It’s a Saturday night at the Rocket Club in Asheville, N.C. An audience of some 75 locals is congregated in a room that, according to the club’s Web site, holds 400 bodies. Most in attendance stand milling around the bar, or are near the back of the room sitting in ergonomic bar stools at space-age cocktail tables. A short man in his late thirties challenges a fellow patron to an arm-wrestling match. Eight people have stepped close to the stage to check out the sounds of a three-piece rock unit from St. Louis.

Riddle Of Steel is three minutes in to their set’s opening song, “Plenty Of Satisfaction,” when singer and guitarist Andrew Elstner throats out a high-pitched “Yeah!” Drummer Rob Smith launches in to a 13 second drum solo, accented tightly by power chords from his band mates.  More

Dry Ink: First things first, thanks for doing this. I’m a big fan and we at Dry Ink appreciate this.

Ian Mackaye: You got it.

DI: I’m digging The Evens. I saw you guys play at The Eyedrum here in Atlanta a few years back and really enjoyed it. What’s next for you guys?

IM: We’re working on new songs. We were in L.A. for a few weeks and a friend has an empty house where we worked on some new songs – just getting into a routine. We’re not currently touring, but we may actually do some recording here today.  More

Once, while I was at the University of Iowa, Oliver Stone came through town on a lecture tour. He spoke in a large auditorium on campus, and afterwards he engaged the audience with a lengthy Q&A session. After fielding a few real questions, one young man, a dreadlocked frat guy wearing a backward white South Carolina baseball cap and tie-dyed Grateful Dead tee, approached the mic. When it was his turn to speak, he confirmed everyone’s suspicions. His question: “Uh Yeah… I heard that on the set of Natural Born Killers that, um, you and Trent Reznor smoked a lot of pot and listened to Ween. Um, so my question for you, Mr. Stone, is do you really like Ween?”  More

Right on, William Carlos Williams

When my friend and senior in music journalism the illustrious Chad Radford suggested I, for my next piece, write on an Athens oddity called The Iron Horse, I was pretty underwhelmed at the idea. And this was only after he convinced me he wasn’t joking.

“So why do they try to find it?”

“To touch it.”  More

We won’t beat you over the head with what could be an infinitely more in-depth story about the Lay Down Mains and the way they rock with the precision of a German diamond cutter and the might of a killer whale.

 More

I love this man. I don’t say that about many men. I have known him for over 10 years now and I have never heard a negative word spill from his mouth. He is a positive force and has a gigantic heart. The minutes I get to spend with him when he passes through town are sacred. We drank Pabst Blue Ribbon and sipped on Jameson. A good time was had.  More