Author Archive
27 Nov 2009
Album Review: Pugwash – Giddy
It’s a bit like being a kid again, coming into the living room on Christmas morning. That’s as apt as any a metaphor for the initial listen to Giddy, a […]
26 Nov 2009
DVD Review: John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band Live in Toronto ‘69
In 1988 the D.A. Pennebaker-directed Sweet Toronto concert film was released. Its appearance at that late date — the concert had taken place nearly twenty years earlier — was itself […]
25 Nov 2009
Concert Review: thenewno2 at The Fillmore, Charlotte NC 11/03/2009
As the old cliché goes, sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In 2007 Dhani Harrison debuted his new band (originally to be called beatson ), thenewno2. While […]
24 Nov 2009
Album Review: Lost & Found: Real R’n’B & Soul
Thank goodness for crate-diggers. Were it not for the efforts of hardcore music fans — and ones possessing some considerable influence — many examples of wonderful and under-the-radar music would […]
23 Nov 2009
Album Review: Putumayo Presents Jazz Around the World
Putumayo’s top-selling India surveyed pop styles of that country. This, their other high-profile release of 2009, is Jazz Around the World. The sleeve describes it as “original songs and standards […]
20 Nov 2009
Interview: Gentle Giant on Barrett, bootlegs, Badfinger, Back catalog and the biz
The career of Gentle Giant spanned the whole of the 1970s, and their modest commercial fortunes closely paralleled that of their chosen (or assigned) genre. Beginning with their self-titled debut […]
19 Nov 2009
Album Review: Jets Overhead – No Nations
Jets Overhead‘s No Nations answers the rhetorical question: what would Coldplay sound like with an additional female vocalist and a rock sensibility? That’s an oversimplification, of course. Hypnotic beats and […]
18 Nov 2009
What do you get when you cross the Yardbirds with German prog?
In or around 1980 I went into my friendly local record shop and purchased a new, shrink-wrapped 2LP set called Shapes of Things. It was a compilation of Yardbirds radio […]
17 Nov 2009
Album Review: Jason Yates (self titled)
The first three notes on Jason Yates‘ new self-titled album sound like the opening of Squeeze‘s “Black Coffee in Bed”. But that’s not at all the direction in which Yates […]
16 Nov 2009
Album Review: Various Artists – Putumayo Presents India
The holiday gift giving season — or at least the shopping run-up — is nigh upon us. So if your plans include “giving the gift of music” as the old […]