Rock

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews Julian Schnabel's, new album "Every Silver lining has a Cloud."

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new, ironically-titled release by Matthew Sweet, "100% Fun."

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Joan Osborne's debut album. He says it's slick and cliched -- and a sign of what's to come in popular music.

Fresh Air rock critic Milo Miles looks back on the raucous 1950s band, the Treniers. He says they're all about "unrestrained celebration."

Rock historian Ed Ward remembers the Elvis contemporary and label-mate.

Rock historian Ed Ward looks back on the West Coast label SST, which was responsible for launching the careers of several seminal punk and alternative bands.

Rock historian Ed Ward continues this week's five part series on the influence of several key record companies on the music world. Today, Ward looks at Casablanca, a big producer of disco hits, and its founder Nick Bogart.

Rock Historian Ed Ward continues his five part series on what impact several small record companies have had on the music world. Today he discusses Island Records, founded in England by Jamaican-born musician Chris Blackwell.

World music critic Milo Miles has a review of a new CD called "If You Don't Know Me by Now: The Best of Harold Melvin and Blue Notes."

Rock historian Ed Ward looks at Specialty Records, a label in the 1950s that promoted the music of African American musicians who laid the groundwork for rock and roll.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new album "To Bring You My Love," from the English singer and songwriter PJ Harvey, It is being touted as her artistic -- and possibly commercial -- breakthrough.

Music critic Milo Miles reviews two CD anthologies of Bobby "Blue" Bland: "Turn on Your Love Light" and "I Pity the Fool." Bland, with his big band blues sound, had a number of hits on the "Black Charts" in his peak years from 1957 to 1964. He still makes records and performs today.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews music from the recent films The Jerky Boys, Ready to Wear, and Boys on the Side.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new solo album by slide guitarist Sonny Landreth, "South of I-10."

Rock historian Ed Ward reviews Rhino's new "Doo Wop Box." Listening to it, he says he's surprised by how much he didn't now about the genre.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new recording by Dionne Farris, who used to sing with Arrested Development.

Graffin is the lead singer of the punk band Bad Religion. The group started 15 years ago and helped pioneer the hard rock/punk style of bands like Green Day and Offspring. Bad Religion's eighth recording is "Stranger Than Fiction," and it's their first on a major label. When Graffin isn't performing, he's spending time with his wife and child or working on his Ph.D. in Biology at Cornell.

Lowe's newest recording is "The Impossible Bird." In the early 1970s, he played London's pub rock scene in the band Brinsley Schwarz. After they broke up in 1975, Lowe produced five albums for Elvis Costello and worked with Dave Edmunds in the group Rockpile. He begins a national concert tour this month in the United States.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "Dookie," the first major-label album by the punk band Green Day.