Category: Music

Here I go talking about octogenarians again. A couple weeks ago it was 80-year-olds Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon: An Epic Telling of a Sinister Conspiracy). And now, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Keith will officially hit 80 next month). The Rolling Stones just released their 26th U.S. studio…

One-hit wonders. We love them and we hate them. We all have some of these irrepressible songs seared in our brain. But what really is a one-hit wonder? What’s the criteria? Wikipedia defines it as being named as such in “at least two media sources even though the band may have had multiple hits.” Huh?…

Dave Mason. Co-founder of the excellent and unique 1970s band, Traffic. Songwriter of Traffic songs, “Feelin’ Alright” and “Hole in My Shoe,” the former becoming a huge hit for Joe Cocker. Played with a variety of other artists, including, Crosby & Nash, Delaney & Bonnie, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Cass Elliot, and Leon Russell. Notable…

“There something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.” Nothing conjures up the counterculture movement of the mid-to-late 60s better than “For What It’s Worth.” Often believed to be a Vietnam protest song, the song’s lyrics by Stephen Stills were actually prompted by the Sunset Strip curfew riots in November 1966 when Buffalo…

I always check out upcoming concert schedules in cities I’m about to visit. Usually, a cool concert doesn’t line up with my vacation plans. You can imagine my joy when I saw that Future Islands were going to be in Paris during the time of my trip. So, in addition to the Eiffel Tower, the…

Time for some new music. As usual for these posts, the new songs are a mixture of old bands, new bands, bands I’m familiar with, and bands I’ve never heard of. Punk rock, shoegaze, synths, hard electric rock, and melodic acoustic rock are all represented. Let’s get started… – “Scapa Flow” by Drop Nineteens: Have…

A Million Miles Away paints the rich tapestry of the life of Peter Case. Street musician. Punk rocker. One-hit wonder. Singer-songwriter. Folk troubadour. The film makes clear that the Plimsouls, and their signature song, “A Million Miles Away,” are not representative of Case’s 50-year career. At heart, he’s always been a tireless writer who tells…

“Better late than never.” Most of us have had this situation when it comes to concerts. I finally saw a lot of bands years (decades) after their heyday: Joe Jackson, Elton John, Van Halen, Rush, Aerosmith, and the two biggies, David Bowie (2004) and Rolling Stones (2005). Time to add another to the list, Neil…

Tom Petty once said that two minutes is all the time a good writer needs for a song. Punk rock embodied this spirit. The two-minute surge of stripped-down energy became the punk rock credo and an in-your face rebuttal to classic rock. A lasting musical expression can be made in short order, but don’t you…