If there’s a rock and roll heaven, you know they’ve got a hell of a band. – Alan O’Day and Johnny Stevenson British neo-soul superstar Amy Winehouse joined The 27 Club yesterday. If you haven’t heard of this select group, the term refers to all the musicians who have died at the age of 27. It’s a pretty famous crowd.
Read moreAmy Winehouse is dead at 27. Sadly, it was only a matter of time, and my friends, who have heard me crack wise time and time again about whether she would live to record another CD, knew that I wasn’t really joking. Goodbye, Amy. We hate how it went down, but we celebrate your music.
Read moreThe results of last week’s Name Those Bands contest are in. In first place we have … a disqualification, sorta. Our friend Ubertramp logged in with an impressive 47 of 53. Seriously, that’s pretty damned good. But he has disqualified himself because I’m the one who turned him onto most of these outstanding artists and he felt like he might
Read moreOur Best CDs of 2008 continues today with a review of the super-premium Platinum Award winners for Excellence in rocking and rolling. As with last week’s Gold Awards, these are in alphabetical order. Band Web sites link to the band name, and if the CD is available via eMusic, that links to the CD title. (Mike Smith of Fiction 8,
Read moreA guy on one of my music lists posted a question this morning: what’s everybody digging from eMusic these days? Wow – it’s like he knew it was TunesDay and wanted to set me up for another round of S&Recommends, huh? Well, I don’t need a lot of prodding, so here you go. I’ve mentioned a couple of these before,
Read moreThere is nothing new under the sun, or so they say. I’m not a big fan of groups that slavishly imitate their influences, but I do love bands with a sense of history and a desire to explore older styles in search of new angles. This obviously establishes a tricky standard – be true to the masters, but not …
Read moreWelcome back to part two of our annual music wrap-up. Today we award the Platinum LPs, given for superior achievement. (If you missed part one, click here to review the Gold LP winners, updated to include three inadvertent omissions.) These appear in no particular order. Platinum LP The Birthday Massacre: Walking with Strangers Toronto’s The Birthday Massacre is a study
Read moreWe’re nearing the end of the year, which means it’s time to start thinking about my best of 2007 music review. So today on SVR I thought we’d look at three of the female artists who made 2007 such a great year in music. Up first, one of our candidates for CD of the year, the remarkable Amy Winehouse.
Read moreThe mid-1970s were a wonderful time for music lovers. For starters, exciting and innovative new music was popping up all over the place. And when it did, it actually got played on the radio. The UK was especially fertile ground during this period, as scores of punk and New Wave acts emerged (many from the “pub rock” scene) in the
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lullaby pit 