Chirping Crickets

Rediscover Buddy Holly: A Revelatory Edition of His Classic ‘Chirping Crickets’ LP

Buddy Holly and his band released The “Chirping” Crickets, on Nov. 27, 1957, about 14 months before he perished in an Iowa airplane crash. The record, their debut, turned out to be the only album they would make together. But what an album it is. Among the tracks on this LP are the chart-topping “That’ll […]

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Steve Forbert

Music Reviews: Steve Forbert, Andy Hedges, Dwight + Nicole, a Rockabilly Anthology, and George Usher

Steve Forbert’s 2015 album, Compromised, has recently been remastered and reissued with a new title, a new mix, a new bonus track, and a few musical embellishments. Now called The Things That I See, the set features strong material and complementary backup from a talented quartet that includes NRBQ co-founder Joey Spampinato (bass) and Spampinato’s […]

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Beach Boys-We Gotta Groove

Music Reviews: The Beach Boys’ ‘We Gotta Groove,’ plus The Third Mind’s ‘Spellbinder!’

In 1978, 11 years after psychological problems caused Brian Wilson to begin withdrawing from music-making, the Beach Boys recorded a Mike Love song called “Brian’s Back.”  The track didn’t surface until 1979 (as a single’s B side) and wasn’t widely heard until two decades later, but even if it had been released immediately, the message […]

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Talking Heads

Music Reviews: Talking Heads’ ‘Tentative Decisions,’ plus Mississippi Sheiks, Jesper Lindell, and James Houlahan

Music Reviews: Talking Heads’ Tentative Decisions, plus Mississippi Sheiks, Jesper Lindell, and James Houlahan You can point to obvious antecedents for many new wave and punk bands. In Blondie’s music, for example, you can hear the influence of so-called girl groups from the 1960s. You can also draw a straight line from the Ramones to […]

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This Can't Be Today

Music & Film Reviews: A Paisley Underground Anthology, plus ‘Elvis ’56,’ the Light Crust Doughboys, and Sam Lewis

If you’ve never heard of the Paisley Underground, it’s not surprising. This rock subgenre—which emphasized psychedelia, electric guitar interplay, and vocal harmonies—flourished mostly just in Southern California and only from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. Moreover, it produced just one band—the Bangles—that broke through nationally and achieved substantial commercial success. But you don’t […]

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Jimmie Rodgers

Music Reviews: Jimmie Rodgers’ ‘A Career Anthology,’ plus the Cucumbers

Jimmie Rodgers is often called the Father of Country Music, and for good reason: no one looms larger in the genre’s early years. Also known as the Singing Brakeman because of his employment with railroads, he made records that featured yodeling, vocal gymnastics, and colorful, instantly relatable lyrics. He drew inspiration from multiple genres, including […]

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Rock-a-Ballads

Music Reviews: Early Rock Ballads, plus NRBQ, the New York Second, and Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz

What music comes to mind when you think of rock and roll’s earliest years? For many people, the answer is probably the sort of material that signaled a major break from the overly polished, sanitized pop that previously dominated the charts—manic, upbeat rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” Elvis Presley’s “Hound […]

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Steppin' Out Contents

Music Reviews: ‘Steppin’ Out’ Collects Garage Rock, plus Tom Paxton & John McCutcheon

Garage rock is an amorphous label, embracing virtually anything from the mid-1960s that sounds intense and energetic and isn’t overly polished. The term has been used interchangeably with punk rock and has been applied to surf music, psychedelia, and more. That’s one reason why you’ll find extremely disparate material on the three-CD Steppin’ Out: The […]

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