Celebrating Jim Stafford on his 82nd birthday. —Ed. The list of famous country novelty songs is a long one. There have been hundreds–probably thousands–of them. Just off the top of my head: Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue,” Loretta Lynn’s “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly,” Mark Chesnutt’s “Bubba Shot the Jukebox,” and my […]
Nasty, brutish, and short—the ever chipper Thomas Hobbes could have been talking about New York City’s late Seventies/early eighties No Wave scene. He might have said “blessedly short,” because let’s face it, how much horrible noise (the phrase that Lester Bangs used to describe such short-lived No Wave bands like DNA, Mars, and Teenage Jesus […]
Celebrating Chris Desjardins on his 73rd birthday. —Ed. Any shelf dedicated to classic California punk requires representation by The Flesh Eaters of Chris Desjardins, aka Chris D. Never a bad record has he made under that moniker, but the finest of them remains the talent-drenched and enduringly brilliant 1981 LP A Minute to Pray, a […]
Born in Busan, South Korea, and currently based in New York City, pianist Haeun Joo releases her second album, Just Gravity, on compact disc and digital January 16 via Brooklyn’s unstoppable fount of heightened improvisation, 577 Records. Alternating Joo solo with trio interactions of sharp, vibrant depth featuring bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Steven Crammer, […]
Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here was released in 1975, and listening to it today, it sounds like the soundtrack for these times. At the end of 2025, it was given a big box archival release, and the quality of this new reissue is commensurate with the importance of the album. The release came […]
Among numerous shifts in personnel, Jamie Stewart is the founding and constant member of Xiu Xiu since the outfit’s formation in 2002, but for their last pair of albums, the core lineup has solidified into Stewart, Angela Seo, and David Kendrick. It’s this trio that shapes, with various additional contributors, the dozen cover songs heard […]
Celebrating Wayne Coyne on his 65th birthday. —Ed. Attention psychonauts! We interrupt your lysergic day trip across the fifth dimension to announce that the musical programme has been changed. Instead of The Beatles’ 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band—which depending on your point of view is either thee ultimate psychedelic masterpiece or a […]
Recorded in 1981 but not released until 1987 on Restless Records with an assist by Steve Wynn’s discerning Down There label, Pigus Drunkus Maximus by Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs is a key punk-blues document. Neck deep in inspired covers, the record kicks like the Blasters circa their second album crossed with The Doors […]
Celebrating Blixa Bargeld on his 67th birthday. —Ed. At long last, a rock album capable of shattering my nerves. I’ve sat through all manner of horrible noise for decades, but the sheet-metalheads and industrial music pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten are the first to make me wish I was deaf. Einstürzende Neubauten may translate as Collapsing New […]
Remembering Bobby Weir. —Ed. Well I’ll be damned. I didn’t think Bob Weir, the eternal boy howdy of the Grateful Dead, had it in him. After decades of coasting—his last great solo offering, 1972’s Ace, was released a shocking 44 years ago—here comes Weir, looking as weather worn as Grizzly Adams in his white beard, […]
Ron Wood has had a remarkable musical career. After starting in London in the mid-1960s with The Birds, he played on many recordings and was a key part of both the original Jeff Beck Group and the original Faces, and has been a member of The Rolling Stones for 50 years. Three recent releases feature […]
Is this it? Really? This is the album that put The Strokes on the covers of god knows how many magazines, the album that put New York City back on the rock and roll map, the album that came in very close to the top of many magazines’ lists of the best albums of the […]
Remembering Elvis Presley, born on this date in 1935. —Ed. 1974’s Having Fun with Elvis on Stage is my favorite album by the King. On this bizarre throwaway you get snippets of Presley goofing off, having fun, cracking wise, spouting complete gibberish, and generally behaving like Robin Williams in full-blown manic mode before live audiences, […]
Globally, New Zealand’s Split Enz is often categorized as a New Wave act, based on a string of albums and singles that charted in the UK/US circa the early 1980s. However, the band was formed in 1972, initially as a folk-tinged combo sans drummer before integrating a kit and leaning into a progressive rock sound […]
The Beatles are arguably the most influential group in the history of pop music. Three recent releases reflect three different groups that have probably been the most influenced by the band, although one of them was most influenced by The Beatles in their second incarnation. It is also worth mentioning that one other group, ELO, […]
