It says something about the Generation Gap or lack thereof in Our Year of the Lord 1960 that when the larval version of The Sonics, who would go down in history as the founders of punk rock, came up short at practice, guitarist Larry Parypa’s mom would fill in on bass. We’ll never know if […]
Celebrating Daryl Hall on his 78th birthday. —Ed. While by no means an unknown work, it also seems fair to say that Daryl Hall’s first solo LP Sacred Songs gets nowhere near enough retrospective attention. This is mainly due to the inclusion of what many might consider to be an odd associate (at best) or […]
Some souls just weren’t made for this world. You can hear it in their voice, see it in their eyes—their shoulders simply aren’t strong enough to bear the weight of gravity, and their hearts are simply too tender, and they come and go from this our mortal coil leaving behind the sense, no matter how […]
Celebrating David Lee Roth, born on this day in 1954. —Ed. So I was listening to the masterful and spiritually uplifting guitar artistry of John McLaughlin and thought, “You know what? I’d rather listen to Van Halen.” That’s the kind of spiritually evolved being I am. There is the cosmos, with its songs of devotion […]
Dog Jaw Woman by The Guy Hamper Trio is amongst the latest worthwhile offerings from the indefatigable Damaged Goods Records of the United Kingdom. Featuring organist James Taylor as a returning guest, the trio’s deep ties to a particularly steadfast branch of the British R&R tradition are sturdy but not overemphasized, as the sounds tap […]
John Lennon would have been 84 years old on October 9th. It’s hard to believe that the Mind Games album from John Lennon was only his fourth proper solo album at the time of its release in 1973 and he would only release two more studio albums of original music in his lifetime. Rock ‘n’ […]
Ludicrously prolific as a session mainstay for a slew of indispensable figures in the grand scheme of 20th century Jamaican music, saxophonist “Deadly” Headley Bennett only cut one solo record, 35 Years From Alpha, which was released in 1982 on the fledgling enterprise of Adrian Sherwood, On-U Sound enterprise. Flash forward to right now, and […]
Remembering Johnny Ramone, born on this day in 1948. —Ed. It’s easy to take this the Ramones’ landmark 1976 self-titled debut too seriously. Sure, it signaled a seismic shift in rock music, exploding like an M80 in the minds of every cretinous young thing who’d had it up to here with the pompous, bloated likes […]
Alto saxophonist Art Pepper is well represented in Craft Recordings’ Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series. Originally released in 1960, Gettin’ Together is available in a fresh 180 gram vinyl edition on October 11. It’s the second of three Pepper LPs landing in the store bins across 2024, and if not his most lauded studio date, […]
Celebrating John Mellencamp on his 73rd birthday. —Ed. I’ve always liked John Mellencamp. Sure, I’ve been known to call him the poor man’s Bruce Springsteen, but I mean it as a compliment. I’m all for the poor man. Anyway, what I’ve always liked the most about the fellow who started out calling himself John Cougar […]
Some random thoughts on Journey’s 1981 blockbuster LP Escape: 1. Remember that final, 2007 episode of The Sopranos with the open ending that everybody hated, the one where Tony and family are sitting in the diner and you don’t know whether Tony gets whacked or not? Well, what pissed me off was not knowing whether […]
Celebrating Brian Johnson on his 77th birthday. —Ed. A very brief history lesson. First Attila was the greatest hard rock band in the world. Then Sir Lord Baltimore took over as the greatest hard rock band in the world. Then along came AC/DC to produce an electrical surge that brought down the hard rock power […]
Television began life as a punk band—Richard Hell made sure of that. But Tom Verlaine soon tired of Hell’s determined amateurism and wildman antics (didn’t like him, you know, MOVING on stage) and so out went Hell, and as time passed Television became something very different. Twin guitars, lots of soloing, no “fuck rock ’n’ […]
Celebrating Jody Stephens in advance of his 72nd birthday tomorrow. —Ed. The Memphis group Big Star has long been a favorite of folks who love smartly conceived guitar-based pop-rock, and while few bought their records when they were hot off the presses, their status as an enduring cult staple is undeniable. After a long relationship […]
Checking in with cornetist-trumpeter-composer-bandleader-visual artist Rob Mazurek is always worthwhile. That’s because, to make it plain, the guy’s records just never miss. And when it’s a release by the Exploding Star Orchestra, that’s even better, as the band, which has been Mazurek’s primary musical focus over the last half decade or so (the group has […]
