review Archive
17 Mar 2020
Album Review: Norman — Buzz and Fade
Had it not been for Don Valentine personally contacting me to inquire if I was familiar with it, the existence of Norman’s Buzz and Fade might have slipped completely by […]
16 Mar 2020
Album Review: Eamon Ra — Meat Bones Chemicals Electricity
The album title telegraphs that Eamon Ra is something of an eccentric artist. That the LP comes packed with a magazine-sized lyric/comic book only serves to reinforce that impression. And […]
07 Mar 2020
Album Review: Anders Manga — Andromeda
Modern recording technology being what it is, in 2020 it’s no longer remarkable to find an album created by one person that still sounds like the work of a complete […]
06 Mar 2020
Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends at 50
Scattered among the history of pop and rock music are the occasional oddities: albums made by those whose circumstances or talents in a particular area might not quite have suited […]
04 Mar 2020
Take Some Old Songs and Make Them Newer: The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ at 50
In light of the fact that they’re the most popular rock act in the history of music, the Beatles’ catalog is more than a bit confusing. Though CD-era reissues were […]
03 Mar 2020
Prog in Disguise: The Buggles’ ‘The Age of Plastic’ at 40
The late 1970s were an odd time for popular music. Today’s listeners know that punk made its mark in the middle ’70s, but it’s worth noting that from a commercial […]
28 Feb 2020
Hundred Word Reviews for February 2020
Time for some more quick reviews. All good stuff, all worthy of deeper coverage. And all worth your time if you’re in the mood for some new sounds. Previte / […]
25 Feb 2020
Wesley Stace: It Happens One Night
This story was published previously in Chicago’s New City. For a long time, the man born Wesley Stace was John Wesley Harding. Taking his stage name from the title Bob […]
23 Feb 2020
UFO: Lights Out
UFO’s “Last Orders” tour — its final round — wraps up this week. Here’s a look at the beloved hard rock band, previously published in New City. In the late […]
22 Feb 2020
Album Review: Eleventyseven — Basic Glitches
What a difference a couple of decades can make. Eleventyseven got its start in Laurens, S.C. as a pop-punk band trafficking in Christian themes; one of its earliest shows took […]