The best rock albums of 2023 come from several places, starting with the past. Most of the artists in the below list of Top 30 Rock Albums of 2023 – which were voted on by the UCR staff – are veterans of the field, legendary artists who are still making vital records decades into their careers. […]
No one can predict the future, but this New Year’s Eve probably won’t measure up to Dec. 31, 1973, when future rock titans Journey and AC/DC both played their very first concerts on the same night. The Journey lineup featured at this San Francisco show was very different from the pop-friendly version of the band […]
Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke revealed that he was still grappling with the death of his bandmate, Gary Rossington, who passed away in March. Rossington, who was the band’s last surviving original member, had been in and out of the group’s lineup in recent years due to ongoing health issues. Still, during a conversation with […]
Steve Hackett thinks some of the best elements of the classic Genesis album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway were lost in a battle for “audio space” between Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks. The 1974 release was their last to feature frontman Gabriel, while guitarist Hackett left three years later. In a new interview with […]
Grateful Dead sound tech, producer and archivist John Cutler died on Dec. 24 at the age of 73 after a long illness, his brother confirmed. Cutler’s first role with the Jerry Garcia-fronted band was to oversee arrangements for its trip to Egypt in 1978. Afterwards he played a key role in recording their shows and […]
There’s never a shortage of feuds in the rock and roll world, and 2023 featured some real doozies. From early January until late December some of music’s biggest stars were trading barbs with current and former bandmates, other peers, ticketing companies and one of the world’s largest beer brands. To find out who squared up […]
It’s no big surprise when rock stars die by certain means. Drugs and alcohol, for instance, have certainly taken their fair share of musicians from us, and so have plane crashes (for god’s sake, people – stay out of twin engine planes!). Meanwhile, choking on one’s own vomit is such a fashionable way to go […]
Heart played their first concert since 2019 when they took the stage at Southern California’s Yaamava’ Resort & Casino on Wednesday night. According to SetList.fm, the band’s 12-song set kicked off with the title track to 1980’s Bebe le Strange and featured a relatively equal mix of the band’s ’70s and ’80s hits. They concluded […]
Nancy and Ann Wilson are very familiar with the drama that accompanies being in a band with one’s sibling. Over the years, the Heart sisters have dealt with plenty of familial strife – some of it serious, some of it exaggerated. “The first question a lot of people have always asked either of us, me […]
Co-founder Wayne Kramer is finally ready to release MC5 new album, their first since 1971’s High Times. Heavy Lifting will arrive in early 2024, at least two years after its original planned launch date. The LP features Slash, Tom Morello, Vernon Reid, William DuVall and others in guest slots. Drummer Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson – […]