Bill Murphy

Rolling Stone — Scott Gorham can't recall exactly when he was introduced to a certain towheaded youngster who'd never heard of Thin Lizzy, but at the time, the encounter irked him. “This kid looked at me like, 'Thin what? Who's that?' Then somebody told him, 'You know, they did "The Boys Are Back in Town" and "Jailbreak," and it still didn't register. And I thought, really? We made all these records, traveled all over the world, played to millions of people, and it’s like, ‘Nope, never heard of you!’ It wasn’t so much for me, but knowing that Phil was getting lost in the shuffle – that kind of pissed me off.”

Rolling Stone — According to founding guitarist Vernon Reid, Living Colour 's new album was officially born onstage at the Apollo Theater one night back in early 2012.

Time Out New York — Yes, there are 8 million stories in the naked city, but they're still not enough to do justice to Rammellzee. A postmodern samurai, sage and saboteur, Ramm — as he was known to friends — spray-painted his first tags on the A line in the mid-'70s.

Time Out New York — Two decades ago, you'd be forgiven if you'd never heard of Lee Fields. His career to that point could best be described as a journeyman's, but as he tells it, that was only because he'd yet to find the band he needed to transmute the emotional, explosive music he felt churning in his soul.

Relix — Dennis Bovell happens to be the de-facto godfather of the romance-heavy reggae genre known as lovers rock. But it’s also just one facet of his illustrious history as a songwriter, musician and producer, captured for posterity on his sprawling Trojan Records set The DuBMASTER: The Essential Anthology.

Relix — It's hard to believe that Plantation Lullabies, Meshell Ndegeocello's sensuous, soulful and unremittingly funky debut, came out 30 years ago...

Premier Guitar — Brimming with poignant ballads and the indelible sound of his trusty guitar, Trigger, Nelson's 70th solo album is a milestone the 87-year-old outlaw country legend doesn't think too much about, because he's busy planning his next one. But with the world in a state of turmoil, Willie's warmth and humanity shines extra bright.

Relix — Let's make it clear right off the bat: Angel Olsen does not listen to Joni Mitchell. Sure, as a singer-songwriter, she feels some level of kinship with the folk-rock songstress, and she might even acknowledge the "steely vulnerability" of Mitchell's music as a quality that resonates in her own work.

Relix — On her long-awaited seventh studio album Soberish, Liz Phair reconnects with her past to deliver a brilliantly crafted set that brims with passion, exuberance and plenty of artful sass.

Relix — As Brooklyn's premier Afrobeat unit Antibalas celebrates over 20 years in the game, frontman Duke Amayo realizes a lifelong dream to merge the accumulated wisdom of his two guiding disciplines — music and kung fu.

Time Out New York — All his life, Bobby Womack has been a fighter. A protégé of Sam Cooke, he courted derision in early 1965 when he married Cooke's widow, but muddled through the lean years with session work. He suffered the tragic loss of two sons (one in an accident, the other a suicide) and his own painful descent into drug addiction, but dug his way out and got whole again. Even in the early ’70s, when he was on top of the world and gearing up to record one of his signature hits, the process was no picnic—at least, not at the start.

Time Out New York — For all the soul heroes Bruce Springsteen openly feted at his electrifying Apollo Theater performance last Friday night, perhaps none exerted a more powerful presence in spirit than James Brown.

Premier Guitar — Thurston Moore is onstage cranking up one of his signature Fender Jazzmasters to a darkened room at Rough Trade East, London's record-shopping mecca. The space is empty except for a sound and camera crew, there to document a slimmed-down version of his band in gritty black-and-white for the livestream launch of Moore’s new album, By the Fire. With his adopted city on the verge of another lockdown, and his home country in the throes of a bitterly contested presidential election, the stakes couldn’t be more dire. But Moore and his mates aren’t there just to shake their fists or chew the scenery.

Relix — Within a year of releasing their seventh LP Emperor of Sand in 2017, the four prog-metal mavens of Mastodon found themselves on an emotional rollercoaster — until a world on pause gave them an unexpected chance to regroup and reflect.

Relix — Drop a needle on Khruangbin's latest album — and really, you should drop a needle on it, because this music is meant for spinning on vinyl — and you'll see visions. They might manifest as the shimmering waves of heat on a desert horizon, or the bustling traffic at a downtown Bangkok roundabout, or even the flickering screen of a grindhouse cinema double feature.

Premier Guitar — None other than Bob Dylan once said about songwriting: “Songs don’t just come to me. They usually brew for a while, and you learn it’s important to keep the pieces until they’re completely formed and glued together.” Kristin Hersh might agree, if only to a certain extent, because for most of her life, the songs haven’t simply brewed — they’ve churned, cascaded, and crashed like an unrelenting flood of pictures, sounds, memories and emotions.

Premier Guitar — When you feel music on a gut level like John Prine does, it's easy, if not downright tempting, to let yourself be consumed by it. A genuine American proponent of the troubadour's creed in the mold of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, and Guy Clark, Prine has stuck with his calling, through thick and thin, whether loaded or lean, for nigh on six decades.

Premier Guitar — It can be loud, brash, brutal, experimental, and even psychedelic, but arguably no other style of music has experienced as many revivals as garage rock. Maybe that's because it taps into the essence of what rock 'n' roll is all about: Just turn up your guitar, and play like you mean it.

Time Out New York — When Nick Cave cuts loose with laughter, it's almost as unnerving as it is refreshing. He is, after all, the moody art-rock antihero whose career with trusted henchmen the Bad Seeds has given us such luridly titled slabs as Your Funeral... My Trial, Murder Ballads and Abattoir Blues.

Premier Guitar — They’re both scions of Philly’s indie rock and punk undergrounds, but Kurt Vile and Steve Gunn have pursued markedly different paths to get to where they are today — and yet their trajectories seem to have converged at just the right time. Each is touring the world behind a new album on the Matador label (for Vile, his fifth; for Gunn, his second), and each is hitting his prime as a singer-songwriter on a mission to change the world — or at least make it a little easier to cope with. In this lightning round with PG, we talk influences and inspiration, studio production, Fender and Martin guitars, and why some creative roads lead invariably to Lou Reed and Willie Nelson.

Relix — Cass McCombs’ ninth LP Tip of the Sphere is an artfully crafted set that casts his Bay Area alt-folk roots in shadow against the moody backdrop of New York City. It’s also a complete band effort, and out on the road, the new songs are morphing in texture and scope, with a loose community of guest travelers adding their distinctive colors to a cinematic, psychedelic canvas.

Premier Guitar — New York City's Irving Plaza is packed to the rafters — a sweaty mass of fans hollering their approval as the five-piece band onstage knuckles down to the closing power chords of "Call Me Animal." The song is a two-minute blast of protopunk from the 1970 album Back in the USA, the second of just three official LPs released by Detroit's legendary MC5.

Premier Guitar — Robert Plant and a few of his mates are huddled in one corner of the ground-floor café at the ultra-hip Wythe Hotel on Brooklyn's Williamsburg waterfront, crafting a setlist for the second of two sold-out nights at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Gilman Opera House.

Relix — On his first album of all new material since 2009, the hard-rocking romantic climbs the holy mountain and waves his freak flag high.