gulps and shit, so just chill the fuck out." Thus spoke Dan Deacon last Friday night at Johnny Brenda's.
January 25, 2007 at 12:00 am

Mp3 blogs will become your life. As you read these words, thousands of self-anointed music experts in thick plastic glasses and headphones are furiously posting, downloading, and analyzing fresh tracks from The Knife and Of Montreal, alongside deep cuts from dusty LPs of their parents' generation.
November 30, 2006 at 12:00 am

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have had an extreme career arc. Their 2002 major label debut Source Tags & Codes was an era-defining work of anthemic indie rock - one of those precious high school records I could blast for weeks on end in my '89 Mazda 323, driving from one South Jersey diner to another, getting home late at night and highly caffeinated, reading LiveJournals until 4 a.m.
November 16, 2006 at 12:00 am

Beck is a man known for wearing many hats at once. He has built his career upon shapeshifting, evading classification, seamlessly blending the unlikely with the illogical.
October 5, 2006 at 12:00 am

Smile... It Confuses People is the kind of record that really makes you wonder. Whatever happened to the idyllic, innocent rebellion of our parents' generation?
September 28, 2006 at 12:00 am