Author Archive
02 May 2011
Album Review: The Residents – Not Available
Leave it to the folks at MVD Audio to mount a reissue of an album that (a) as legend has it wasn’t supposed to have even been released the first […]
29 Apr 2011
To the Lifeboats with Thomas Dolby, Part Two
Continued from Part One… The economics of touring the USA are – as for any musician based in the UK — daunting for Dolby. “I would love to tour in […]
28 Apr 2011
To the Lifeboats with Thomas Dolby, Part One
To many music fans, Thomas Dolby is best known as the guy with the popular early-80s MTV hit “She Blinded Me With Science.” But Dolby’s career has taken many other […]
27 Apr 2011
Coming Attractions: The New Mastersounds
I don’t ever want to miss an opportunity to encourage people to check out The New Mastersounds. Whatever you’re into — rock, jazz, instrumental, jam bands — this UK aggregation […]
26 Apr 2011
Album Review: Ian Moore and the Lossy Coils – El Sonido Nuevo
When a song kicks off sounding very much like Eddie Cochran’s “Somethin’ Else,” it gets my attention. And then when I discover that the song is instead an original — […]
25 Apr 2011
Album Review: The Bewitched Hands – Birds & Drums
The idea of a songwriters’ collective has always fascinated me. Band dynamics being what they are, most groups have only one songwriter; the alternative is prone to the “too many […]
22 Apr 2011
Bootleg Bin: Teenage Fanclub – Live at the 13th Note w/Alex Chilton 04-08-93
Here’s a recipe for success. Take an American 70s cult icon, one notorious for erratic performances, and add a healthy dose of one Scottish revivalist pop band that mixes equal […]
21 Apr 2011
DVD Review: Derailroaded – Inside the Mind of Larry “Wild Man” Fischer
I approached this one with great trepidation. In today’s world where postmodern irony is bought and sold like any other commodity – witness the plethora of so-called “ironic” T-shirts and […]
20 Apr 2011
Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker Bring Classic Albums to “Santa Cruz with Banjos”
Celebrated yet decidedly underground, Camper Van Beethoven released five albums in the latter half of the 1980s. Quite unlike the prevailing styles of that era, Camper developed a wry, intelligent […]
19 Apr 2011
Album Review: Material Issue – International Pop Overthrow (20th Anniversary)
What do Valerie, Diane, Renee and Christine have in common? They’ve each got a song written about ‘em on Material Issue’s 1991 International Pop Overthrow. And those songs have something […]