Category classic albums
His Band Opened For Badfinger: A Q&A with Big Star’s Jody Stephens
A Q&A with Jody Stephens/Rolling Stone.com Even if Jody Stephens had never picked up a pair of drumsticks after 1974, he’d still have secured an immortal place in pop history as the drummer for Big Star — one of the most talked about and belatedly beloved American rock & roll bands ever. And although they […]
A BIG STAR SHINES THROUGH THE GOLDEN SMOG: Jody Stephens On Belonging Again
We all know how dreamily handsome Jody Stephens, the once and future drummer for Big Star, has always been (damn, check out Jody in his to-die-for patchwork leather jacket on the back cover of “Radio City”; with that feathered hair and jawline, the dude made Keith Partridge look like Ernest Borgnine). But he also stands as […]
THE SOLO SOUL OF A BIG STAR: Alex Chilton On No. 1 Records, Radio City Rebounds, And A Third Album That Really Wasn’t
I could barely believe it when he said yes. Well actually, to be more precise, I couldn’t believe it when, after asking whether the evasive, elusive, and reclusive Alex Chilton might possibly consent to an interview with me for my music column in the Boston Phoenix’s Stuff@Night magazine, his publicist checked with the man, called me back, […]
VERMONT WOODSHEDDING AND THE AUTONOMY OF ASHMONT
One of the more enjoyable afternoons I’ve spent lost in a supermarket in Vermont, thanks to Ashmont Records co-founder and Pernice Brothers manager/band wrangler Joyce Linehan, who stole me away one Saturday to hang up north with the boys in the band as they worked on what would become the “Yours, Mine, & Ours” album. For the piece below, which […]
HOW SOON IS NOW? Joe Pernice Finds His Bryte Side
News of an impending (imminent might be the better word) reunion of Western Massachusetts’ finest ’90’s alt-country band, the Scud Mountain Boys, got me thinking how many times I’ve interviewed, reviewed, and gushed over singer-songwriter-bandleader Joe Pernice’s various outfits, which began with the Scuds and has continued unabated through several incarnations of the Pernice Brothers. I […]
THE THICK, FREAKY GREATNESS OF THE BLACK KEYS
There once was this ferocious blues-rock duo, and they were really good. Nope, I’m not talking about the White Stripes (who were also really good) or Boston heroines Mr. Airplane Man (again, really good). I’m referring to the Black Keys, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing and writing about for The Boston Globe back […]
STILL A BEAUTIFUL BUZZ: Strolling Down Exile On Main Street
Coinciding with the deluxe reissue a few years back of the Rolling Stones’ “Exile On Main St.”, I pitched a piece to The Boston Globe on what that blearily beautiful sprawling double album meant to me growing up amid corporate FM radio of the late 1970s and early ’80s, and how it (and the Stones) helped […]
RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog 