The Offramp
Ringo Starr on EPs, Epic Concerts, and How to Become a Master Drummer
Ringo Starr could easily rest on his laurels. Seriously. What more does the man have left at this point to prove? The 82-year-old English drum God has more gold records to his name than you or I have actual, vinyl records. He’s a Knight of the British Empire, who’s widely considered to be one of the greatest percussionists on Planet Earth. “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Don’t Pass Me By,” remember those? Ringo Starr. Some people can claim they’ve seen and done it all. Ringo truly has. And yet he still has more to say. More than you’d think actually. Over the last couple of years, the percussive heart of the Fab Four has released a trio of smaller, extended play releases, the most recent of which dropped last week. Titled, succinctly enough, EP3, Ringo’s latest p...
Cass McCombs and the Subtle Art of Writing ‘Beautiful Losers’
There’s a rustic mysticism to the music of Cass McCombs. An ethereal vibe. A glittering, twang-tinged opaqueness upon which you can project an entire universe of thought and feeling. Part of that effect is by intent. “I want to leave vast spaces for people to explore their own interpretation because I think that’s even better than what I want, in a way,” the 44-year-old singer-songwriter says in a recent chat over the phone. “Every person has their own interpretation to anything. There are different stages to this…what I want to express isn’t necessarily what the next person feels.” Then there’s the basic reality that McCombs is simply tough to read. “I have…what do you call it? Boundaries,” he says quietly. When asked about how he feels he’s perceived by others, he seemed to recoil at the...
The Best Rock Albums of 2022 (So Far)
Compared to the last couple of years, 2022 has been a bonanza of incredible rock record releases. It seems like every week there are two or three projects just begging for proper time and attention. Many artists who were kept off the road due to the pandemic and were inspired to write during their forced, sabbatical and have returned with fresh perspectives and new sounds. Then there were those who held back some of their best material to wait and see how the state of the world shook out. However they got to 2022, and it’s a joy to finally begin to hear these legitimately righteous records. It’s probably a little too soon for me to declare an absolute favorite album out of the bunch we’ve gotten so far. It’s been such an eclectic year for rock albums, with artists of every stripe truly del...
Remembering Chris Cornell, 5 Years Later
It’s difficult at times to drive around Seattle and not recognize the ultramega imprint that Chris Cornell left behind on his hometown. At least it is for me. Even for a city that’s widely known for ruthlessly tearing away and repurposing its own history in the name of “progress” – think bigger, taller, glassier high-rises as far as the eye can see – Chris’s fingerprints are everywhere. Rolling down Leary Way in his old, childhood stomping grounds around Ballard, you’ll pass triangular-shaped Reciprocal Recordings, where Soundgarden recorded their debut album Screaming Life in 1987. Studio Litho, where they laid down their final, pre-breakup record, 1996’s Down on the Upside, nearly two decades later is only a couple of minutes further up the street, across from the massive statue of Vladi...
Kurt Vile on the Influence of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, and His Latest Sprawling ‘Masterpiece’ Watch My Moves
Welcome to the latest edition of The Offramp! Each month, rock writer Corbin Reiff will highlight some of the most dynamic artists and projects going on in music today. Throw on the turn signal, crank up the stereo and enjoy the ride! As 2019 ticked into 2020, Kurt Vile had had enough. The Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter spent the better part of the last decade on the road, playing packed shows with his band the Violators. He’s also been relentless in his pursuit of new music, working with a myriad of different collaborators, while hitting up various recording studios across the country to lay down his latest sonic imaginations. The results speak for themselves. During that time, Vile has steadily amassed one of the most engrossing discographies in all of indie rock. His solo albums l...
Is Lucifer on the Sofa the Last Word on Spoon? Britt Daniel Isn’t Sure
Welcome to the latest edition of The Offramp! Each month, rock writer Corbin Reiff will highlight some of the most dynamic artists and projects going on in music today. Throw on the turn signal, crank up the stereo and enjoy the ride! There’s an old quote about Alexander the Great that’s floated around for centuries. It’s been attributed to many – Plutarch, John Calvin — but you may have heard it from Hans Gruber, the villain from the first Die Hard film. “When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer.” At a certain point, when you’ve been doing something for a long enough time, you simply run out of goals worth achieving. You’ve received all the critical plaudits. You’ve attended the award shows. You’ve performed in front of tens of thousan...
Between Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, Nils Lofgren Has Seen it All
Nils Lofgren was a fresh-faced 18-year-old kid the first time he met Neil Young around 1970. The guitarist was in Los Angeles trying to get his band Grin off the ground when he entered the wily Canadian’s orbit. Before long, he was adding piano licks and whipping out frenzied, electric riffs on Young’s folk-rock masterpiece After The Goldrush. The whole endeavor was almost too surreal for the young D.C. native to even wrap his mind around. Not long after releasing After The Gold Rush, Young experienced one of the great losses of his life when his friend and collaborator Danny Whitten died of a drug overdose in Los Angeles. Whitten was the guitarist in Crazy Horse, a group Young utilized as his raucous backing outfit throughout the early ‘70s. The band also consisted of Billy Talbot on bass...
Courtney Barnett and the Profundity of the Mundane
Patience is so much more than a virtue. Patience is also a skill. It’s something that can be sharpened and honed throughout the entirety of our lives to help realize our fullest potentials. We can use it to better understand all the important and non-important people that we allow into our worlds on a daily basis. To master patience is to master the self. Aussie singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett knows something about patience. Over the past eight years, she’s cultivated a steadily growing audience, while releasing a string of critically acclaimed albums, EPs and collaborative projects that highlight her knack for keen, observant lyrics and formidable guitar work. In fact, the very idea of personal restraint serves as the beating heart fueling so many songs on her vividly intimate third re...
How Elton John, Duff McKagan and the Pandemic Shaped Jerry Cantrell’s Latest Solo Album
Welcome to the latest edition of The Offramp! Each month, rock writer Corbin Reiff will highlight some of the most dynamic artists and projects going on in music today. Throw on the turn signal, crank up the stereo and enjoy the ride! “I don’t ever sit down with the intent of writing about something,” Jerry Cantrell tells SPIN over the phone. “The music generally speaks to me and evokes an emotion. Or it lines up with something that I’m feeling or thinking or have experienced…and that can kind of sometimes lead you. To me, it’s like wildly swinging around in the fucking dark until you fucking latch onto something. And then you kind of build out from there.” As the lead guitarist and chief songwriter in Alice in Chains, Cantrell has spent 30 years swinging through the darkness, pulling toge...
Tim Showalter on the Cosmic, Existential Journey to Strand of Oaks’ In Heaven
Welcome to the latest edition of The Offramp! Each month, rock writer Corbin Reiff will highlight some of the most dynamic artists and projects going on in music today. Throw on the turn signal, crank up the stereo and enjoy the ride! Heaven means many things to many people. To some, it’s a physical plane; the ultimate reward for a life well-lived. Others think of heaven as a state of mind or a place deep within us that we can tap into and visit, even if only for a little while. Then there are those who find pieces of heaven in the small glimmers of happiness that enrich our lives on a daily basis. For Tim Showalter, the chief creative mind behind Strand of Oaks, heaven is all of those things and then some. “I like to be alive,” Showalter says through a slight laugh over the phone. “I like...
Sheryl Crow on Prince’s Basketball Skills, Working with Stevie Nicks, and Live at the Ryman and More
Hello, my name is Corbin Reiff. I’m a music writer based out of Seattle and the author of ‘Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell.’ Welcome to my new monthly column The Offramp! In this space, I’ll chat with and write about some of the best and brightest minds in the music world today about a wide range of different and fascinating topics from new albums, old masterpieces, legendary tours, and the future of music itself. Thanks for coming along for the ride. At the very least, I promise the soundtrack won’t suck! More than just a generational songwriter, more than generous and thoughtful collaborator, more than just about anything else in fact, Sheryl Crow is a one-of-a-kind rock and roll frontwoman. Over the last three decades, the Missouri-native has fired up crowds from M...
