Derek Smalls really would appreciate you giving him some more of your money. You may not have heard much from Derek Smalls, bassist of the legendary band Spinal Tap, aside from the occasional reunion concert when enough of the band members simultaneously run out of money. But that doesn’t…

Who knew that the makers of the first electric guitars did so with ‘This is Spinal Tap’ in mind? Distortion is an electronic effect produced by overloading an audio circuit. This simple excess of electrons is responsible for everything from Chuck Berry’s overdriven twang to Jimi Hendrix’s chewy fuzz,…

You may know Harry Shearer as the voice of Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Principal Skinner, both C. Montgomery Burns and Waylon Smithers, Dr. Hibbert, Kent Brockman, Lenny, Scratchy, Rainier Wolfcastle, Otto the bus driver, Eddie the cop, Kang the alien, Jasper Beardly, and many, many others on “The Simpsons.”…