A sell-out crowd of 80,000 descended on a barren 70-acre tract in middle Tennessee (halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga) for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, one of the world’s largest and most successful festival enterprises. This year’s lineup of bands for the four-day event (June 14-17) was more varied than in previous years, with

WNC’s long “roots music” tradition is well-known and justifiably celebrated. But there’s a whole lot more going on musically in the region, and much of it has an equally important connection to history. Asheville’s Youth At Jazz program is at the forefront of efforts to link today’s youth to the proud tradition of the American

Note: this feature was based on my first in-person interview, way back in 2005. — bk Yes, they’re a pop group. But with a sound that owes more to Veruca Salt than to Madonna, identical twins Jess and Lisa Origliasso lead The Veronicas — and their fans — down a rocky path. Will their success

On his new disc, Super Colossal, the originator of the Pitch Axis Theory continues his tradition of combining mind-melting feats of guitar pyrotechnics with memorable riffs and ear-candy melodies. Yet Joe Satriani always tries to go somewhere new. “On this record, once I had the title track, it gave me — in my own mind

Some 32 years after bursting on the scene with the seminal Radios Appear, Radio Birdman has returned with Zeno Beach. Yet they deftly manage the trick of sounding fresh and new. Intentionally or not, Radio Birdman made their name as one of Australia’s original punk outfits. Vocalist Rob Younger puts this into context: “Well, we