pop Archive
28 Apr 2017
Album Mini-review: Judith Owen – Somebody’s Child
File next to: Carole King, Tori Amos, Ben Folds Judith Owen‘s impressive résumé includes a run as a key member of Richard Thompson‘s “1000 Years of Popular Music” tours, but […]
10 Apr 2017
Album Mini-review: Andrew Joslyn — Awake at the Bottom of the Ocean
File next to: Pet Sounds era Beach Boys, Sufjan Stevens, Neutral Milk Hotel Seattle area composer-arranger-violinist Andrew Joslyn has made a (slightly underground) name for himself lending his myriad talents […]
06 Apr 2017
Empire Strikes Brass: Everyone Loves a Parade
Empire Strikes Brass managed quite a feat in its first five years as a group. The 10-plus-piece band worked diligently on a grassroots level, playing benefits and street festivals, and became […]
29 Mar 2017
Regina Spektor’s Creative Odyssey
Regina Spektor readily concedes that she has a somewhat unusual biography. Born in 1980 in what was then still the Soviet Union, Spektor emigrated to the United States at age […]
21 Mar 2017
Quick Takes, Part Two
More quick-take reviews … Pop Co-op – Four State Solution Making an album via file sharing – instead of the old-fashioned method of gathering in a studio – is now […]
20 Mar 2017
Quick Takes, Part One
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, these days I spend the majority of my time writing for print publications. Altweeklies across the USA, music and entertainment magazines in the U.S. […]
06 Mar 2017
Album Review: Attilio Mineo — Man in Space with Sounds
A breathlessly earnest announcer welcomes the listener to the record as a wonderfully evocative orchestra creates an instrumental backdrop meant to evoke outer space. With the help of some gee-whiz […]
06 Mar 2017
Album Review: Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans — Space Songs
This curio from 1961 was originally created to serve as an instructional record for children. The word that immediately comes to mind when hearing the vocals and instrumentation is “ginchy.” […]
03 Mar 2017
Coffey Talk: A Chat with Guitar Legend Dennis Coffey (Part 2)
Continued from Part One … Dennis Coffey was part of a new venture, the Producer’s Workshop, led by legendary Motown bassist James Jamerson. As he recalls in Guitars, Bars and […]
02 Mar 2017
Coffey Talk: A Chat with Guitar Legend Dennis Coffey (Part 1)
The 2002 film Standing in the Shadows of Motown introduced viewers to The Funk Brothers. That name – originally coined by session drummer William “Benny” Benjamin – was retroactively applied […]