The Chronicles of Michael Christopher
Music • Culture • Film • Travel • Photography • Vinyl
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame revealed its nominees for the Class of 2022, and at a mind boggling 17 artists, it’s going to be nearly impossible for even the most discerning music fan to whittle it down to the five to seven inductees who will be announced in May. Ok, deep breath. The... Continue Reading →
Welcome to this year’s edition of Rock Music Menu’s “New Year’s Resolutions for Rockers Who Need Them,” where we assist often otherwise occupied musicians with setting goals for the coming 12 months. It’s not an easy job, but one that has to be done. Just like you and I, there are rockers, rollers and other... Continue Reading →
Just like the disastrous 12-month period that was 2020, music tours and festivals continue to get scuttled this year, including Iceland Airwaves, the annual event that brings international artists far and wide to Reykjavík, the world’s most Northernly capital just below the Arctic Circle. Last year, organizers of Airwaves presented “Live from Reykjavík,” a highly... Continue Reading →
Anticipation was high for the Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth in the summer of 1996 when it was revealed that Sammy Hagar had departed the ranks of the SoCal party rockers and their OG singer had returned to the fold. Unfortunately, the (re)union was short-lived, and after a disastrous fallout at the MTV... Continue Reading →
The breakthrough LP from Soundgarden, 1991's Badmotorfinger, could very well be the heaviest to come out of the grunge era. From Kim Thayil's guitar seemingly always at a steady boil to the screech of Chris Cornell's caterwaul, it was full of the sound that defined an entire generation. A few years back, for the now... Continue Reading →
This year is the 30th anniversary of the Guns N' Roses ambitious Use Your Illusion albums, and to mark the occasion, Ultimate Classic Rock is doing something pretty cool by diving into the background of each song on the records with a new one every day. The track I got to tell the story behind... Continue Reading →
Kiss resumed their End of the Road tour last night at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Mass. more than 17 months since the last show of the trek, with this current leg having been interrupted and significantly rerouted since it was first announced in Dec. 2019 due to COVID-19. The band showed little signs of rust though,... Continue Reading →
Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like live music was finally back on track more than a year after the COVID-19 outbreak caused hundreds of artists around the world to be pulled off the road. Now, it’s starting to look like the celebration of live music returning may have been a bit premature as... Continue Reading →
It's one thing to have what is arguably the greatest crossover heavy metal song in history. It's quite another to be accused to finding major amounts of inspiration in said song not just in independent acts from a parallel label, but the guitarist and co-founder you fired many years prior. An unknown Los Angeles band,... Continue Reading →
It's hard to believe 30 years have passed since "Enter Sandman" completely changed the way the mainstream viewed heavy metal. Metallica ended up with one of the biggest hits of their career, shifted both radio and MTV in one fell swoop, and it all happened by riffing on a nightmare scenario of getting sand in... Continue Reading →
The Chronicles of Michael Christopher 