Celebrating John Ashton, born on this day in 1957. —Ed. Love a band? Hate a band? It often comes down to simple timing. For instance, had My War been the first music by Black Flag I ever heard, instead of their earlier EPs and singles, I would never have given them the time of day. […]
Celebrating Bryan Ferry on his 77th birthday. —Ed. Bryan Ferry’s solo discography commenced in deceptively lowkey fashion with a pair of covers albums in 1973-’74. The setlist for BMG’s Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1974 draws from those records as it showcases the man’s sturdy, distinctive pipes and equally unique interpretive skills plus a […]
I guess you had to be there. You should be glad you weren’t there. If you’re not glad you weren’t there you should schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist immediately. She won’t be able to help you, but she will take your money and urge you to come back so she can take more of […]
Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons are very mean people. Vicious people. In their 1978 history of punk and its precursors “The Boy Looked at Johnny.” A Rock and Roll Obituary (Pluto Press) the pair lead to slaughter a long list of sacred cows that includes the Velvet Underground, the MC5, the Stooges, the New York […]
2022 has shaped up to be quite the year for fans of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The Mothers 71 has been released as an 8-CD box set and a 3-LP vinyl edition. The Zappa/Erie set has been issued as an album-sized, 6-CD set, and Rainbow December 10, 1971 has been issued as […]
With drummer Brad Elvis and vocalist-rhythm guitarist Chloe F. Orwell as co-leaders, Chicago’s The Handcuffs dish an auditorium-ready sound that draws upon glam rock with a proto-punk tinge, no-nonsense bluesy hard rock, and even a few fleeting snatches of art rock. The lineup is filled out by bassist Emily Togni, lead guitarist Jeff Kmieciak, and […]
Remembering Warren Zevon, born on January 24 in 1947. —Ed. Warren Zevon was one of rock’s great crazy men. When drinking—and in general pursuing oblivion the way Ahab did a certain white whale—Zevon was notorious for vomiting off interior balconies at staid record company meet-and-greets and much, much, worse. He never went to the Troubadour […]
Anyone who thinks the first wave of English punk was an all-lads affair has never listened to X-Ray Spex. Band vocalist and songwriter Poly Styrene spit as much bile as anyone, but she came at it from a woman’s point of view; the famed first words out of her mouth on the band’s 1977 debut […]
Live concert music from Bob Marley & the Wailers during their ’70s heyday has often been presented at mid-size to large venues, as evidenced by their 1975 album Live! and 1978 double-album Babylon By Bus, along with the 1978 video Live at the Rainbow. Sometimes the spectacle of the music is quite pronounced and, as […]
I have always had a soft spot for crap “Super Hits” LPs. I know they’re déclassé exploitation packages designed to sucker the neophyte into parting ways with his hard-earned buck, and are the sort of thing your serious vinyl collector sniffs at haughtily before asking, “What reeks? Could it be this crass and repugnant straight-from-K-Tel-waste […]
So just the other day I was at my girlfriend’s place and I told her I’d been listening to Belle and Sebastian. And she said in amazement, “You? You?? But they’re so… emo!” To which I replied, my voice reaching that high and buzzard-like Geddy Lee pitch that I can only attain when genuinely flubbergumbled, “Emo […]
Part one of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for November 2020. NEW RELEASE PICKS: Lloyd Miller with Ian Camp and Adam Michael Terry, At the Ends of the World (FOUNTAINavm) Last year the Now-Again label reissued Miller’s Oriental Jazz, a very interesting excursion into what […]
Part seven of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for May, 2020. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, and part four is here, and part five is here, and part six here. NEW RELEASE PICKS: TALsounds, Acquiesce (NNA Tapes) Chicago’s […]
Part one of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for February, 2020. Part one is here. NEW RELEASE/VALENTINE’S DAY PICK: Lulu Lewis, “The Love Song EP” (Ilegalia) The general guideline (I wouldn’t call it “policy”) with this weekly column is a focus on physical releases that […]
Bryan Ferry’s solo discography commenced in deceptively lowkey fashion with a pair of covers albums in 1973-’74. The setlist for BMG’s Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1974 draws from those records as it showcases the man’s sturdy, distinctive pipes and equally unique interpretive skills plus a killer band including guitarist Phil Manzanera, guitarist-musical director […]
