Phil Freeman

Lou Reed and Metallica have just released this year’s frontrunner for strangest musical collaboration: Lulu, a 10-song album inspired by the work of German Expressionist playwright Frank Wedekind. We get reactions from Maura Johnston of the Village Voice and Phil Freeman, music writer and editor of RoadRunnerRecords.com. Plus, Maura and Phil help us explore unusual musical partnerships – and they offer their picks of the good and not so good.

Twenty years ago, Seattle’s grunge scene exploded. This Saturday will mark two decades since Nirvana’s watershed album, “Nevermind,” was released – and their Seattle sister band, Pearl Jam, also released its debut album, "Ten," less than a month before. There is, of course, no better way to mark the occasion than to pit the two groups against each other in a Soundcheck Smackdown. MSN music blogger Phil Freeman and music journalist Jeanne Fury face off in a dirty rock band debate.

After a hiatus, the Detroit-born rock duo with the matching outfits and matching names have called it quits -- which makes them ripe for a Smackdown. Emily Rems, managing editor of Bust Magazine, and Phil Freeman, writer of the Headbang metal blog for MSN Music and editor of Burning Ambulance, join us to debate the legacy of The White Stripes. And: music writer Gary Graff tells us about the Detroit scene that Meg and Jack White came up in…and wound their way out of.

Led Zeppelin nostalgia is at a fever pitch, with rock heir Jason Bonham leading a tribute tour and biographer Stephen Davis revisiting the subject matter that made his “Hammer of the Gods” tell-all so scandalous. Today, our single-song edition of the Tuesday debate throws down the gauntlet on the band's controversial classic, “Stairway to Heaven:” arena anthem or eight minutes too long? Guests include Emily Rems, managing editor of Bust Magazine, and Phil Freeman, writer of the Headbang metal blog for MSN Music.

Today our Smackdown series enters dangerous territory with a debate over Bruce Springsteen, his new album, and his place in pop music. Phil Freeman of Metal Edge magazine and Lizzy Goodman of Blender magazine join us to spar over "Working on a Dream" and the legacy of the Boss.

It's a question that is as difficult to answer as it is revealing about one's musical tastes: What album would you take to a desert island? We talk with Phil Freeman, editor of Marooned: The Next Generation of Desert Island Discs, about this time-honored musical dilemma. Plus, music critics Greg ...