After a three year hiatus, the Hip Dad Open is back, and it's bigger than ever. Last Sunday we dusted off the old Twitch account and streamed six hours straight of Mario Golf.

For those who know me well, I'm a big Rolling Stones fan. Probably a top 5 band for me, and they've really influenced the way I play guitar. But ill try not to fanboy out too much here.

Love them or hate them, you have to respect the hustle. I feel like that's what everyone says before talking about one of these old acts coming back. An example is Paul McCartney, who also released a record this year, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. His record looks back at his life and really tries to get an emotional reaction from people who want to look back and think wow, Paul is still alive and making music, and wow, he too was once a young lad like me. But I'd argue the new Rolling Stones album, Foreign Tongues, takes the opposite approach from the McCartney record. Mick Jagger is the kind of guy who doesn't look back but always forward, and knew this next record couldn't be sub par, it needed to prove they still belonged in 2026.

The other day I came across a series of fascinating photos on Instagram by legendary rock photographer Jim Marshall. They showed an elephant wandering through a Tower Records store surrounded by displays for The Band’s debut album, Music from Big Pink. It immediately caught my attention.

The caption claimed Capitol Records had planned to paint a live elephant pink to promote the album. That sounded too bizarre not to look into, so I started digging.

I'm getting old and have been listening to music for a long time now, realistically 25 years since I got my Walkman CD player, jamming to the Beatles' 1 collection and my Smash Mouth CD. But some albums sound different now than they did back then, and usually for the better. So here's a short list of albums I love that, thanks to remastering and better technology, sound even better today than they did when they first came out. Unfortunately, a lot of remastered albums become victims of the loudness war, so it's worth calling out the ones that actually got it right.

I've been sitting on this one for a while. Here is a two-parter, because there are really two Rock and Roll Halls of Fame in my head: the museum in Cleveland and the organization behind it. Part 1 is about the building. Part 2 is about the people running the show. Buckle up.

I've got family in Cleveland, so growing up I was up there a lot. I hit the Rock Hall for the first time right as I was discovering classic rock as a kid, which could not have been better timing. I remember walking in and just thinking, I'm in the presence of greatness! This building downtown, right on the lake, and it's a shrine to all this music I was just falling in love with. At that age, it was everything.

The Hip Dad Open Returns!

After a three-year break, we’re bringing it back on August 2nd with 16 players battling it out in our biggest tournament yet. We are playing Mario Golf for the Switch and will be streaming the entire event with commentary, hanging out, talking trash, and watching every shot unfold. The first one since 2022. We are back with some of the steepest competition to date. 16 competitors will battle it out live on Hip Dad Radio! Watch live on Twitch or Hipdadradio.com.

Golden Years is a show where we step back in time, pick a specific year, and highlight all the songs from that year. Starting this Sunday, June 14th, you can listen to me talk about tracks from 1971 from 8am to 12pm on the live player on the Hip Dad website. And there should be a new one every Sunday morning.

Rock and rollercoasters go together like popcorn and the movies. When Disney's Hollywood Studios debuted Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith in 1999, it was a genius move—a one-of-a-kind thrill ride powered by a legendary rock band and a zero-to-60 MPH launch. But after over 25 years with the same headliner, Disney took a bold swing: rebranding the coaster from Aerosmith to the Muppets' Electric Mayhem.

Legendary Chicago rock band from the late 2010s make their return for an eight-night run at Thalia Hall.

There’s a wave of artists right now that feel rooted in the past but still fresh, and these three have been on my radar lately. Different sounds, different lanes, but all doing something interesting.

This past week I flew out to London chasing something I don’t usually get at home—the chance to finally see a band that mostly lives on the UK circuit. After discovering Toast Club through a random Instagram ad, I knew this wasn’t just another algorithm push. Their track “Cafe Pacific” hit immediately—driving piano, smooth groove, and a vibe that feels like yacht rock reimagined at cruising altitude.

Ever wonder why music sounded the way it did back in the 60s? Yes, it was recorded on tape. Some people love the sound of tape, but what tape recordings really gave us were limitations. And limitations can be good when creating art.

The Rolling Stones have been rocking the planet since 1963. That’s over 60 years, and they’ve made a lot of music. For the average listener, people think of classic Keith Richards riffs paired with that unmistakable Mick Jagger swagger. But today I wanted to dive a little deeper into a different side of the Stones. Country Stones.

Formed in Dublin in 1969, Thin Lizzy was led by bassist, singer, and songwriter Phil Lynott, whose storytelling lyrics and unmistakable presence helped redefine what Irish rock could sound like. Blending hard rock, blues, soul, and traditional Irish influences, the band carved out a sound that felt both street-level and larger than life. 

Before he was a global superstar, Elton John was a serious record nerd.

He regularly visited Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, stopping in every week to grab new releases and hunt for imports. Record stores were how he discovered music. Studying liner notes, learning musicians’ names, and keeping up with everything happening in real time. Back then, there was no internet, so I was on a true scavenger hunt to collect everything.

There’s something special about a live record that actually sounds live, and Hank Thompson at the Golden Nugget absolutely nails it.

Some artists make great records. Some artists define eras. And then there’s Todd Rundgren, an artist so endlessly curious, talented, and stubbornly independent that his career feels less like a straight line and more like a rollercoaster. Singer. Songwriter. Producer. Engineer. Technologist. Band leader. Solo auteur.

Todd Rundgren was the mad scientist in the studio who liked to keep us on our toes.