Remembering Eddie Hazel, born on this day in 1950. —Ed. The late guitarist Eddie Hazel remains highly esteemed for his role in shaping the funk rock juggernaut that is Parliament-Funkadelic. With beaucoup assistance from the P-Funk All-Stars including George Clinton himself, Hazel released Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs, his solo debut, in 1977, an absolute […]
The Black Angels have exuded menace via drone, squalls of guitar feedback, and dark subject matter since they first blew me away with the War Is Hell tracks “The First Vietnamese War” and “Young Men Dead” and the doom-laden “The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven” way back in (has it really been that long?) […]
Celebrating Aidan Moffat in advance of his birthday tomorrow. —Ed. It’s Monday afternoon here at the Hug & Pint in lovely Falkirk, Scotland, not that you’d know it because management 86’d the sun a long time ago because it was annoying the customers, and that blootered bampot at the end of the bar is Arab […]
Remembering Carl Perkins, born on this date in 1932. —Ed. Carl Perkins was one of the major shakers in the peak period of Sun Records, and these days he gets his due mostly as an architect of classic rockabilly. In that regard, one of his many hits compilations will provide an accurate if not comprehensive […]
The name Robin Trower may not resonate with today’s young pop streamers, but throughout roughly the mid-1960s through the late 1970s, he went from one successful musical life to another. From before the group’s debut album in 1967 and through their fifth album in 1971, Trower was the guitarist with Procol Harum. Along with the […]
Record Store Day 2026 is just around the corner, and the Soul Jazz Records compilation Power Pop! American Power Pop for the Now Generation 1977-1981 is among the standouts in this year’s crop. Leaning toward an assemblage of highly sought-after and in many instances very pricey gems that hover on the fringes of the coinciding […]
Celebrating John Oates on his 78th birthday. —Ed. Hall & Oates: You either love them or you hate them. Or, as in my case, you love them AND you hate them. The blue-eyed Philly soul and pop superstars scored some 3,400 Billboard Top 100 hits during the late seventies and early eighties, including such unavoidable […]
Marta Sanchez is a Spanish pianist and composer (not to be confused with the Spanish vocalist Marta Sánchez) who has been based in New York City since 2011. Along with touring and cutting albums in the quartet of David Murray and recording Unseparate as part of the Webber/Morris Big Band (issued last September), Sanchez has […]
Remembering Merle Haggard, born on this date in 1937. —Ed. Merle Haggard is a man who needs no introduction. His music, however, is best served by a thoughtful entry-point that reflects his emergence as one of country music’s truly singular figures. As the first LP he recorded with his estimable backing band the Strangers, it’s […]
All right, all right, all right. Before we get down to sparking a joint, please allow me to say a few words about the sequel to the greatest movie soundtrack ever made about the greatest movie ever made about the greatest year in human history—1976, America’s Bicentennial Year, and the year I graduated from high […]
Remembering Richard Manuel, born on this day in 1943. —Ed. Part of what makes The Band so fascinating is they served two very different roles in rock history—first as the backing band that produced a hurricane of sound behind Bob Dylan during his epochal (and polarizing) 1966 tour, then as the purveyors of a totally […]
Who is Neil Merryweather, and how come I’ve never heard of him? Well, turns out he’s a Toronto bassist/vocalist/songwriter who started out playing the blues before putting out (with his band Space Rangers) a positively wonderful late-era, capital “G” Glam album in 1975’s Kryptonite. I’ve never read about Merryweather in any of the many books […]
Remembering Marvin Gaye, born on this day in 1939. —Ed. Since his tragic and premature death in 1984, Marvin Gaye’s discography has steadily risen in critical esteem, and particularly What’s Going On, his eleventh album and the enduring apex of the man’s posthumous ascension, as it’s landed atop at least one noted list of the […]
On April 17, Guerssen Records is releasing four singles to mark the label’s 30th anniversary. All but one 45 is a split, and the bands include The Attack, The Voice, In Black and White, Mandrake Paddle Steamer, Fairfield Ski, Ngozi Family, and Crossbones. The stylistic range, from freakbeat to psych-rock to Zamrock, makes picking up […]
Two recent Mobile Fidelity reissues with New York roots, originally released on Elektra, but from two different decades and two very different musical genres, both had a seismic impact on music when they were first released. East-West, from The Butterfield Blues Band, was the group’s second album, released in 1966, and expanded on the vital […]
