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Category: Music

  • Ten Guitar Solos That Will Live Forever

    The time has come. The guitar solo. The definitive statement in rock and roll that has inspired countless wannabes, video games, and air guitar poses. Guitar solos can be subtle and delicate or loud and raging. How can you compare and rank “Comfortably Numb” and “Green Grass and High Tides?” I don’t have one all-time…

  • Personality Crisis: A Fitting Title for the David Johansen Documentary

    Showtime does it again. Another captivating rockumentary by the network that has recently brought us the stories of Sinead O’Connor, Sheryl Crow, the Go-Go’s, the early aughts NYC scene, and New Order. It’s an imaginative film apropos for its subject, the musical iconoclast David Johansen. The inventiveness of the approach has much to do with…

  • Record Store Day 2023: Vinyl Keeps on Surging

    Happy Record Store Day! One of my favorite days of the year. And it just keeps getting bigger. Thank you Taylor Swift fans! What started in 2007 as a rather low-key affair, Record Store Day (RSD) has become a community highlight around the country centered around the local record store. Record Store Day brings together…

  • 10 Albums of 1983 That Still Stand Out

    We had fun last year reviewing the best of 1982, so let’s hark back to 1983. Toto wins the Grammy for Best Album. Michael Jackson’s Thriller hits the charts at #1 and the trailblazing video airs on MTV. The second US Festival takes place in Southern California. David Crosby is sentenced in Texas to five…

  • Music Alert: Eight Cool New Songs to Listen To

    I’ve come across a sampling of new songs for you to hear and possibly explore the album and/or the band. As usual they’re a hodgepodge of new bands, new bands to me, a band I was a little familiar with, and lastly, a veteran artist that has 13 albums in my collection. “Billie Toppy” by…

  • Concept Albums: An Enduring Symbol of Rock and Roll

    Concept Album: “An album whose tracks hold a larger purpose of meaning collectively than they do individually, typically achieved through a central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical.” In this age of singles and streaming, the thought of listening to a 40-minute album straight through does not register to younger people.…

  • Tom Verlaine: Remembering the Innovative Guitarist, Singer, and Songwriter

    (Full disclosure: this post was not composed by ChatGPT.) Tom Verlaine, front man in the band Television, passed away at 73 years old on January 28th after a short illness. He was born in New Jersey in 1949 as Thomas Miller. Inspired by the Rolling Stones, specifically “19th Nervous Breakdown,” he picked up a guitar…

  • The Wailing Souls in Concert: Roots Reggae Lives On

    I like reggae. It really hits the spot sometimes, especially outside on hot summer days. It does tend to sound the same, however, so I can’t listen to it all the time. But it’s repetitive by design. The staccato chords of the guitar (or piano) playing on the offbeat of the dominant rhythm section. It’s…

  • A Potpourri of New Music to Start Off 2023

    Once again with my new music posts, these are a mix of bands that have been around awhile and those that are just getting started. They all have new music out recently. I just previewed a song or two from each, but first impressions were positive enough for me to recommend exploring them more. The…

  • Meet Me in the Bathroom Review: The NY Rock Scene of the Early Aughts

    Meet Me in the Bathroom is a documentary film directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, based upon the book of the same name by Lizzy Goodman, and the name of a Strokes song from their 2003 album, Room on Fire. So, it’s no surprise that The Strokes are the headliner of this ode to…

  • Like a Rolling Stone: Jann Wenner’s Duly Titled Autobiography

    It’s almost cheesy, but he had to do it. It’s the only possible title for the autobiography of Jann Wenner; founder of Rolling Stone magazine. The man who voiced a generation and stole his magazine’s name from Dylan and Jagger. Like A Rolling Stone is a personal history of the magazine and his life. The…

  • Ten Bass Players That Made the Rest of the Band Sound Better

    I don’t play bass guitar, or any type of guitar for that matter. So, who am I to proclaim the greatest bass players of all time? That’s why I decided to make this more of a “my favorites” list. As a non-player, I tend to miss some of the subtle background technique while recognizing the…