Remembering Craig MacGregor, born on this day in 1949. —Ed. In Yo La Tengo’s absolutely hilarious 1997 video for “Sugarcube,” a disgusted studio exec interested only in the bottom line (“Do you want my wife and kids to go hungry?”) sends the cowed trio to “Rock School,” where they’re taught the basics by a pipe-smoking, […]
Not so long ago I wrote that it was a positive disgrace and blot on the historical record that the only live album by the Faces—one of the most exciting live bands of their time—was 1974’s thoroughly lackluster Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners, which was released only to fulfill a contractual obligation and didn’t […]
Remembering Barry White, born on this day in 1944. —Ed. You’ve got to hand it to Love Man Barry White; his lubricious bass-baritone croon could charm the panties off anything–woman, man, antelope, albacore tuna–you name it. Hell, I bet you he could have induced sexual stimulation in a rock had he set his mind to […]
Elemental Music Motown Sound Collection extends into September with three releases available on the 13th: a mono edition of Meet the Temptations, Diana Ross & the Supremes’ Love Child, and Marvin Gaye’s In the Groove, all on 140 gram virgin vinyl. Considerations of all three follow below. After three years of trying, The Temptations finally […]
1964 was a year dominated by The Beatles and the British Invasion. The emphasis was very much on pop. Concurrent and sometimes overlapping with Beatlemania and the British Invasion was the British R&B scene, which itself was part of the burgeoning British blues scene. The British Invasion began in Liverpool with The Beatles, followed by […]
In various configurations, from solo to duo to orchestra, pianist Satoko Fujii has amassed a prodigious and voluminous output, hitting the 100-album mark in 2022, and that’s only counting her work as a leader. Amongst all that achieving is the output of the Satoko Fujii Quartet alongside trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, bassist Takeharu Hayakawa, and drummer […]
Celebrating Don Powell on his 78th birthday. —Ed. So there I was, listening to Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch and being all jazzbo pretentious and shit, when really deep down inside I was miserable when it hit me—what I needed at that moment was not the chill vibraphonic rebop of Bobby Hutcherson, but the atrocious […]
BASIC is a fresh project featuring Chris Forsyth on guitar, Nick Millevoi on baritone guitar and drum machine, and Mikel Patrick Avery on percussion and electronics. Dispensing with vocals, the trio takes inspiration from a specific and fleeting strain of 1980s art-rock where creatively restless guitarists embraced technological advances that were generally associated with the […]
Remembering Otis Redding, born on this day in 1941. —Ed. As one of the undisputed titans in the annals of Soul Music, Otis Redding seemingly needs no introduction. Any serious discussion of the genre he so thrillingly mastered will reflect upon the rewards to be found in his work, and that it’s never fallen out […]
Billy Gibbons is an open-minded guy. While I was busy hating the English synthpop likes of Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the leader of Texas legends ZZ Top was listening to them, and enough light bulbs were going off in his head to illuminate all 1,954 miles of the US-Mexico border. Anybody […]
Remembering Jimmy Reed, born on this day in 1925. —Ed. One of the first great electric blues LPs is titled I’m Jimmy Reed, and it’s loaded with twelve songs from one of the 1950s only true blues crossovers. Over half a century later it still holds up spectacularly well and additionally provides a solid contrast […]
By the way, which one’s Crosby? It’s a logical question: like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young this Spanish foursome deserted other bands to form a supergroup, and like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young they seem to have owned the kinds of egos that demanded that they see their individual names in lights. They could have […]
Remembering Freddie Mercury, born on this day in 1946. —Ed. It’s a shame, when you think about it. All the great albums I never heard growing up because (1) I could rarely afford the cost of an LP, and (2) there was no great or even half-decent FM radio station within listening range of the […]
In the 20th century jazz discourse at it pertains to the West Coast of the USA, it’s the Cool sound that dominates. But what about the avant-garde? Freeform improvisational sparks did emanate from the Pacific Time Zone; a fine and occasionally overlooked example is The Cry! by the Prince Lasha Quintet featuring Sonny Simmons. Used […]
Cat Stevens has gone through many musical and personal incarnations. His initial musical life was as a budding pop artist and songwriter during London’s Swinging Sixties. His big breakthrough, though, was when he recorded a series of four defining singer-songwriter albums from 1971 through 1974, led by the commercial and critically acclaimed Tea for the […]
