All Things To All People
Music reviews
So one of my favorite bands from my misspent youth in the 1970s-80s decided to remaster every album they’ve ever done, and release them in a huge box set called Discovery. This is every Pink Floyd album from 1967 to 1994, sounding…
Image via Wikipedia In the list of things I never thought we’d see, it was a complete SMiLE, the legendary lost Beach Boys record. In 2004 that came; Brian Wilson had re-recorded it, working with co-writer Van Dyke Parks on finishing the…
It was a cold winter night when I saw Br’er perform for the first time. They played the front room of a West Philaelphia rowhouse turned art gallery and concert venue. I sat on the floor in front of their violin player,…
When you haven’t released a new album in nineteen years [1], it’s a bold statement to open with a song called “Nothing New Under the Sun.” Amidst wobbly bass synths and brassy horns, the synthetic pop sounds of Thomas Dolby are familiar…
It’s odd what childhood cultural touchstones we take for granted–and odder still when we learn about cultural differences and find out those odd little true commonalities. Case in point: I didn’t even know they had Lil’ Golden Books in New Zealand. The…
I’ve definitely got a soft-spot for retro-flavored records. Some of it, like the Ditty Bops (one of my all-time favorites) or Katzenjammer , is because I like the original styles as well — the 20s and 30s, sorta cabarety-jazzy stuff. (I also…
Cover of The Young Fresh Fellows This goes along as a package deal with last week’s Selected Memories of a Scott McCaughey Show From 7 Years Ago. Why post concert reviews from almost a decade ago? WHY NOT. Where else are you…
What do you get when an experimental installation artist records a rock album? Nothing. 1997’s Nothing is the first album by Martin Creed, and his rock power trio, Owada. It is also the last album by Martin Creed, and his rock power…
Scott and John Ramberg playing “Ghost Tarts of Stockholm”, including all of the Fa-fa-fafafa bits, which actually went for a pretty long time. The song “Got You”, which is one of my favorites from “Let The War Against Music Begin”, and me…
Image via Wikipedia It’s a story older than Rock ‘n’ Roll itself. A band makes their bones around a charismatic frontman. Maybe he writes the songs. Maybe he just sings them. In either case, he’s the face of the group, the one…