Whether you want to take better photos in your everyday life or make a full-time income as a photographer, maybe even working in the music business shooting concerts and album covers, the five-part framework author David Molnar teaches in “Learning to See” will work for you: See: have a vision for your shot and execute that vision Shoot: become technically proficient with your camera Edit: help re-create the emotion from the day of the shoot Develop: identify your area of focus for photography E...
Sep 27, 2022•57 min
Discover music that dared to be different, risked reputations and put careers in jeopardy — causing fascination and intrigue in some and rejection and scorn in others. This is what happens when people take tradition and rip it up. “MusicQuake” tells the stories of 50 pivotal albums and performances that shook the world of modern music — chronicling the fascinating tales of their creation, reception, and legacy. Tracing enigmatic composers, risqué performers, and radical songwriters — this book i...
Sep 22, 2022•1 hr 36 min
Sandy Gennaro is a world-class speaker and drummer who has recorded and toured with several globally known artists including Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Monkees, Bo Diddley, Johnny Winter, Montrose, The Pat Travers Band, Mark Farner, Robin Gibb and Benny Mardonis. Sandy plays drums on Benny’s hit single from 1980 - “Into The Night”. Along the way, Sandy has learned a thing or two during his fifty years on the world stage. The music industry has cultivated in him a keen sense...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 12 min
"This band has no past" was the first line of the farcical biography printed on the inner sleeve of Cheap Trick’s first album, but the band, of course, did have a past—a past that straddles two very different decades: from the tumult of the sixties to the anticlimax of the seventies, from the British Invasion to the record industry renaissance, with the band’s debut album arriving in 1977, the year vinyl sales peaked. “This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick”, featuring a forew...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 32 min
‘In the beginning,’ Billy Joel entertained Long Island locals, with The Hassles and Attila, prior to forging a solo career in 1971. One year later, the singer-songwriter-pianist captivated college students when “Captain Jack” dominated the Philadelphia airwaves. ‘And so, it goes…’ ‘Cold Spring Harbor’ was rife with barrelhouse piano and tear-stained balladry but with ‘Turnstiles’ Joel realized his dream of forming a stellar band. The success of ‘The Stranger’ led to sold-out arenas and ‘52nd Str...
Sep 01, 2022•1 hr 14 min
When the use of Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” turned 1955’s ‘Blackboard Jungle’ into a teen sensation and a box-office smash, it proved the opening shot in a cinematic and cultural revolution. Starting with Elvis Presley and the teensploitation films of the ’50s and ’60s, in “Rock on Film” award-winning author and former Rolling Stone editor Fred Goodman takes readers on a wide-ranging journey through film and pop history. Along the way, he measures the transformative impact of the mid-’6...
Aug 25, 2022•1 hr 20 min
Phil Collins was everywhere in the 1980s. He had more top forty singles in the US than any other artist: fourteen as a solo artist and eleven with Genesis, along with two number one solo albums, plus twenty-five solo or group hit singles and eight number one albums in the UK. Collins also recorded with a diverse list of artists including Peter Gabriel, John Martyn, Frida, Robert Plant, Mike Oldfield, Marti Webb, Al Di Meola, Adam Ant, Eric Clapton, Phil Bailey, Band Aid, Marilyn Martin, Paul McC...
Aug 20, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Peter Shapiro is the best known and most influential concert promoter of his generation. He owned the legendary Wetlands in Tribeca and has gone on to even bigger ventures, including Brooklyn Bowl (NYC, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Nashville), the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, producing U2 3D, and promoting the Grateful Dead’s fiftieth-anniversary tour (“Fare Thee Well”) featuring the Core Four members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman along with Trey Anastasio of Phish. And th...
Aug 18, 2022•34 min
Get to know the formerly undiscovered artists and the technical wizardry behind your favorite scenes. Symbolic interpretations and subconscious messages of peace and love, plus in-studio hijinks by frustrated animators. How does the 'Yellow Submarine' inspire such wonderful feelings of peace and love? "It's All in the Mind: Inside the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, Vol. 2" lifts the veil of the animation screen to see behind The Beatles and detail that one magical year, during the Summer of Love in ...
Aug 11, 2022•1 hr 32 min
Renowned guitarists (or experts) discussing “tools of the trade” in their own words serves as the basis of “Iconic Guitar Gear”. Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brian May, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Kurt Cobain, The Edge, Alex Lifeson, Steve Vai, Dimebag Darrell, Zakk Wylde,…the list goes on/won’t let you down! If you’ve ever pondered what some of rock’s top guitarists and bassists favor gear-wise (instruments, amps, and/or effects), then “Iconic Guitar G...
Aug 06, 2022•1 hr 27 min
Rock journalist Susan Masino is the author of "Famous Wisconsin Musicians" and "Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy: My Life and Times With AC/DC, Van Halen and Kiss", “AC/DC FAQ – All That’s Left to Know About the World’s True Rock ‘N’ Roll Band”, “The Story Of AC/DC – Let There Be Rock” among others. She published her own music newspaper "Rock Central" for six years and has written for WI Music News, a monthly music news column, since 1991. She created a radio show for 94.1 WJJO in Madison, WI, which she pr...
Aug 04, 2022•1 hr 15 min
Thomas Ransom, born to a severely dysfunctional southern family transplanted to New York City, is left to his own devices by neglectful parents, and spends his childhood shadowing his criminally-inclined half-brother and roaming the city with hard-drinking teenage pals. He eventually finds an outlet as the flamboyant singer of a downtown rock band, and later as the young editor of the Detroit-based magazine that invented punk, only to return to New York, at the height of the 1970s bacchanal, and...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 50 min
HOW COULD DRUMMER JIMMIE NICOL SIMPLY VANISH AFTER PLAYING WITH THE BEATLES IN 1964? “The Beatle Who Vanished” is the first historical account of Jimmie Nicol, an unknown drummer whose journey from humble beginnings to saving The Beatles' first world tour was only one part of his legend. Though his 13 days of fame made headlines, the true mystery of Nicol's story is riddled with blacklisting, betrayal, drugs, divorce, bankruptcy and an eventual disappearance that led many to question whether he ...
Jul 21, 2022•1 hr 22 min
A perfect companion to the recorded output of a unique band, this book part of Sonicbond Publishing’s “On Track” series, covers all of Motörhead’s studio output plus rarities and significant solo work from the late great Lemmy. Beginning with the highly regarded trio of albums that ended the 1970s, the book continues through the line-up hardships and turmoil of the 1980s to the occasionally awkward musical experiments of the early 1990s, closing with the band’s triumphant two-decade-long career ...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr 49 min
Bruce Springsteen called him “one of the great, great American songwriters”, Jackson Browne hailed him as “the first and foremost proponent of song noir”, and Stephen King once said that if he could write like him, he “would be a happy guy”. The list of artists that lined up to appear on his records include Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Dave Gilmour and Emmylou Harris. So how is it that most people, if they have heard of Warren Zevon at all, know him only as “that Werewolves' guy”? T...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 56 min
Author and NPR critic Tim Riley is our guest to talk about his prolific career as a music critic, author of several books on rock history, his brand-new website and latest venture The Riley Rock Report: an audio newsletter which was launched in March. It builds on his book-length multimedia anthology of reviews due out in 2023 titled "Millennium Pop: Music Love & Squalor". Over 100 essays by Riley covering the past 40 years. Starting with the website we veer off into various discussions incl...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr 16 min
At age sixteen, Bill German began publishing a Rolling Stones fanzine out of his bedroom in Brooklyn. And when he presented an issue to the band on a street in New York, he obviously made an impression: before he knew it, the Stones had hired him to document their career, inviting him into the studio and to their private jam sessions. He traveled the world with them, stayed at their homes, and, for almost two decades, witnessed their wild parties and nasty feuds. Yet through it all, he never los...
Jun 23, 2022•1 hr 34 min
If you don’t recognize the name James Calvin Wilsey, odds are you’ve heard him. His hypnotic guitar work on Chris Isaak’s top ten single from 1989 “Wicked Game” made Isaak an international star. But there is much more to his story than his guitar work on this iconic song. Goldberg’s book is an incredibly in-depth look into the dark side of San Francisco in the 1970s & 80s, and the dark side of rock ‘n roll in general, through the wild life of one Jimmy Wilsey. Wilsey was the “heart and soul”...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 36 min
Established in 1976 at the fore London’s punk rock insurgence, The Clash featuring lead singer and guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and singer Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon would outlast their peers while creating some of the most influential albums in rock ’n’ roll history. In “The Clash: All The Albums All The Songs”, author Martin Popoff dissects each of the Clash’s ninety-one studio tracks, examining the circumstances that led to their creation, the recordi...
Jun 09, 2022•1 hr 11 min
Nirvana, the White Stripes, Hole, the Hives—all sprang from an underground music scene where similarly raw bands, enjoying various degrees of success and luck, played for throngs of fans in venues ranging from dive bars to massive festivals, but were mostly ignored by a music industry focused on mega-bands and shiny pop stars. “We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988–2001” tracks the inspiration and beautiful destruction of this largely undocumented movement. What they took, they fought for...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 29 min
An affectionate, honest tribute now updated with new revelations about the rock and roll icon who helped make AC/DC an international sensation, the second edition of “Bon: The Last Highway” includes a brand new 16-page introduction. Fink examines new information from French media that changes what we know about who was with Bon Scott the night he died, the London drug-dealing connections of the late Alistair Kinnear, a possible heroin link involving the late Yes bassist Chris Squire and revised ...
May 26, 2022•1 hr 15 min
In “Take a Sad Song: The Emotional Currency of ‘Hey Jude’,” James Campion dives deeply into the song's origins, recording, visual presentation, impact, and eventual influence, while also discovering what makes "Hey Jude" a classic musical expression of personal comfort and societal unity conceived by a master songwriter, Paul McCartney. Within its melodic brilliance and lyrical touchstones of empathy and nostalgia resides McCartney's personal and professional relationship with his childhood frie...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 21 min
Celebrated photographer Elliott Landy presents an intimate look at the legendary female singer-songwriter, Janis Joplin. Landy's iconic images of Janis, both on the road and in concert, capture and preserve her pure essence as well as her onstage magnificence. “Photographs of Janis Joplin: On the Road & On Stage” features beautifully reproduced large format images, many never before published. Janis's own words, taken from recorded interviews by David Dalton, are used as extended captions an...
May 12, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Jean Beauvoir joined the Plasmatics in 1979, playing bass and keyboards for the most notorious band to emerge out of the New York City punk scene. By 1982, he was a member of Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, a retro-rock revival act headed by Steven Van Zandt. The Disciples of Soul videos played on MTV during the network’s earliest years, making Beauvoir one of the first Black recording artists to cross the start-up music channel’s “color line.” Beauvoir went on to become a multi-platinu...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 3 min
“Hearts on Fire” is about the creative explosion in Canadian music of the early 2000s, which captured the world’s attention in entirely new ways. The Canadian wave didn’t just sweep over one genre or one city, it stretched from coast to coast, affecting large bands and solo performers, rock bands and DJs, and it connected to international scenes by capitalizing on new technology and old-school DIY methods. Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Feist, Tegan and Sara, Alexisonfire: those were ...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr 18 min
More than 40 years since their formation, and 125 million album sales later, Metallica is as relevant as ever. Much has been written about the band, but “The Meaning of Metallica” is the first book to focus exclusively on their lyrics. Their mighty guitar riffs and pounding drums are legendary, but Metallica’s words match the intensity of their tunes. Lead singer James Hetfield writes rock poetry dealing with death, war, addiction, alienation, corruption, freedom, religion, and other weighty top...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Ushering in a new era of confessional music that spoke openly about experiences of trauma, depression, and self-loathing, Nine Inch Nails' seminal album, 1994’s ‘The Downward Spiral’, changed popular music forever—bringing transgressive themes of heresy, S&M, and body horror to the masses and taking music technology to its limits. Released in 1994, the album resonated across a generation, combining elements of metal, industrial, synth-pop, and ambient electronica, and going on to sell over f...
Apr 14, 2022•1 hr 4 min
The 1970s saw the rise of rock and metal as a force in record and ticket sales. Right there at the birth of this was Black Sabbath, whose first album came from nowhere to smash into the top of the charts in Britain and around the world. “Black Sabbath in the 1970s” covers the career of the original foursome - Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward – from Polka Tulk, through Earth and their original nine years as Black Sabbath, when the band recorded such iconic albums as ‘Paranoi...
Apr 07, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Incredibly, Uriah Heep have now been active for a full fifty years. Few, however, would argue that the period which has come to define them the most, the years they were most influential, was from 1970 to 1980. During this decade the band released an incredible thirteen studio albums and a legendary double live album. All this while going through a regular turnaround of musicians in all but the guitar and keyboard roles. This book takes the reader on a year-by-year journey through that decade, l...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 25 min
"Mysteries in the Music: Case Closed" examines the secrets, myths, legends, hoaxes, conspiracies, and the wildly inexplicable events that are such an intriguing part of rock and roll history. Jim Berkenstadt, aka The Rock And Roll Detective®, has spent decades researching the players behind these famous soundtracks and the mysteries hidden within the music itself. Travel back to the 1950s to uncover “Who Really Discovered Elvis Presley?” Revisit a time in the 1960s when a famous folk troubadour ...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 15 min
