Celebrating Eric Carmen on his 73rd birthday. —Ed.

When it comes to Seventies power pop, you tend to be either a Raspberries person or a Big Star person. Me, I’ve always been a Raspberries guy, if only because they were about as subtle as a brick. Now Big Star, they had subtlety and class, but then again they were so subtle and classy hardly anybody heard of ‘em until they were long gone. Say what you will about the Raspberries–you could hear their songs on your car radio.

And as a male adolescent of the time I could actually relate to the Raspberries in a way that I probably wouldn’t have related to the heartbreaking nostalgia of “September Gurls” or “Thirteen” because I was too young to be nostalgic and all I wanted to do was go all the way, which was just about the only thing Eric Carmen sang about. He was the Dante Alighieri of Teenage Lust and as such gave voice to every shrieking hormone in my adolescent zit suit.

Musically, the Raspberries succeeded on a hybrid sound that was equal parts The Beatles, The Who, and The Beach Boys, with a wee pinch of The Faces thrown in for flavoring. Eric Carmen was a clever synthesist and even better thief with grand ambitions, and the epic sweep of his songs is a million miles away from the more nuanced power pop of Alex Chilton and Company. The Raspberries may have been from Cleveland but they were a peek into a rock future that would be dominated by the overblown sonic likes of Boston, and I’m talking about the band, not the town.

Eric, who suffered from delusions of grandeur for sure, aimed for the fences every time out, and he struck out a lot. But when he connected the result was power pop greatness, and his biggest homers can be found on Raspberries’ Best Featuring Eric Carmen (his hubris is right there in the LP’s title). He didn’t hit that many home runs, it’s true, but that’s one of the best things about this particular album. Some best-of compilations hit the skids cuz the people who put ‘em out pad ‘em with too much weak material, but that isn’t the case with this bare bones, 10-song 1976 best-of from a great band that was so much dust in the wind by the time it came out.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Supergrass today announce details of the remastered expanded version of their hugely successful eponymous 1999 third album via BMG. The 2CD + 2x1LP features a full remaster of the original tracks, sourced and re-produced by the band and their original long-standing record producer. Pre-order here.

Supergrass often referred to as The X-Ray Album—because of the album artwork featuring the band as X-Rays—was recorded at the legendary Sawmills Studio in Cornwall with seasoned producer John Cornfield, who was also behind the band’s 1995 bombshell debut I Should Coco and sophomore 1997 album In It for the Money, includes the top 10 charting hit tracks “Moving,” “Pumping On Your Stereo” and “Mary.”

Originally released on 2nd September 1999, Supergrass champions the band’s unforgettable sound whilst incorporating turn-of-the-century computer technology innovation to unveil something that has been described by Pitchfork magazine in 1999 as “as beautifully produced as OK Computer but infused with the down-to-earth fun of early Beatles.”

Supergrass reached #3 in the UK album Charts and #13 in the US Billboard in 1999 and has amassed over 300,000 sales in the UK alone since its release, certifying it Platinum. Lead single “Moving,” about the tedium of touring as a band placed #3 in Q magazine’s “Best Tracks From The Best Albums of 1999” and second single “Pumping On Your Stereo”’s accompanying music video awarded Supergrass their second BRIT Awards nomination for “Best British Video 1999.”

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In 1976, after relocating to California and hooking up with Beserkely Records, proud New Englander Jonathan Richman released his first full-length. The sound of that record is markedly different from the post-Velvets rock & roll an earlier incarnation of the Modern Lovers recorded as demos, material released posthumously that endures as Richman’s most celebrated work. Next to it, Richman’s proper debut remains somewhat divisive, even all these decades later. Omnivore Recordings kicks off its reissue series of the Beserkely albums on August 19 with Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, available on vinyl and compact disc.

The demo material released on The Modern Lovers, recorded partly with producer John Cale in 1971-’72 and released in August ’76, and The Original Modern Lovers, recorded with producer Kim Fowley in ’73 and released in ’81, serves as a crucial chapter in the saga of proto-punk, but by the late ’80s, when I was introduced to Richman’s work, his reputation had fallen to something of a low point, as he was dismissed by many as an affected eccentric who’d undercut his early achievements with a predilection for childlike whimsy.

Released in July of 1976, Jonathan Richman’s debut album wasn’t his first material to see release, as there had been a few singles, amongst them the eternally life-affirming VU-channeling brilliance of “Roadrunner” (released in ’75), plus a handful of songs on the Beserkely Chartbusters compilation (also ’75), but it’s safe to surmise that Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers served as many listener’s introduction to the guy.

And I’m guessing that when Beserkely put out The Modern Lovers the following month, it was likely that the two records simply registered as opposing sides of the same coin. But flash forward a decade, and for folks who’d been blown away by The Modern Lovers and The Original Modern Lovers, and who’d sought out or stumbled upon Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, the reaction might’ve been similar to Greil Marcus’ response after hearing Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait (that would be: “What is this shit?”).

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When listening to band members John and Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook, and Doug Clifford on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s cover of “Good Golly Miss Molly,” from their career-making second studio album Bayou Country (1969), one becomes immediately aware of several factors: the driving beat that begins and sustains the song through its conclusion, which never slows down for one moment complete with hand claps—and that wild guitar.

The recording never takes a breath, almost as though the whole track is sustained by one long inhale and exhale. And at the moment of transition before every “Good Golly” chorus—when Fogerty issues out the same set of lyrics—it’s almost as though he will run out of musical notes on which to detail the song’s thoughts and he’s rushing to squeeze them all in. This kind of intense energy, the exercising of which can only lead to total exhaustion, is what true rock ’n’ roll is made of.

The story of Creedence Clearwater Revival in the 1960s and ’70s, of John Fogerty’s drive and determination to become a true artist and performer, songwriter, and lush compositional mythmaker, is a fascinating one. CCR was a band who in part defined the sound of the late 1960s in American rock, who had its share of issues and squabbles, who was ultimately run by John and the vision he had for himself and his music which led to immense commercial success and a fair share of legal battles and artistic frustration in the decades following.

A Song for Everyone: the Story of Creedence Clearwater Revival (Hachette Books) by journalist John Lingan, seeks to tell the real tale of CCR, from its earliest incarnations under monikers the Blue Velvets in the 1950s, then the Golliwogs, and finally Creedence Clearwater Revival, to its dissolution in 1972. Well-researched and drawing from new interviews with Clifford and Cook and from John Fogerty’s 2015 memoir Fortunate Son, Lingan’s biography is straightforward and historically focused. He does a fine job of weaving the CCR story through American cultural history of the their era, helping to bring the tale to life for the reader and widen its scope.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Tom Waits will be releasing limited edition vinyl of his albums Alice and Blood Money to commemorate their 20th anniversary; originally released on 7th May 2002, the re-issues will be available on 7th October. Waits’ official merch store will feature translucent blue for Alice and translucent red for Blood Money. Other variants will also be available in independent record stores and online. Pre-order these versions of Alice HERE and Blood Money HERE.

Leading up to the official release date, Waits is putting out previously unreleased live versions of songs from the records, starting with “All the World is Green” from Blood Money and “Fish and Bird” from Alice. “All the World is Green” was recorded at a live show in Milan and features a dramatic faux flamenco guitar intro, while “Fish and Bird” is taken from Waits’ celebrated return to the London stage in 2004 and is a stripped-down raw piano version of the ballad that featured a chamber orchestra arrangement in the studio recording.

“The albums are as different as sleepwalking and chronic insomnia,” said Jon Pareles of The New York Times upon their release. “Alice, which is very loosely inspired by Alice in Wonderland, is full of lyrics about dreaming and many of the songs proceed in a haze of brushed drums and breathy horns. Blood Money is more hardnosed, veering from warped carnival oompah to ominous lullabies.”

Initially created for an avant-garde opera directed by Robert Wilson for Hamburg’s Thalia Theater in the winter of 1992, Alice was Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan’s second collaboration with Wilson (they had previously worked together on 1989’s The Black Rider).

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Birmingham, AL’s Will Stewart is a busy guy. Along with playing in The Blips and Willie the Giant, he is half of Timber with Janet Elizabeth Simpson; he also played on Simpson’s pretty terrific 2021 album Safe Distance. But Stewart is also a solo artist, with his third album Slow Life freshly released on vinyl by Cornelius Chapel. The sound can be described as Southern rootsy but with ample injections of melodic rock with a collegiate inflection and even some honky-tonk laced folk. Altogether, the ten songs deliver a ride that’s solid and fun and available now.

While he’d self-released a few EPs dating back to 2013, Will Stewart debuted proper in 2018 with County Seat, which was issued on LP/CD/DL by Cornelius Chapel. Said label also released Stewart’s digital-only 2020 mini-album Way Gone, along with Safe Distance by Simpson, who contributes vocals to Slow Life.

Opener “Bad Memory” is a catchy bit of bar rocking with unstrained vocals and some short sharp bursts of glistening slide guitar throughout. Tidy at less than three minutes, it’s the sort of tune that could lead a listener to guess that Stewart is a disciple of Tom Petty. What I appreciate is that Stewart’s not an rank imitator, so that the influence of ol’ Tom is pure speculation.

He additionally has versatility of style in his favor, as “Nothing’s Right” is a folky strummer with a country-tinge. A similarity to Dylan is undeniable, but it sounds like he could’ve picked it up from Townes Van Zandt or something. But with “New World Daydream” the melodic rock impulse is reasserted, and with a steady current of the anthemic coinciding with the roots, which could just as easily be tagged as heartland as Southern.

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MANSFIELD, MA | Multi-platinum band Incubus rocked the Xfinity Center amphitheater just outside of Boston Wednesday night, showcasing their collection of tight, interstellar grooves ranging from of six albums.

The night was highlighted with tracks “Warning” and “Drive” that were fully backed by the crowd in a rejoicing fashion. Throughout the night, Incubus made this audience feel like a sixth member of the band as they dropped the music at key points to shine a spotlight on the crowd’s vocals and excitement—an energy that the band was noticeably engaged with.

Incubus and Sublime wouldn’t necessarily be categorized among the same musical genres, so touring North America together might stand out to some. However, the majority of Incubus fans tend to be into the genre-fusing, reggae-ska-punk pioneers Sublime, who in turn had actually influenced Incubus. This isn’t the first time these two have played together as well. Incubus opened for Sublime in 1995 when they filmed their infamous DVD, Sublime’s 3 Ring Circus—Live At The Palace. More shared stages would follow in later years.

This summer tour is a dream bill for fans who had the unique experience in the 2000s of diving into the catalog of a trailblazing band, while also following the newly emerging Incubus as they were evolving their sound and releasing new music.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “There are a million guys who sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, but I never heard anybody who could really pull off sounding like Rory Gallagher.” —Slash

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rory Gallagher’s Deuce sophomore solo album from 1971, a deluxe CD boxset will be released by UMC on Friday September 30th. The album is available to pre-order here.

The extensive celebratory release digs deep into the Rory Gallagher Archives and will include a new mix of the original album, twenty-eight previously unreleased alternate takes, a six-song 1972 BBC Radio In Concert, and seven Radio Bremen radio session tracks. The package will contain a 64-page hardback book with a foreword by Johnny Marr of The Smiths, unseen images by the late Mick Rock, essays, and memorabilia from the album recording. The 2CD and 3LP will be cut down versions from the deluxe box and there will be a special D2C 1LP of the BBC In Concert – Live at The Paris Theatre, 13 January 1972.

Released in November 1971, just six months after his eponymous solo debut, Rory Gallagher’s second album, Deuce, was the summation of all that he’d promised in the wake of Taste’s collapse. Rory wanted to capture the feeling of a live performance, so he would look to record immediately after live concerts while keeping production to a minimum.

He chose Tangerine Studios, a small reggae studio, in Dalston in East London, due its history with legendary producer Joe Meek. With Gerry McAvoy on bass guitar and Wilgar Campbell on drums, the album was engineered by Robin Sylvester and produced by Rory. Deuce features many Rory highlights, from the blistering “Crest Of A Wave” to the Celtic-infused “I’m Not Awake Yet.”

PHOTO: NINA FERNANDEZ | Hatched via email between musicians, the new trio Night Crickets comprise the talents of Violent Femmes co-founder Victor DeLorenzo, David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, and multi-instrumentalist Darwin Meiners. Their debut release A Free Society, released earlier this year on CD has just been issued on vinyl this summer by Omnivore Records. From his studio in Milwaukee, DeLorenzo talked about the collaboration, his experimental drum approaches, the split with Violent Femmes, and the drum pattern that captured the world.

How did Night Crickets come to be?

In 2013 my band Violent Femmes played the Coachella Music & Arts Festival in California and backstage, I came across Darwin Meiners. It turned out that not only was he a fellow musician, but also was the manager of David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets.

I didn’t really know that much about Bauhaus or Love and Rockets other than maybe the one or two hits that Love and Rockets had. But I got on well with Darwin and stayed in touch. And then two holiday seasons ago, he got in touch with me and asked me if I would be willing to create some drum tracks for him that he could write some music to. So I said, yeah, that sounds like a great idea because as a matter of fact, I own a recording studio here in Milwaukee and I’ve had this studio for over 30 years.

From time to time, when I had a great drum setup going, I would just record wild drum tracks just to some kind of click track or some kind of drum track, and I would just store them away to be able to use in the future for different music projects.

So I told Darwin I had some of these already recorded and that, if he wanted, I could create some new ones for him too. So I did that, but when I got to the point where I sent him some stuff, I said, what about the idea of maybe seeing if David would want to be involved in this and maybe we could create some stuff together, what do you think about that?

And Darwin went to David and got back to me and said, “It sounds like a great idea.” So that just started us on our kismet way of putting together some music that eventually became this full length record.

Is it unusual to start songs with drum tracks?

I think for some people, it’s just another way of recording. Because I’ve been in the business so long, I’ve learned to record music from many different ideas at the onset. Whether it’s just the drum track, or it’s the guitar track that’s recorded to a click track, or what have you. Or maybe just starting with a lyric and building from there. So I don’t look at recording music as being a one way process. I’ve got many different ideas in my arsenal.

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