There are all kinds of fun arguments to be had over which band is best or whether one’s taste is critically defensible (*cough*Brian used to listen to Madonna and Gloria Estefan*cough*) and, of course, my favorite – can we separate what we like from our critical faculties (that is, is your “favorite” list different from your “best” list)? But there’s
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 moreMost years are pretty good for music if you know where to look, and 2008 was no exception. It’s a shame that you have to search so hard, of course – once upon a time all you needed to keep track of what was good in the world of music was a radio. These days it requires a little effort,
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 moreHere’s how the blurb at CD Baby puts it: Cinematic ethereal, spaghetti western flavored retro-futuristic music with powerful female vocals. // A sweeping, cinematic, wide-screen journey that combines ethereal sound scapes with surf-tinged guitar. Perfect for those late night rides across the desert with the top down. … Uniquely original retro-futurism. Yeah, that’s fair. But there’s a lot more to
Read moreA couple weeks I go I offered up part one in a series on poetry vs. lyrics, noting from firsthand experience the differences between the two. In brief, I’ve always felt like it was wrong to call rock stars poets – even if their words are fantastic, as they often are, the very nature of bending words to suit a
Read moreReach out and touch me now Aphrodite said You aren’t the only one with armies in your head We’re fond of calling our great rock stars poets. Dylan is a poet. Springsteen is a poet. John Lennon was a poet. Jim Morrison (*gag*) was a poet. And so on. Certainly the first three (have) produced some marvelous words, but as
Read moreLong-time readers know that S&R has always scrupulously avoided money, and we’ve done so for lots of reasons. However, lately some realities have begun asserting themselves. When you have a certain degree of success in this game you reach a point where it starts costing more money, mainly for the bandwidth and security required to handle a growing readership. If
Read moreToday S&R presents a second TunesDay, completely free of charge. The anticipation is finally over: Project Phoenix, the new CD from Fiction 8, is now out. And was it ever worth the wait. S&R readers may know F8 front man Mike Smith without realizing it: he’s a frequent commenter here (and I’ll let him unmask if he so chooses). So
Read moreWelcome back my friends, to the show that never ends. Or maybe it just seems that way. Today’s episode of SVR owes entirely to the mad genius of our friend Mike Smith (he of Fiction 8 infamy), who has way too much spare time on his hands. Said spare time is apparently spent scouring the frontiers of YouTube for videos
Read more2003 was The Year When Everybody Died. The music world alone lost Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Hank Ballard, Howie Epstein, Johnny Paycheck, Barry White, Elliott Smith, Herbie Mann, Robert Palmer, and Bobby Hatfield. But for some of us, the worst blow came when the great Warren Zevon finally lost his battle with cancer on September 7. Fortunately, Warren had
Read moreSome of the best things in life we trip over completely by accident. A few years back a friend of mine invited me to come see his band play a warm-up gig at The Snake Pit in Denver. The headliner was Plexi, a band he was really big on, so it was one of those two bird/one stone deals. Plexi
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lullaby pit 