Category Features
HEART TO HARTE (RETURN OF THE REAL KIDS PART III): Legendary Producer Rick Harte On Coming Up Aces
Rick Harte has seen, heard, and made a lot of rock & roll. As the founder, producer, chief cook and bottle washer at Ace of Hearts Records, Boston’s independent entry into the punk and post-punk rock uprising of the late 1970’s and early ‘80’s, Harte brought the music of bands like Mission of Burma, Lyres, Classic Ruins, […]
RETURN OF THE REAL KIDS PART II: John Felice On Rock & Roll Resurrections (Don’t Call It Punk!), Shaking Outta Control, And Living Past Thirty
Real Kids frontman John Felice didn’t think he’d live to see thirty. Now professing astonishment at having nearly doubled his predicted life expectancy, Felice and the latest, formidable incarnation of his equally improbably long-running outfit have just released a new album, “Shake … Outta Control.” It’s a snarling, strutting, soulful little record that for all […]
RETURN OF THE REAL KIDS PART I: Solid Gold (Thru and Thru)
“Well, I was driving ’round Boston / Looking for a place just to shake my ass/ Don’t wanna hear no disco / Gotta hear something outta my past” — The Real Kids, “Do The Boob” One way or another, Boston singer-songwriter John Felice has been cranking out gritty, from the guts, heart-on-sleeve rock & roll longer than some […]
STARS & STRIKES AND THE SPIRIT OF ’76: Dan Epstein Talks Baseball, Beer, and Bowling With Billy Corgan
Dan Epstein is a lot like the decade he writes and speaks so eloquently about. Like the 1970’s, he’s unabashedly shaggy. He has a soft spot for oversized Bicentennial belt buckles and AM radio novelty fare like C.W. McCall’s “Convoy.” He has an abiding affection for an Oscar Gamble-sized Afro (if you know who that is, you […]
WHEN RECORDS ARE PEOPLE: Markers Of A Life Amid A Museum of Wax
Chances are, the illness I describe below only afflicts those such as myself, for whom prolonged, protracted exposure to dusty bins, racks, or rows of vinyl can cause a psychologically discombobulating, mildly hallucinatory condition — a disorder where occasional bouts of grandiose euphoria are mistaken for finely honed revelations of clarity. This is known as […]
WE’RE (SORT OF) AN AMERICAN BAND: A Swan Song From Levon, Robbie and the Boys In The Spirit Of ’76
The Band – Asbury Park 1976 Live at Casino Arena, Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA, July 20th 1976 DVD (Approx. 80 Min.): Introduction, Don’t Do It, The Shape I’m In, It Makes No Difference, The Weight, King Harvest (Has Surely Come), Twilight, Ophelia, Tears Of Rage, Forbidden Fruit, This Wheel’s On Fire, The Night They […]
NEW WAVES, OLD TRICKS, AND GETTING LUBED: A Rolling Stone Convo With GBV’s Bob Pollard
Happy 20th Anniversary to one of my best-loved albums of, well, the past twenty years: “Bee Thousand,” by the Dayton, Ohio indie-rock band Guided By Voices. Like my first mad crush, I remember hearing this 1994 cracked masterpiece soon after it was released on June 21, 1994, as if it were only yesterday. I had […]
VIOLET HOURS AND VANISHING DAYS: A Saturnine Stroll with the Clientele
As promised, here’s the second installment of my Clientele Memorial Day Weekend Special Edition of “RPM.” Wherein I catch up with Alasdair MacLean a few years after our first interview — this time to talk about his band’s sophomore album, “The Violet Hour,” as well as discuss the growing pains of learning how to play the […]
SEASONS IN THE (SORT OF) SUN: The Clientele Return To Rainy Days & Suburban Light
Some records stay with you. Aside from the memorable music that usually accompanies, well, a memorable album, chances are that you were probably either doing or feeling something special the first time you heard those sounds — falling in love, finishing your finals, strolling down the memory lane of your old childhood haunts, or road-tripping with your […]
AMERICAN EXILES ON TOUR ’72: The Stones Roll On That Dusty Road In Wax Boots (And Digital Ones Too!)
LADIES & GENTLEMEN, A PREFACE TO THE INTRODUCTION: Call it kismet or the hand of fate or the rock gods grinning with glee at the chemical convergence of impulse, intent, and circumstance. But I just noticed that this review essay, which I intended to serve as a kind of Part II piggybacking follow-up to […]
RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog 