When Buddy Holly emerged on the music scene in the 1950s, he didn’t have the California cool of The Beach Boys. He didn’t spark an “invasion” like The Beatles. He didn’t walk with the devilish blues swagger of The Rolling Stones.
But that’s only because Buddy Holly, a Lubbock, Texas, kid in black horn-tipped glasses, preceded all of that — and helped create the template that would become rock ‘n’ roll.
Turn your radio to 98.9 and you’ll hear a lot of hard rock bands singing about their ladies, whether they are addicted to them, love their girl’s assets or are simply celebrating the crazy ones.
Chicago hard-rock trio Chevelle has shared a lot of radio time with those bands since unleashing hits like “The Red” and “Send the Pain Below” in 2002 and 2003. And lead singer/guitarist Pete Loeffler has grown tired of being caught up in the Nickelbacks, Buckcherrys and Saving Abels of the world, the bands who release generic crossover hits that can be sandwiched between Britney Spears and Coldplay on Top 40 countdowns.
Even when Alex Ortiz was a firefighter in East Chicago and a nurse for the Illinois Masonic Medical Center, stand-up comedy was always in the back of his mind.
You could say Galvin’s Dinnerhouse is like the St. Joseph version of Stroud’s in Kansas City. Although there are certainly differences in decor and some menu items, they both pride themselves on tender, pan-fried chicken served up family-style in a down-home setting. And they’ve both been around long enough to get pretty good at what they do.
When former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno announced his move to prime time to debut “The Jay Leno Show,” reports said the show had the potential to revolutionize the 10 o’clock hour, causing other networks to abandon the usual scripted dramas for the cheaper talk show production costs five nights a week.
But since its debut, “The Jay Leno Show” has been making news for entirely different reasons.
In the ‘70s, “The Exorcist,” “Halloween” and “Jaws” frightened theater-goers to the point of physical shaking. In the ‘80s, iconic teen killers Freddy Kreuger and Jason Voorhees became Hollywood’s horror heroes. The ‘90s are largely remembered for the psychological scares of “The Sixth Sense,” “The Silence of the Lambs” and “The Blair Witch Project.”
Unfortunately, many will remember the ‘00s for the onslaught of dumbed-down torture porn films like “Hostel,” “Turistas” and “Captivity.” Or cookie-cutter slasher flicks like “Sorority Row” and “Prom Night.” Or mediocre remakes and revivals like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “When a Stranger Calls” and “The Wicker Man.”
Do you remember 2001’s “Jason X”? Jason was in outer freaking space!
Ugh.
Truthfully, only one or two horror films a year are ever really noteworthy. This article will sift through the junk and find the few gems this decade had to offer.
All of the newer AFI fans that emerged with the band’s platinum-selling success from 2003’s “Sing The Sorrow” and 2006’s “Decemberunderground” might be surprised where these master crafters of goth-rock anthems originally came from. In fact, it’s even a bit of a shock to the band’s co-founder/drummer Adam Carson to reflect on his group’s hardcore past on the West Coast in the 1990s.
It’s hard to classify what Sleep Walker really is. Some people play music. Others create visual art. Everyone seems set out to be a part of something unique and almost otherworldly by St. Joe’s standards. But Sleep Walker’s creator, Todd Long, sees the group differently.
