tunequest

Radiohead will be blessing the world with its creative juices in the very near future. It is a time of much anticipation, with excitement and wariness rolled into a caldron of suspense. What will the new album sound like? Can it possibly match the group's reputation? What new musical ideas will the world be forced to grasp and understand? We won't know the answers to those questions until sometime this ...

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From the remix album Things Falling Apart (2000) Trent Reznor is no stranger to cover tunes, having turned in notable studio versions of songs by Soft Cell, Pigface, Queen and Joy Division, as well as performing a number of live covers at concerts. On the remix album that accompanied The Fragile, Nine Inch Nails added Gary Numan to that list, with a surprising faithful rendition of Metal. To ...

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A long time ago, while expanding my cultural horizons and getting to know a distant branch of my family, I spent a good portion of the summer in the nation of France. It had the works: sight-seeing, landmarks, historical places, family gatherings, camping, Eurorail, and of course shopping and souvenirs. An excellent summer well spent. And it was made more excellent by a handful of hard-to-find ...

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I visited Legoland California in Carlsbad a couple weeks ago. It's an intriguing place, where everyone's favorite miniature building blocks are put to some amazing uses. One feature of the park is fairy-tale boat ride, where some notable folk tales are brought to life by Lego blocks. The Sleeping Beauty display warrants particular attention, because Prince Charming here bears a striking resemblance to Nine Inch Nails frontman ...

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aka "rhythm by arithmetic" The Breeders disappeared for a very long time, taking nine years to release a follow up to their 1993 breakthrough Last Splash. But when they returned, they did with gusto, submitting a stellar album that proved that Kim Deal could still write some compelling music. The following is a mellow groove, its steady rhythm demands your attention. It's unlike anything the band had attempted ...

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Over the years, I've come to understand Pearl Jam's 1998 album Yield as perhaps the group's finest recording. There's not a single bad note on its entire length and it is one of but a handful of records in my library with nothing but 4- or 5-star ratings. At the time of its release, rock music was steadily being displaced in my mind with college-era explorations of ...

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This 1995 Radiohead b-side to Fake Plastic Trees helped move me from merely 'liking' the band's music to falling in love with it. I'm sure it's on few 'top song' lists, but it's near the top of mine. The song is called How Can You Be Sure? and it's a musical wonder. [audio:061121HowCanYouBeSure.mp3]

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Back before all this digital music and internet mumbo jumbo, finding a live recording of a band's performance was a tricky proposition. You basically had to stumble upon one by knowing someone who was in a bootlegging circle and was willing to make a cassette copy (leaving you with a reduced quality duplicate). Alternately, you could have searched the racks at used music stores to find ...

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For some reason over the years, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. Here we have one of those songs that no one ever talks about. It sits around being under-appreciated, despite all the hard work it does at being one of Nirvana's true great masterpieces. For some reason, it's constantly overshadowed by its bigger brothers. Come on! It ...

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