09 Jul 2014
Legends Do Stuff: A Dad-Rock Roundup
From a demographics perspective, I suppose I am the target market for releases such as these. How else to explain compilations that have no thematic or time-period cohesiveness? Legends Get it On and Legends Crank it Up have one common thread: they attempt to distill the salad days of the boomer generation into CD-sized chunks.
24 Feb 2014
A Conversation with The Tubes’ Founder Bill Spooner, Part One
“No titties in the Twin Cities.” Customarily, I try to keep up with the interviews I do. Unfortunately, one fascinating interview has gone un-transcribed for more than a year and a half. In connection with the 2012(!) release on Real Gone Music of a pair of Tubes albums (Young and Rich from 1976, and 1977’s
16 Aug 2013
Album Review: The Hello People – Fusion
Consider this: a band with a truly left-field visual aesthetic, one that barely managed to chart, got to cut and release about a half dozen albums in the period 1968-1975. None among their members was a household name, and the band itself never became widely known, though for a time in their later years they
25 Jun 2013
Album Review: Mason Williams – The Mason Williams Phonograph Record
For a number of reasons, instrumental tunes rarely crack – let alone top – the pop music charts. And it has long been so. Though there have been exceptions both excellent (Edgar Winter‘s “Frankenstein,” Focus‘ “Hocus Pocus,” Marvin Hamlisch‘s “The Entertainer”), soporific (Vangelis‘ “Chariots of Fire”) and downright execrable (Frank Mills‘ “Music Box Dancer,” which
04 Feb 2013
Album Review: Rick Wakeman – No Earthly Connection
I had my initial doubts about this one, and with good reason. Among music fans, Rick Wakeman is a polarizing figure. One either loves his work or despises it. For those in the former camp, his keyboard playing, composing and arranging show a deft, assured and endlessly creative master. Both as a highly in-demand sessioner
24 Jan 2013
Capsule Reviews: January 2013, Part 6
Here’s the final — for now — of four installments in my occasional series of capsule reviews; you’ll find rock, blue-eyed soul, fusion and breezy SoCal pop. I had a huge stack of CDs deserving of review, but time doesn’t allow for full-length reviews of everything, and these were beginning to gather dust. They deserve
02 Aug 2010
Album Review: the Orlons – The Wah-Watusi / South Street
Another in the current series of re-releases from the Cameo-Parkway vaults, this Orlons twofer The Wah-Watusi / South Street is a delight. More than simply a smooth R&B-pop vocal group, the Philly-based group had three female vocalist plus a male singer. So they had a versatility that many vocal groups lacked. They could cover a