Pamela Des Barres, Cynthia Plaster Caster, Lori Lightning, Cherry Vanilla;  all names you associate when it comes down to girls and Rock 'n' Roll.

Though, certainly, the most iconic is Pamela Des Barres, former groupie, musician and celebrated author and journalist...

Man, is this a great album. You remember Hot, Hot, Hot. Don’t worry—he knows that and it’s ok. This has nothing to do with that. This album is mostly covers of r&b, jump, blues, novelties and more, including an original or two, all with the theme of booze.

Ian "Mac" McLagan is the king of the British rock keyboard, and he's been in the business since the early sixties, when he backed up blues legends like Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson...Somewhat less legendarily, Mac is also a bona-fide friend of Critical Mess, and sat down for nine questions with us!

If you don’t like country, keep reading. Although the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, maybe the last of the clumsily-named hippie bands, had carved its own niche as alt-country before that term came to be, they proved their dedication with this album’s predecessor, Volume I, released in 1972. This one, released in 1989, is The Empire Strikes Back: the audience knows what to expect and expects much more. Volume III, released in 2002, is Return of the Jedi, but that’s another story.

The first of three contractual-obligation albums, Time is an example of many sometimes-despised genres. It is a concept album, a science-fiction album, arguably prog-rock. From the bubbly Kirby-krackle “Prologue” with Wagnerian chords and faux-poetic, over-Vocodered recitative, through hit singles and a time-travel fantasy to the “Epilogue” with a parting warning, Time is another Jeff Lynne masterpiece despite his now dismissing it...