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SWEETHEART OF THE RADIO: Sarah Borges, Northern Gal With The Southern Sound
Hello weekend warriors: As promised, here’s the second installment of this weekend’s edition of “RPM,” which showcases, and takes a look back at, two of Boston’s finest musical exports of the past decade, Sarah Borges and Girls Guns and Glory (see my previous post for the first feature on this superb band I wrote for […]
GIRLS GUNS AND GLORY: A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock ‘N’ Roll (And Probably Not What Donny & Marie Intended)
When you think about country and roughed-up roots music, New England doesn’t exactly leap to mind. Of course, country music, like just about any other genre or type of music, can be found almost anywhere. For decades now (and certainly for the two that I’ve been living and writing in and around Boston), the country and roots music […]
WHOLE LOTTA LED: All-Female Lez Zeppelin Bring All Their Love … And Some Serious Chops Too
As a way to mark legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page’s 70th birthday today, and offer testimony (as if that’s even needed) to Zep’s towering impact and enduring influence on generations of bands, guitarists, singers, and state-of-the-art rock theater, here’s a piece I wrote for The Boston Globe back in August 2007 on one of the […]
CHRIS BELL’S PURE POP COSMOS: Big Star’s Other Bright Light
Speaking (as I so often do here) about great musicians and music, I’d like to take a moment to remember and honor Christopher Bell, the co-founding singer-songwriter of the seminal 1970s outfit Big Star. Although in the years since the band’s initial demise and subsequent discovery by new generations of listeners, much of the credit and attention […]
REVOLUTION AND STREET FIGHTING MEN: The Beatles, Stones, and The (Myth) Making Of Rock’s Greatest Rivalry
Happy accidents of timing and circumstance can produce exquisite results. Just like a sleep walking Keith Richards waking up one night in 1965, picking up his guitar, and tape recording a half-dreamt nocturnal idea – a little riff that would turn into “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” – my plan to interview John McMillian, historian and author of […]
BEFORE TOMMY WAS BORN: The Who’s Sell Out From A Band That Never Did
Right up front, I would concede, in point of fact, that my headline for this post may be debatable given “The Who”‘s activities of the past decade or so. Following the substance-and-alcohol-related deaths of drummer Keith Moon in 1978, and more recently, bassist John Entwistle in 2002, the surviving twosome of guitarist and principal songwriter […]
The Faces From Mod To Rod To Nod: As Good As A Wink To A Blind-Drunk Horse
It’s hard to believe that four decades — 42 years ago this weekend to be exact — have passed since the boozy British blooze-rock band The Faces released what many (including me) consider to be the finest album of their relatively brief (1969-1975) career. “A Nod Is As Good As A Wink … To A Blind […]
WAITING FOR THE MAN NO MORE: The Velvet Vision Of Lou Reed (1942-2013)
With a deadpan monotone rimmed with a barbed and thorny edge of sarcasm, an air of jaded self-loathing, and disaffected resignation, Reed’s voice was ideally suited to chronicle his drug-and-drag noir tales (both lived and imagined), of shadowy protagonists slinking down shadowed hallways, darkened alleys, or penthouse crash pads, in search of sin, salvation, or both at the end of a needle.
THE OTHER “NEW YORK, NEW YORK”: Ryan Adams’ accidental anthem for a stricken city
The jarring image of an American Flag turned upside down on the album cover, and the single “New York, New York” (no, not that one) that graced singer-songwriter Ryan Adams’s second solo album, “Gold,” were both mere (some might say awful) coincidence. So was the release date of that aforementioned single: September 11, 2001. The […]
DECIBELS TO DEFEAT DISEASE: Boston Rocker/Writer Amanda Nichols On How MS Made Her Stronger — And Louder!
Of all the stories I’ve written about the Boston music scene over the last 15 years, few have felt as feel-good satisfying as my feature about Amanda Nichols, a talented local rocker, music writer, and lovely soul who just happens to be afflicted with multiple sclerosis. With her husband Nick Blakey, likewise a talented local […]
RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog 