Kik Axe Music and Entertainment

Looking back at the year that was 2011, Kik Axe Music™ is compiling some year-end lists of the articles that interested readers the most. Presented below are the Top 30 Special Features posted on the site based on traffic. Special Features include Op Ed pieces, Interviews, Concert Reports, Photo Galleries, and Rants. The following contributors have features included in this reader-chosen list: Rob Evanoff, Karen Kinderman, Pamela Koller, Scott Licina, Matt Molgaard, Tom Stevens, and James Zahn. I might need to start writing some features myself next year.

On Thursday December 1, esteemed photographer Rob Shanahan debuted the inaugural BLUE TIE BLUE JEAN BALL to raise money/awareness for AUTISM SPEAKS.

As they were already responsible for one of my favorite albums of 2011, I was excited to be asked to shoot some photos of ANTHRAX on the final night of their WORSHIP MUSIC Tour in Milwaukee. Now, I only shoot a handful of shows a year, and the reason for that is simple - I don't actually like doing concert photography as a habit. But... I love ANTHRAX, so it was an opportunity that I wasn't going to pass up. Having interviewed Charlie Benante and Scott Ian in the past, doing something on the visual side was an obvious next step.

[Ed Note: I'd originally hoped to post this on Halloween, but it was delayed due to Gremlins in the wiring.]

Creeps Gather Together To Celebrate A Bad Romance Enjoining

The Mechanical Hearts of Living Dead Boys and Living Dead Girls

This is not a random headline but perhaps the epithet on a headstone.

The initiated understand.

What happens when two of the Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock pair up to tour?

What happens when a band that has sold 25 million albums finally resurfaces after a 4-year sabbatical to claim their throne again?

What is the outcome when the momentous build up coincides with the second show of the tour AND with the highly-anticipated street date of a new self-titled magnum opus.

The music industry is changing. The music industry is failing. We've all heard those phrases countless times, and if you're like me - you hope for the day when everyone finds some workable solutions to make the music business fair and rewarding for artists, fans, labels, and everyone in-between. Despite all the more important challenges facing the industry, there's still a huge aspect of the old-business at play - particularly one involving control. Big business, corporate, control. As the editor of Kik Axe Music™ and a music reviewer myself, I often find myself as a bridge between all parties - acting as a gatekeeper of content, information, and in some cases, pure bullshit. While there's plenty of bigger publications and websites out there, we're all connected in that we all face the same challenges on a daily basis - and that every website, blog, magazine, and newspaper has a gatekeeper for the information that they wish to propagate. Sadly, in the interest of traffic, ego massaging, or plain fear of pissing someone off - many of these outlets have chosen to continue being used and abused, while they willingly put up with bullshit. I will not.

The iconic theme song to Joe Dante's 1984 film GREMLINS is generally known as The Gremlins Rag, but is surprisingly difficult to locate in it's original form for legal purchase. For 2011's 31 Days of Halloween Strikes Back, Kik Axe Music™ presents The Gremlins Suite for your Halloween playlist. The version seen below was conducted by composer Mark Snow (The X-Files) in tribute to the late Jerry Goldsmith, who passed away in 2004. The performance comes from FIMUCITE 3, July 25, 2009.

I'm South Central. He's high wire...

i got nothing. i got nothing. i got something. i got nothing

We all got something for nothing...especially when it was spewed forth during the 77 face-ripping seconds of "Scorch" by NYC's D GENERATION.