vinyl Archive
19 Dec 2020
For Howlin Rain’s Ethan Miller, the Truth is in the Mix
Ethan Miller is a big fan of live albums. The founder, songwriter and guitarist in Howlin Rain names The Grateful Dead’s landmark 3LP set Europe ‘72 among his favorites, along […]
30 Nov 2020
Album Reviews: Redd Kross — Phaseshifter and Show World
Over the span of a decade-plus, Hawthorne, California band Redd Kross navigated the tricky path from punky indie band to one that sounded like the epitome of arena rock. And […]
23 Nov 2020
Doug McKechnie’s ‘San Francisco Moog: 1968-1972’
In the late ’60s, the Moog modular synthesizer was still very much an experimental tool. While there had been some ambitious attempts to use the Moog as the centerpiece of […]
02 Nov 2020
Album Review: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (soundtrack)
Even though today I’m (cough, cough) middle-aged, when The Rocky Horror Picture Show first came out, I was too young to appreciate it. In fact, as an 11-year-old, I was […]
28 Oct 2020
Chocolate Samurai: More from My Conversation with Fantastic Negrito (Part Two)
Continued from Part One … Police violence and racial disparity have been in the news a whole lot more in recent times than they had been in a long time. […]
27 Oct 2020
Chocolate Samurai: More from My Conversation with Fantastic Negrito (Part One)
Thanks to my friend and former bandmate Jeff Japp, I discovered the music of Fantastic Negrito right around the time he released his stunning – and eventually Grammy-winning – debut, […]
26 Oct 2020
Fantastic Negrito: ‘These are My Friends’
This feature appeared previously in SF Weekly — bk When Xavier Dphrepaulezz reinvented himself as Fantastic Negrito, his self-described “black roots music for everyone” struck a chord with the listening […]
08 Oct 2020
Guide for the Turtles Fan: An Album-by-album Discussion with Mark Volman (Part 3 of 3)
Continued from Part Two … Turtle Soup (originally released October 1969) For their fifth album, The Turtles made a highly unconventional choice in producer: they called on British musician Ray […]
07 Oct 2020
Guide for the Turtles Fan: An Album-by-album Discussion with Mark Volman (Part 2 of 3)
Continued from Part One … Happy Together (originally released April 1967) Only four of the 11 songs on Happy Together would be written by group members, but once again, superb […]
06 Oct 2020
Guide for the Turtles Fan: An Album-by-album Discussion with Mark Volman (Part 1 of 3)
What we need in the world today is a Guide for the Turtles Fan lead a guided tour through their six LPs as only Mark Volman can … baa … […]