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 […]
Lucinda Williams’s nearly half-century recording career has always been characterized by literate lyrics and strong musicianship, but just as importantly, by heartfelt sentiments. It still is, though recent events have ostensibly prompted the singer to change the focus of those sentiments. On early standouts like “Passionate Kisses,” “Something About What Happens When We Talk,” and […]
Continue Reading
The career of England’s Orange Bicycle was as commercially unsuccessful as it was brief. Thanks to a mistranslation of the text on a French EP’s cover, the psychedelic pop sextet has often been said to have had a chart-topping single in that country. In fact, Orange Bicycle had no hits, much less chart-toppers, anywhere on […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Fabulous Thunderbirds, plus Lester Young and Anthologies of Rockabilly and Appalachian Music The Jimmie Vaughan Story, a limited-edition five-CD set released in 2021, includes performances from every stage of the Austin, Texas–based blues-rock guitarist and singer’s career. If you missed that compendium or want more, however, you can find it in The Jimmie […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: An Anthology of Beatles Covers, Ward Hayden Interprets Springsteen, and a Record about Records Another Box of Beatles Covers Particularly during the years when the Fab Four dominated the charts, countless artists from a wide variety of genres couldn’t resist jumping on the band’s wagon. The new With a Little Help from My […]
Continue Reading
Music & Video Reviews: Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue Box Set, plus Robert Gordon with Link Wray, and Melissa Carper’s Christmas Album Just a few months shy of a half century after its release, the Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue is back in a “super deluxe” edition that includes four CDs (or five LPs) and […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Boxing Up the Bangles, plus Rock the Plaza and Kim Wilson’s Slow Burn It’s about time we had a box set from the Bangles, whose well-hooked, harmony-laden tunes provided some of the brightest moments on Top 40 radio in the 1980s. Emerging from the West Coast’s Paisley Underground movement, the group featured four […]
Continue Reading
Though Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series began in 1991 and has embraced well over 50 discs, it is only now, with its 18th volume, that it is getting around to the first chapter of its subject’s story. And what a chapter it is. Granted, the period covered by Through the Open Window: The Bootleg Series, Vol. […]
Continue Reading
How on earth did the Beatles progress from songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” in only a little more than three years? The sparks that ignite artistic growth can be enigmatic, but the Fab Four’s Anthology album series, released in the mid-1990s, did help to flesh […]
Continue Reading
Neil Finn’s Crowded House wasn’t the first New Zealand band to make a mark beyond the southern hemisphere. That distinction goes to the experimental art-rock group Split Enz, which Neil’s older brother, Tim, and fellow songwriter Phil Judd formed in 1972. The group, which experienced numerous personnel and stylistic changes over the years, broke up […]
Continue Reading