Al Shipley

United States

Journalist and Producer at Freelance

journalist, critic, drummer, producer, songwriter, teleprompter operator [email protected] / 'alshipley' on bsky https://t.co/S7d3RH6B9E

Articles

Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music

1 week ago | uk.bookshop.org | Promoting Books |Al Shipley

(Author) FORMAT Pre-Order Ships 19 August 2025 Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world In Tough Breaks: The Story of BaltimoreClub Music, music journalist Al Shipley draws from 18 years’ worth ofinterviews with dozens of DJs, producers, vocalists, party hosts, promoters,and the founders of the clubs, labels and record stores that shaped the genre.
Every Pulp Album, Ranked

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Al Shipley

Mark Webber, Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Steve Mackey, Candida Doyle of Pulp in 1998. (Credit: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images)Jarvis Cocker formed Pulp in Sheffield in 1978, and kept the band going for about 15 years before anybody else cared about it. Over the course of Pulp’s early albums for Fire Records, though, Cocker gradually became a charismatic vocalist and a devastatingly intelligent lyricist.
Every Pulp Album, Ranked

1 week ago | aol.com | Al Shipley

Jarvis Cocker formed Pulp in Sheffield in 1978, and kept the band going for about 15 years before anybody else cared about it. Over the course of Pulp’s early albums for Fire Records, though, Cocker gradually became a charismatic vocalist and a devastatingly intelligent lyricist. And piece by piece, he assembled the classic Pulp lineup: drummer Nick Banks, keyboardist Candida Doyle, bassist Steve Mackey, guitarist/violinist Russell Senior, and guitarist Mark Webber.
Every Pulp Album, Ranked

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Al Shipley

2 days agoIf you’re unfamiliar, “Britpop” is a term used in reference to a wave of UK alternative rock bands from the ’90s, the most notable examples being Blur, Suede, Pulp, and Oasis. Just don’t say that to Liam Gallagher. Yesterday (June 15), an X/Twitter user shared a poll, asking others to vote on who is …
Every Fugazi Album, Ranked

2 weeks ago | spin.com | Al Shipley

Fugazi emerged in the late ‘80s from a tightly knit Washington, D.C., punk scene where friendships and collaborative partnerships could be long-lasting, but bands tended to be short-lived. Minor Threat, the revered hardcore band Ian MacKaye had formed as a teenager, was together for just three years. Rites of Spring, Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty’s band that’s now considered a foundational influence on emo, was active for only two years.
Every Alanis Morissette Album, Ranked

2 weeks ago | spin.com | Al Shipley

Alanis Nadine Morissette was born in Ottawa in 1974 and began her career in show business at 12, appearing on a few episodes of the sketch comedy series You Can’t Do That on Television. A year later, she recorded her first demo, and within a few years she’d become a teen pop star in Canada, known simply as Alanis.
Hip-hop trailblazer Dapper Dan Midas sets the stage for queer Baltimore talent

3 weeks ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Al Shipley

When Emmanuel “Dapper Dan Midas” Williams received a call this year asking him to curate a day of music and entertainment at the Harborplace Amphitheater, it was uncharted territory for him. “You’re essentially booking a mini one-day festival, which is something that I’ve never done,” he said, kicking back on a park bench on a recent sunny afternoon in Riverside Park near his home in Federal Hill. “I looked at the festivals that I’ve gone to. I’ve looked at what works.
Every Sparks Album, Ranked

3 weeks ago | spin.com | Al Shipley

Your average cult band might make a handful of great, overlooked albums, split up in frustration, and eventually reunite to play for big festival crowds after the world belatedly begins to appreciate their brilliance. But Sparks, the band founded by Los Angeles brothers Ron and Russell Mael in the early-’70s, has stuck it out for more than five decades without the kind of “commercial” success that usually motivates a band to stay together for half a century.
Every Album by the Who, Ranked

1 month ago | spin.com | Al Shipley

The Who were not the first nor the biggest of the British Invasion bands that captured the imaginations of music lovers on both sides of the Atlantic in the mid-’60s. But they were the loudest of them all, and thanks to guitarist and principal songwriter Pete Townshend, the most conceptually ambitious one as well.
Every Album by the Who, Ranked

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Al Shipley

“The world was my oyster, but when I opened it there was a turd inside… When my wife said, ‘I want half of everything,’ I said, ‘Write me a cheque for 450 grand and you can have half the debt!’” Fish on his three-decade solo careerIf you’re of the opinion that an artist needs to be put through life’s wringer in order to be sufficiently inspired, well, Fish could write a book …