The beating heart of Sugar was always the sound of Bob Mould's guitar: a colossal, metallic, thunderous thing, like a sonic boom you could whistle. It was incredible, being engulfed by that wall of sound.
Merlini is the current holder of the fastest hands on the planet. He's been measured at performing 400bpm single stroke rolls and over 300bpm with his bare hands, which is beyond blistering to those not in the know.
I was too embarrassed to sing in my apartment, he says on a video call. But my roommate at the time was dating the preacher's daughter, and had keys to the church across the street. In the dead of night, the madcap bassist and singer took his recording equipment to the empty church, set up on the podium, and first sang his anti-war song Too Many Puppies.
I wanted her voice because it's robustly an octave over mine. It's surprisingly, to me, more robust and embodied now than it was in '98, when they recorded Celebrity Skin, Hole's Grammy-nominated third album. Silver, tinkling, all the things I can't do. We're perfect together.
McCready's story captures the drive and sense of community that forged the powerful backbone of the Seattle music scene of the 1980s, as their world changed forever with the explosion of grunge in the '90s. Farewell to Seasons unflinchingly shows the brutal cost it had for so many artists and musicians as it captures the lived experience of that seminal era.
I read Geddy's book [ My Effin' Life, published in 2023], and he mentioned about all the drummers kind of offering themselves to them and how much it turned him and Alex off, Portnoy said. I did send my condolences to Geddy and Alex after Neil passed, but I never once tried to throw my hat in the ring for Neil's gig. I realize that's a sacred role that should only ever be filled if Geddy and Alex choose for it to be so. And sure enough, here we are with them choosing to finally do so, which has been really incredible.
