Archive

New York musician’s orchestral showpiece Sky Record by Dan English One thing I really like about contemporary indie artists is their use of traditional orchestra instruments in their music. You hear it on their DIY recordings and see it in their Tiny Desk Concerts. This certainly applies to Dan English, not necessarily new to the […]

The singer-songwriter’s passion project Man to You by Rob de Boer In early 2022, Rob de Boer was unsure where he next wanted to take his music. The Irish musician released his first EP, Early Light, in February 2021, but covid lockdown had kept him from touring and promoting the record. A friend suggested he […]

Rose Main Reading Room, the band’s fourth album, is one of 2024’s best releases In 2020, Peel Dream Magazine was another Shoegaze band in New York. They released their second album, Agitprop Alterna in April of that year, just as Covid was kicking in. With lockdown in place, the band’s leader and main songwriter, Joe […]

The songwriter wrote hit songs and made a splendid solo album several years before his global success in 10cc. Fifty years ago, Graham Gouldman co-wrote the worldwide hit “I’m Not in Love.” The song, penned with fellow 10cc member Eric Stewart, sold over three million copies in 1975. It is still heard today, and it’s […]

Indie rock veteran’s bag of goodies Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dennis Davison has been at this a while. He formed his first punk band in Baltimore in 1977, at age 17. Then he moved out to Los Angeles in the mid-eighties and spent twenty-five years fronting The Jigsaw Seen. The indie band released nine albums with […]

The Byrds’ masterpiece Producing a list of top 10 favorite albums is much easier than making a list of favorite songs. Every attempt I have made has failed. There are just too many to narrow it down to ten or even twenty. One that always makes the list is the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High.” I’m […]

Brazilian singer-songwriter Rogê’s nostalgic journey The 40-something artist is performing his music with a look of satisfaction. Brazilian musician Rogê sits cross-legged on a stool, wearing a white suit jacket, sneakers, and a pork-pie hat, strumming and finger-picking an acoustic guitar. To his right is multi-instrumentalist Stéphane San Juan, tapping or brushing a drum kit, […]

The songwriter’s tragic death closed the door on his band and the quest for the next chapter in his life Bands don’t always end this way. The group’s singer and songwriter dies of an overdose at age 34 and band members scrape together enough money to self-release their last songs as a tribute album. Glide, […]

The group had the makings of a perfect album trilogy if the last one hadn’t fallen short In 1997, R.E.M.’s drummer Bill Berry announced he was leaving the band to retire to his farm in Watkinsville, Georgia. He had been one of the founding members and had been instrumental in R.E.M.’s growth from college radio […]

The Short But Influential Career of a Funk Pioneer  Did Arlester “Dyke” Christian invent funk? He certainly didn’t invent the sound. That has to be credited to James Brown and explosive songs like “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” Dyke gave the genre its name, and with his Phoenix-based band the Blazers, he recorded several […]

A L.A. band with a larger following in the UK than their home country One ongoing feature in music literature is the “greatest albums” lists. Most are found online, but the Brits still publish several trades like Uncut and Mojo, and they issue their own version of these “lists” every few years or so. Rolling […]

The passing of a French icon Françoise Hardy died on June 11, 2024, age eighty. Hardy was an actress and a singer-songwriter, releasing over thirty albums since her debut in 1962. She was more a recording artist than a performance artist, struggling most of her life with stage fright, anxiety and shyness. Her albums run […]

From skateboarding legend to modern day troubadour In the skateboarding world, Danny Garcia is famous. He grew up in Orange County, California, and he began skating at age 14, eventually turning pro. There were sponsorships, appearances in skateboarding films, and his skills took him all over the world. Habitat even marketed his shoe. Garcia was […]

A one-off project rejuvenates the music for two British musicians One of my favorite musical periods is the post-punk/New Wave records of the early eighties. When it was happening, I found it to be incredibly exciting. Partly, it was my age—I turned eighteen in 1980—but it was the spark, and especially the attitude in the […]

A musical family’s love and determination produces a powerful record In 1987, Karin met Robert in Heidelberg, Germany. She was a psychology student and he played in the Australian band The Go-Betweens. Karin had seen The Go-Betweens at a show a year earlier, and while attending another performance, Karin and her friend Erhard stumbled on […]

The film composer’s return to Korea completes the storyboard for a gorgeous recording Hometown to Come is the second solo project by Minhwi Lee, not including soundtracks and music for theater productions. The album came together over a seven-year period and her return home to Korea after studying abroad for five years. Apple Music categorizes […]

The Sweeter Side of Philadelphia Soul In 1974, the vocal group Blue Magic released the single “Sideshow.” A summer hit that year, it went to #1 R&B and reached #8 on the pop charts. The elegant arrangement could have easily been mistaken for a new song by The Stylistics: falsetto lead, lush strings, muted brass, […]

A wonderful album made in a Dallas rehearsal space launched separate solo careers for two musically driven siblings On the Dallas Famous podcast in May 2023, singer-songwriter Salim Nourallah recalls a story of his mother finding a declaration he wrote when he was young. It stated that he would become a musician and a producer […]

After two albums of guitar distortion and atmospheric sounds, a stunning folk-inspired alternative It began with a trip to Italy in 2000. Toledo, Ohio based singer-songwriter Jessica Bailiff was already an established recording artist who had released two albums filled with guitar noise and hazy backwards recordings. A friend there introduced her to something new. […]

Beauty and conviction from one of Brazil’s most important artists During a 2014 tour, Joan Baez performed five shows in Brazil. At the March 23rd date in São Paulo, she sang “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores” to an appreciative crowd. The song, also known as “Caminhando,” took on the presence of an […]

Nilsson’s first RCA album wasn’t a hit, but it showed a versatility that impressed a well-known band from across the pond In May 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a press conference in New York to announce the formation of Apple Corps. During the Q&A, a journalist asked the new businessmen to name their […]

A grand album by an off the radar singer-songwriter with a keen gift for melody and a taste for melancholy John Cunningham takes long gaps between his album releases. And, with each new record, the production is more textured and more elaborate. Happy-Go-Unlucky (2002) is number four, not counting a debut EP, and for this […]

The Kinks, one of the big three of the early British Invasion, were virtually non-existent on the American singles charts in the late sixties. One rogue music journalist saw to it that the band’s British singles and unreleased gems were made available for hard-core fans One of the greatest joys in my personal music discovery […]

An Unearthed DIY Classic Finally Gets A Proper Release An album like this couldn’t have been made in 1994. Strumming acoustic guitar and angel-like vocals. Minor keys, eerie piano, violin and cello. This isn’t the sound of a grunge band. And it’s DIY, recorded in a house in Livonia, Michigan, when big labels still ruled […]

The Memphis megastar’s second release on Hi Records found its groove in the singers’ early influences. Al Green’s hits from the early 1970s are some of the most luscious recordings ever put on wax. “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Call Me (Come Back Home)” “I’m Still in Love with You,” these songs define […]

Of all the blues singers, John Lee Hooker may have been the most productive. A glance at singles and LPs released under his name from 1948 to the posthumous 2003 release Face to Face, reveals one hulking discography of music. This includes studio recordings and live albums, along with all the packaged and repackaged compilations […]

A celebrated album by Brazil’s greatest singer and greatest composer turns fifty in 2024, but many American fans of Antônio Carlos Jobim had to wait until the compact disc era to hear one of the artist’s finest records. In 2001, a group of two-hundred Brazilian musicians, artists and journalists were asked to vote on Brazil’s […]

Burt Bacharach is playing the piano as the well-known arrangement for the second half of “A House Is Not A Home” erupts on the stage at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills in December 2019. The maestro stands to conduct the mini orchestra, just as he always had, going back to his early days when […]

The Bath singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist outdoes himself on his recent release Orchestral pop is hit-and-miss. Done poorly, it can ruin a well-written collection of songs. In just a few short years, Alex Pester has learned how to do it remarkably well. Better Days is a majestic achievement. Pester wrote, arranged, produced and mixed the album […]

New England musician takes the reins on convincing second album In 2014, Lys Guillorn contributed the song “Turn the Page” to a local art project. The exhibit featured an old photo album found in a second-hand store in Paris, France, and Guillorn wrote a narrative creating a life from evocative photos of an unknown man. […]

Pond’s frontman bids adieu in outlandish fashion To publicize the Goldcard album, musician/songwriter Charlie Campbell devised an offbeat approach. He sat inside a large box in a Portland record store for several hours while the album played endlessly over the sound system. Fans could talk to him through a slot in the box or slip […]

A bedroom recording with a lonely heart Ryland Bouchard has been releasing quirky music since launching Swim Slowly Records in 2001. He started The Robot Ate Me as an outlet for his own experimental tendencies. True to the moniker, his debut album, They Ate Themselves, has an electronic base with additional sounds provided by the […]

A lost treasure, for now When New York-based On!Air!Library! called it quits in 2005, twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra (Alley) Deheza split off into separate projects. Alley launched School of Seven Bells with Benjamin Curtis, and Claudia connected with Scott Herren, aka Prefuse 73. Initially, both couples were romantic partners as well as musical partners. […]