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Sep 27, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
Almost BlueF-Beat / ColumbiaIn 1981, Elvis Costello released Almost Blue, an album of country music cover versions. In those days, the very early 1980s, LPs were released in three formats: vinyl records, cassette tapes, and eight-track cartridges, the last an audio technology some of you may never have experienced. Well, for that matter, some of you digital natives may never have experienced any of these technologies. At some point, you might have encountered a compact disc.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
The first thing you need to know about Minnie Riperton’s album Perfect Angel, released by Epic Records in 1974, is that Stevie Wonder is all over it. He arranged and coproduced the whole thing, wrote two songs, and played various instruments alongside members of his backing band, Wonderlove.
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Jul 23, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
“Sunday section gave us a mention / Grandma’s freaking out over the attention,” drummer Grant Hart sang on Hüsker Dü’s “Flip Your Wig”. That was in 1985. To listeners who’d been following this indie-rock trio, these lines had a clear autobiographical reference.
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May 2, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
Too Much Too SoonMercuryThe New York Dolls get grouped with glam rockers of the day, such as Alice Cooper; hard rockers, including Aerosmith; and proto-punks, most prominently the Stooges. Like their contemporaries, the Dolls played stripped-down, few-frills rock that influenced the late 1970s punks: Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Clash, and so on.
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Apr 8, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
Keep It Like a SecretUp / Warner Bros. In 1999, the Idaho-based alternative-rock band Built to Spill surprised listeners with their fourth album, Keep It Like a Secret. In those days, from its start in the early 1990s until about 2000, Built to Spill trafficked in the unexpected. The band still exists—or rather, the founder, leader, lead guitarist, lyricist, and singer Doug Martsch carries on as Built to Spill, accompanied by whomever he chooses to play with.
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Mar 11, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
Filles de KilimanjaroColumbiaFrank Zappa, a rock musician who drew from and ventured into other genres, titled a 1991 live album Make a Jazz Noise Here. Zappa was referring to his own music, not to Miles Davis‘, though some of Zappa’s jazz noises on various recordings make clear that he had listened to Davis. Zappa’s resonant phrase could apply to so much of Davis’ post-bop music, including his studio album Filles de Kilimanjaro, recorded in 1968 and released in 1968-1969.
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Feb 28, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
Get Away From MeColumbiaIn 2024, we know what pop is: catchy music made by pop stars, whose biggest names are currently Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. We know what rock is: crunchy music created by rock stars like Metallica and Green Day. What is pop-rock? Like a lot of hybrids, that genre is more challenging to define. In 2024, it may refer to pop music that rocks (for example, Olivia Rodgrigo’s Guts).
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Feb 23, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
Buffy Sainte-Marie, a highly regarded and multiple-award-winning singer-songwriter, has performed various styles of music for the better part of a century: folk, country, pop, rock, experimental, and mixtures of these genres. Sainte-Marie began her recording career with a stunning, still-fresh folk album, It’s My Way!, released by Vanguard Records in January 1964.
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Jan 12, 2024 | 
ir.shareaholic.com | Kurt Wildermuth |Karen Zarker |Sarah Zupko
Public Image: First IssueVirginWhat’s in a name? Contained within the name Public Image Ltd was both the history of rock and roll up to 1978 and a nod in the direction of one possible future. Let’s call this idiosyncratic, highly disputable look backwards and forwards the Gospel, According to PiL. (“PiL” is the group’s acronym, pronounced “pill”.) According to this apocryphal Gospel, the history of rock and roll ended with the demise of punk rock. Yes, its demise.
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Jan 12, 2024 | 
popmatters.com | Kurt Wildermuth
Public Image: First IssueVirginWhat’s in a name? Contained within the name Public Image Ltd was both the history of rock and roll up to 1978 and a nod in the direction of one possible future. Let’s call this idiosyncratic, highly disputable look backwards and forwards the Gospel, According to PiL. (“PiL” is the group’s acronym, pronounced “pill”.) According to this apocryphal Gospel, the history of rock and roll ended with the demise of punk rock. Yes, its demise.
