Category: Featured Articles
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Brothers by Alex Van Halen Book Review
When approaching an intimate memoir like Brothers by Alex Van Halen, it’s important to establish what the book isn’t trying to do. Brothers isn’t a rock star tell-all. It’s not a searing fuck-off to former band members. It’s not a stereotypical, celebratory memoir of rock n’ roll hedonism. If you go into Brothers looking for…
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Let the Drummer Have Some! Solo Albums By Rock Drummers
Drummers are the foundation of modern rock music, and the nature of the instrument is rhythmic support. Televised network “talent” shows never feature standalone rock drummers because (almost) nobody wants to hear two minutes of drums and nothing but drums. Neil Peart wouldn’t make it past the second round of American Idol – not that…
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Dan Epstein Interview: Co-Author of Now You’re One of Us: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross
I’m old enough to remember a time when rock star memoirs were rare occurrences. The last 20 years have brought an avalanche of memoirs and autobiographies from some of rock’s biggest—and sometimes, not-so-big names. What’s driving the rock memoir boom is another subject entirely. But let’s just say that rock musicians are strongly motivated to…
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Robert Plant Didn’t Ruin It For Anybody
I used to think that Robert Plant ruined it for everybody. One could argue that rock music doesn’t have a single, universally beloved figure, for lack of a better term. Nobody can agree on The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones. Some people never liked Elvis or Bob Dylan. Nickelback may be the most hated band…
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Bill Dolan Interview Part 2
Guitarist Bill Dolan is one of my favorite musicians and one of the most underrated, unsung guitar players of my lifetime. He also happens to be my friend. Twenty years ago, Bill and I—along with Ronnie Kwasman and Matthew Tucker—played in a couple of bands together in Chicago. I don’t like telling people what they…
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Artist Spotlight: Moondog, The Viking of Sixth Avenue
This is the story of Louis Thomas Hardin, better known as Moondog: part mystic, part prankster, part genius, and one of the most unusual figures in 20th-century music. If you’ve seen The Big Lebowski (1998), you’ve already heard Moondog, even if you didn’t realize it. The Coen Brothers famously used his compositions, including “Theme” and “Stamping…
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100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time, More or Less
From an informational perspective, opinion-based “Best Of” lists, especially related to music, are generally worthless. For instance, Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs [Of All Time], contains neither surprise nor revelation, yet abounds in cringe and grimace. Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums is another story altogether, and I’ll get to that some time in the future.…
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Thank You, Internet: The Honeycombs, One the Juggler, and the Chris Holmes Pool Interview
I’m interested in music stories that rarely get told, artists that nobody’s listening to, and details that fall through the cracks. It’s fairly safe to say the only place on the planet left unmolested by the internet is North Sentinel Island. Thirty-some-odd years into our worldwide web experience, we’re all familiar with falling down the…
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Rock Over London, Rock On Wesley Willis
I originally wrote this article in May 2013 to honor what would have been Wesley Willis’ 50th birthday, May 31. Sadly, Wes only lived to 40. I’m still talking about him in 2026 because I don’t want to let his memory fade into obscurity. He was one of the most remarkable and captivating people I’ve…
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Bill Dolan Interview Part 1
In the summer of 1994, the hottest thing cooking on the Chicago music scene was a young guitarist named Bill Dolan and his band, Five Style (stylized 5ive Style), which had just been signed to Sub Pop Records—at the time, the pinnacle of indie rock record labels. Hearing Bill’s name and seeing it in The…
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Mike Watt Interview
Few people will ever have a chance to interview their heroes, and even fewer will do a good job. When I started Black Sunshine Media, I wanted to interview some of my heroes, a few of the lesser-known greats who inspired my musical career, including Carol Kaye, Billy Dolan, et al. When the opportunity to…
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Artist Spotlight: Carol Kaye
If you’ve listened to popular music from the 1960s and 70s, you know bassist Carol Kaye; perhaps you just don’t know you know Carol Kaye. This statement could also hold for the following names: Leon Russell, Larry Knechtel, Barney Kessel, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, and hundreds of other musicians who worked the West Coast studio…
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Artist Spotlight: Mike Watt/Minutemen/fIREHOSE
Mike Watt is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen and fIREHOSE. He was also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan. He maintains a healthy web presence, posting regularly on Facebook, writing Mike Watt’s Hoot Page and hosting The Watt from Pedro Show on Apple Music.…
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Artist Spotlight: Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder is a universal superstar, but he’s got one album that nobody talks about, Music of My Mind (1972), and it might be his best album. Let’s talk about it. Struggles with Motown As a child prodigy, Wonder signed with Motown’s Tamla label at age 11 and was given the professional name Little Stevie…
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Artist Spotlight: The Glove + Adam and the Ants
Black Sunshine Media was founded on the pursuit and exposure of lesser-known artists and bands and their work. Sharing new sounds is our passion. We love turning people onto stuff they might have missed. In this post, we’ll look at two albums from bands that deserve another shot: Blue Sunshine by The Glove (1983) and…
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Artist Spotlight: King Crimson
The term “progressive rock” was originally applied to bands that fused hard rock with classical music to expand the styles and concept of what a rock band could do. Procol Harum, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, and The Nice all operated in the zone of what is now called progressive rock, but none represented a…
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Artist Spotlight: Bad Brains
As a rock hobbyist and quasi-historian, I’ve built a small roster of underrated, unsung, and forgotten artists and albums. These are “back pocket selections” when talking or writing about music. “If you like so-n-so, you should check out…” Bad Brains is the most frequently cited artist, specifically their first three records. The band is one…