MSNBC has a piece about "terrible songs from great albums." Immediately, we decided it was bullshit. "Long And Winding Road" sucks, sure, but is Let It Be a classic album? Isn't it frequently considered the Beatles' worst? Even though Maura wasn't like "'My World' isn't terrible" in my IM window , who thinks Use Your Illusion II is the GNR album to grab? (I wouldn't know, I don't buy albums with "Estranged" on them.) "Endless, Nameless" wasn't even on my cassette copy of Nevermind, and plenty of people love it. Calling just one song on Synchronicity embarrassing seems like a cheat, and I think "EXP" is cute as hell. So here are a few truly disgusting tracks from otherwise excellent albums.  read more »

Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Blender:  read more »

Rock historian Ed Ward looks at Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer Chuck Berry and the career that made him a star. Berry's entire record output from the 1950s was recently released on a four-disc set from Hip-O-Select titled, Johnny B. Goode: His Complete '50s Chess Recordings.

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"Smoke On The Water" features the best guitar riff of all time, according to a poll conducted by the British music school Guitar X. As you'd expect from a list based on the opinions of young guitar students, you've got some Hendrix, some Angus, three from Slash in the Top 10. But two Frusciantes? A Dimebag? A Knopfler? The full 25 after the jump.  read more »

Cadillac Records is Beyonc's fifth or sixth stint as an actress (depending on whether or not you count an uncredited, unconfirmed role as "Girl #1" in a flick called Beverly Hood , the "worst movie ever.") And in a theater on Friday night, I found her performance to be a pleasant surprise. Unlike The Pink Panther and Austin Powers In Goldmember , Cadillac Records is actually good. And unlike Dreamgirls , Beyonc is not competing in a belt-it-out-athon with other women in this movie. She's surrounded by talent, and although she sings, it's her acting which actually shines. Playing troubled recording artist Etta James, Beyonc is a spitfire. She scowls, she swears, she smolders, she lays bare a broken, needy soul. Writes Entertainment Weekly 's Owen Gleiberman: "Beyonc Knowles just about burns a hole in the screen with her sultry torment." And, A.O. Scott wrote for the NY Times : Ms. Knowless interpretations of Ms. Jamess hits "At Last" and "I'd Rather Go Blind," in particular are downright revelatory. And so, it should be said, is Ms. Knowless performance. In her previous film roles she has seemed guarded and tentative, as if worried that her charisma would melt from too much emotional heat. Here, playing a needy, angry, ferociously talented and fantastically undisciplined woman, she is as volcanic and voluptuous as an Italian movie star. Or, more to the point, a real soul diva of the old school." Unfortunately, while Cadillac Records is a good movie, it's not a great movie. The plot hangs together loosely, the historical inaccuracies abound — including the fact that Adrien Brody's character, Leonard Chess, founder of Chess records, had a brother. But if folks get educated about the birth of rock n' roll (did you know that Chuck Berry sued the Beach Boys and Willie Dixon sued Led Zeppelin for stealing melodies?) while Beyonc flexes her very real skills as a thespian, then where's the harm?  read more »