incredibly strange Archive
16 Aug 2018
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ Out-of-print 1990s Recordings Get a Reissue (Part One)
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (born Jalacy Hawkins in 1929) is one of those artists whose influence would far outpace his commercial success. Trained as a classical pianist and singer with an […]
31 Mar 2018
Hundred-word Reviews: Reissues, Archival Releases, Compilations
My shelf full of albums to be reviewed has run out of space. So once again it’s time for a raft of hundred-word reviews. All sixteen titles in this roundup […]
26 Jun 2017
Album Review: Jean Jacques Perrey — Moog Indigo
Perhaps Jean Jacques Perrey shouldn’t be thought of in the same context as Jean-Michel Jarre, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and other early pioneers of the synthesizer-as-musical-instrument. His work wasn’t as edgy and […]
22 Sep 2016
Hundred-word Reviews for September 2016, Part 4
Five more quick ones. All these albums bear further investigation. Wild Man Fischer – An Evening with Wild Man Fischer Conventional wisdom holds that while Gail Zappa was alive, she […]
14 Mar 2016
Album Review: Big Star — South West
Though they were resolutely ignored during their time together in the 1970s, Memphis-based Big Star eventually got both their critical due and some exceedingly belated recognition and commercial success. The […]
22 Jun 2015
Album Reviews: Four from The Residents
Though they initially submitted demo recordings to major record labels (the bootleg The Warner Brothers Tapes documents the most notorious of these), the inscrutable collective that once jokingly billed themselves […]
13 Feb 2015
Album Review: The Residents’ Commercial Album
Ex-Turtles and Mothers vocalists Flo and Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) used to have a nationally-syndicated radio show. One recurring component of the merry duo’s program involved spinning records […]
13 Jan 2015
DVD Review: The Complete Truth About De-evolution
Beginning in the 1970s, DEVO established themselves as among the most effective artists using using the creative tool of video in the musical idiom. Contrasting starkly with the the myth-making […]
29 May 2014
Book Review: Joe Meek’s Bold Techniques
People like sensational stories. It’s an unfortunate fact, because the public’s focus on the superficial and lurid often obscures a deeper, nuanced story beneath. Barry Cleveland is not one of […]
02 Sep 2013
Album Review: Don Berkoski – My Kind of Music
Before his sudden and untimely passing in 2005, my friend and bandmate Dave Jones was an enthusiastic participant in a slightly offbeat pursuit. Periodically, he’d contact a select group of […]