review Archive
02 Jun 2014
DVD Review: I Dream of Wires, Hardcore Edition
The producers of I Dream of Wires‘ “Hardcore Edition” weren’t kidding when they named the film. The original film is a lovingly detailed and insightful feature-length documentary look at the […]
30 May 2014
DVD Review: The Doors — R-Evolution
Many of the best-loved bands of the 1960s don’t own the rights to their own material. What this means in practical terms is that they don’t have the freedom to […]
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 […]
28 May 2014
Album Review: The Grass Roots — The Complete Original Dunhill/ABC Hit Singles
It’s common knowledge that many rock and pop groups of the 1960s sat on the sidelines while seasoned studio musicians (see: The Wrecking Crew) played on the songs credited to […]
27 May 2014
Book Review: Huey “Piano” Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues
One need not dig very deep into the collected history of popular music to discover tales of artists who’ve been ripped off, gotten the short end of the stick, been […]
23 May 2014
Album Reviews: Brand X — Is There Anything About? / Missing Period / Live at the Roxy L.A.
It’s a popular (and not wholly inaccurate) contention that Phil Collins did his best work with Genesis in the immediate years after Peter Gabriel left, and then – around the […]
22 May 2014
Album Review: Sun Ra — A Space Odyssey
As Kris Needs notes in his excellent and detailed liner notes for A Space Odyssey: From Birmingham to the Big Apple – The Quest Begins, Sun Ra was a practitioner […]
21 May 2014
Album Review: Jack Bruce — Silver Rails
Let us consider for a few moments the current conditions of the three musicians formerly of Cream. Drummer Ginger Baker has made a career out of being disagreeable (see the […]
20 May 2014
Album Review: Louis Prima Jr. and The Witnesses — Blow
I first discovered the music of Louis Prima (Sr.) in college in the mid 1980s. An elective course I took, a class called American Popular Music: Stephen Foster to Present, […]
19 May 2014
Album Review: The Butterfield Blues Band — East-West
Some people — musicians, listeners, you name it — get their nose out of joint when writers apply labels to music. How dare we, the thinking goes. The music shouldn’t […]