Author Archive

Album Review: Michael Des Barres Band – Carnaby Street

Perhaps best known as the guy who sang Robert Palmer‘s Power Station parts in the touring lineup of that 80s sensation (I refuse to label them a supergroup: Chic and […]

Album Review: Tommy Roe – Devil’s Soul Pile

When you hear Tommy Roe‘s name, you can’t help but remember “Dizzy” and/or “Sheila,” two of his hits from the 1960s. And that was a long time ago. His latest, […]

Album Review: The Zombies – Recorded Live in Concert at Metropolis Studios London

The Zombies are one of those sixties acts who somehow never got their due on the first go-round. Chalk it up to bad timing, a glut of great music; it […]

Album Review: Redd Kross – Researching the Blues

Leave it to the bratty (though now fortyish-plus) McDonald brothers to title an album Researching the Blues. Anyone familiar with their musical approach – perhaps best described as pop-punk yet […]

Album Review: Asia – XXX

Listening to XXX, I can’t help but think two things. One, this is really catchy music. Despite the fact that the group has always been built around seriously ace players […]

Guitars on Fire: The Fire Tapes

The Fire Tapes are a four-piece based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Their signature sound is informed by a wide – and slightly unusual – array of influences that come together and […]

Album Review: Various Artists – Buttons: From Champaign to Chicago

Powerpop has always seemed to have its evangelists – the ones who shouted across the rooftops about the transcendent power of their chosen genre. Jordan Oakes was responsible for the […]

Album Review: Lucero – Women & Work

There comes a point at which labels become useless. Early on – in the sixties, I guess, maybe earlier – music critics and other sage souls coined various terms to […]

Album Review: Sonny Landreth – Elemental Journey

When genre labels get applied, guitarist Sonny Landreth is often put into a blues (and sometimes Americana) bag. But a listen to Elemental Journey, his twelfth and latest album makes […]

EP Review: Jimbo Mathus – Blue Light

Musically, the 1990s were an eclectic time. You had all sorts of strains of music showing up on the pop cultural landscape. One of the more outré ones (commercially speaking, […]