chamber pop Archive
24 Feb 2022
Album Review: The Left Banke – Strangers on a Train
When the terms “baroque pop” or “baroque rock” come up in conversation, discussion of The Left Banke is assuredly to follow. While the group scored only a few hits – “Walk Away Reneé,” “Pretty Ballerina” and the lesser-known but equally wonderful “She May Call You Up Tonight” – they established a stylistic template that other
19 Dec 2019
Album Review: Curt Boettcher & Friends — Looking for the Sun
Those who take the trouble to dig deep into pop culture know that there exist around the margins an untold number of worthy artists who never got their due. Said artists might have engendered a cult following, or they may have gone largely unnoticed until long after their prime (an in some cases their entire
31 Dec 2018
Musoscribe’s Best of 2018
Even having shifted my focus these last few years toward interviews and feature writing, I still manage to listen to and review quite a few albums. In one form or another, I covered some 170 albums of new music in 2018. It’s no surprise that a few have risen to the top, deemed worthy of
12 Nov 2015
November 100-word Reviews, Part 4
My roundup of worthy albums that deserve coverage continues with five more hundred-word reviews. Each of these deserves deeper coverage, but “so much music, so little time.” Dig ’em all. Jinx Jones – Twang-Tastic! The vibe here: Link Wray meets Brian Setzer, with a bit of The Cramps and Los Straitjackets thrown in for good
24 Dec 2014
Best of 2014: Concerts
One of the many pleasures associated with living in the small mountain city of Asheville NC is access to great live music. I grew up in the 70s and 80s in Atlanta, where going to a concert often meant traveling to a sports arena, and watching the tiny performers from the nosebleed seats (where you’d
03 Apr 2014
Festival Review: Big Ears 2014, Day 3 (Part One)
Dean and Britta I had already seen Dean Wareham and his wife/collaborator Britta Phillips on Day One of Big Ears 2014. But what was advertised for their Sunday performance – this time at the smaller Bijou – was intriguing enough to get my attention. The plan was to project thirteen of Andy Warhol‘s famous “screen
31 Mar 2014
Festival Review: Big Ears 2014, Day 1
Dean Wareham We arrived in Knoxville in plenty of time to grab front-row seats in the beautiful Tennessee Theatre. It certainly helped that attendance for Wareham’s set was light (the venue filled in pretty well as the performance got under way). A relatively low-key performance free of any sort of visual effects, Wareham’s set included
25 Jan 2013
The Chris Stamey Interview
Chris Stamey has been an important – if ever-so-slightly underground – part of the American music scene for decades. An early post-Big Star collaborator with Alex Chilton, he went on to create some of the best and most timeless music in rock/pop as a member of Sneakers, The dB’s, and as a solo artist. He’s
04 Feb 2008
The Polyphonic Spree: Fragile Army, Reinforcements of Hope
There are so, so many things out there that remind you: this is all good. –Tim DeLaughter Tim DeLaughter, leader and lyricist of Dallas-based The Polyphonic Spree, reflects on the underlying philosophy of his music: “I want to facilitate a little beacon of hope…” he pauses and gestures toward the stage, where the 21-person group