Sam Prestianni

Long before Ozzy Osbourne degenerated into an unwitting "Say No to Drugs" poster child, he was the haunting lead singer in one of the most super-heavy bands of all time. As the liner notes in this handsome eight-CD/one-DVD box set attest, early Black Sabbath influenced every major metal band of...

A couple of the smartest tunes on Bratmobile's third full-length, Girls Get Busy, lambaste George Dubya's war on terrorism and his campaign to sway the public. On "Shop for America," singer Allison Wolfe proffers the peppy ironic anthem "Kids in America shop for America," while on "United We Don't" she...

From the gut-wrenching moan of the Delta blues to the brassy fire of New Orleans jazz, the Mississippi River has birthed some of this country's finest homegrown sounds. But for self-appointed hipsters in the coastal megalopolises of New York or Los Angeles, where voguish chart-toppers train their mikes toward bottom-line...