Category Greatest Albums of all-Time
WHO’S NEXT? NOBODY COMES CLOSE: Reflections On Listening To Who At 50, And Their Rock Masterpiece (No, It’s Not Tommy)
Just a quick one — pun intended — to honor one of my all-time favorite artists, The Who, to mark their “Who Hits 50!” world tour that lead singer Roger Daltrey has summed up as “one long goodbye.” Of course, we’ve all heard that promise/threat from the ‘Orrible ‘Oo” a few times and decades before, […]
A MASTER OF MASKS: David Bowie’s Pre-Ziggy Breakthrough Blitz Comes Up Hunky Dory
What better fit for a Flashback Friday Halloween than to examine a pivotal point in the singular career of David Bowie, a man of many masks, guises, and gazes: the doomed astronaut of Space Oddity, messianic rock god alien of Ziggy Stardust, paisley dandy, diamond dog, the cracked actor of Aladdin Sane, The Lodger, Thin White […]
TIME CAPSULE: On Matthew Sweet (But Not His ‘Girlfriend’) Hitting The Half-Century Mark
Cueing up Matthew Sweet on the ole turntable in honor of his birthday this week got me thinking about time (but then, doesn’t everything?). The notion of time speeding up and (thankfully) slowing down, and how it defines and marks us, after all, is precisely the effect certain music and albums have on our lives. In the case […]
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, […]
FIVE LEAVES AND A LEGEND LEFT: Nick Drake’s Sacred, Secret History On Imagined Airwaves
Forty-five years ago, in September 1969, Nick Drake’s debut album, “Five Leaves Left,” was released. Nick only made three records in his all-too-short 26 years. It was a third of a lifetime, really; a brief flicker of a brilliant, glowing candle snuffed out far too soon, before the daylight had a chance to break. Each of […]
The Luckiest Man Alive: Happy Birthday Ringo Starr, The Man Who Brought The Beat To The Beatles
“I consider him one of the greatest innovators of rock drumming and believe that he has been one of the greatest influences on rock drumming today … Ringo has influenced drummers more than they will ever realize or admit. Ringo laid down the fundamental rock beat that drummers are playing today and they probably don’t […]
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 […]
THIN WILD MERCURY MUSIC: Down Under with Dylan in Sydney ’66
“Bob Dylan has long been a prime, occasionally infuriating example of a creator not necessarily equipped (or willing) to critique the scope or substance of his art. Although far more cagey, contrarian, and intentionally opaque, Dylan has proven similarly flip when talking about his music (or not talking about it, as the case may be) over the years.” — From “Thin Wild Mercury Music”
REMEMBERING RONNIE LANE: A Small Face’s Large Legacy
Thinking of the late, great Ronnie Lane today on what would have been his 68th birthday. Lane, of course, was a singer-songwriter-bassist for both the Small Faces and later, when pint-sized frontman Steve Marriott left to start Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, the Faces. (When singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood joined, the “small” designation in […]
RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog 