Category Records
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 […]
SCRUFFY THE CAT SCRATCH FEVER: New Album, Anthology Due from Beloved ’80s Boston Combo
If there’s one karmic upside to late Scruffy The Cat frontman Charlie Chesterman’s battle with the cancer that claimed him in November of last year at the too-young age of 53, it’s that the music and catalog of his best-known, roots-rocking Boston outfit received new attention and a long-overdue reappraisal (via the benefit reunion show Scruffy performed to raise funds […]
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 […]
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 […]
TAILGATE BIRTHDAY SONGS: Wheat’s Raised Ranch Revolution Returns
“And suddenly after all this time, of waiting and wondering when and if they would return with their soft sparkle and gentle glamour intact, Wheat are back among us.” It is with much fuzzy-hearted happiness, optimism and okay, maybe even a dash of nostalgia, that I can report the following about one of my all-time favorite […]
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 […]
RAW POWER REVISITED & THE FOREVER FUNHOUSE OF THE STOOGES: A Scott Asheton Salute (1949-2014)
The focal point, of course, was the perpetually shirtless, baboon-limbed lead singer Iggy Pop, born James Osterberg. When Pop bounded on stage for the opener “Loose,” one of a slew of songs on gaudy display from “Fun House” and the Stooges’ self-titled 1969 debut, the singer’s convulsive vitality — the spasmodic leaps, carnival of shrieks, caged-animal prowl (not to mention that freakish sinew-and-gristle physique) — was ridiculously unchanged.
10,000 Hits Of Anything Has GOT To Be Good For You! (A Special Thank You Message To Subscribers)
Hello all of you lucky and loyal subscribers, My favorite words today are “ten thousand.” As in, 10,000 spins of a favorite record on the turntable. As in, Land of 10,000 Dances. If you do anything 10,000 times, it’s gotta be good, right? With that number and what it means in mind, today I’ve got 10,000 reasons […]
RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog 