By Matt Meade No matter how good your year was it was nowhere as good as Bob Christgau’s who must have been a good little rock and roll critic because on December 3rd, he received an early Christmas present. You see, 2015 was the year the rock and roll world finally lost Scott Weiland to […]
Read more "In 2015 Robert Christgau Finally Got What He Wanted"“A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at […]
Read more "Yeah, But Do You Know What That Song Is Actually About #2 – “Turtles All the Way Down”"By Matt Meade So, we have been doing this Old School Record Review thing for a year now. We’ve learned a lot about the music industry and what is happening out there. We have talked to a bunch of really, really, ridiculously talented people making superlatively great and exciting music. We have learned some strange […]
Read more "The Greatest Music Purchases I Have Ever Made (And a Year in Review at The Old School Record Review)"by Noah Kucij I’m not talking about some golden age when one box was enough, one big ass cherry cabinet, brass knobs, glass, transistors, wires, tubes, the whole brood gathered. When one box wasn’t enough, one big ass cherry bomb went off in the middle of culture. Strings, transistors – brooders gathered over the […]
Read more "Radio Pantoum"This week Miley Cyrus did something, so I have to have an opinion about it. She has recently posted a cover version of the famous Zeppelin version of the song “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You.” It sounds like a great idea. It sounds like an opportunity for a star who has a lot of attention, […]
Read more "Miley Cyrus, I’m Gonna Leave You"Check out the Mineral Girls’ video for “Sebastopol,” from their latest release something forever. The North Carolinians invest enough weirdness and charm into their video to make you always wonder what is coming next. Whether it’s ghosts in the witness protection program or eating spaghetti sandwiches, there is always some other bizarre antic around each corner. […]
Read more "New Video: Mineral Girls – “Sebastopol”"by Sarah Gray My younger sister is into music. She runs the festival circuit, occasionally finds herself part of a band, has composed the odd song or two. To a large extent, I rely on her to introduce me to new music. An embarrassing percentage of the music on my iPod is from my sister. […]
Read more "Sisterhood of the Traveling Playlist"by Sarah Gray I work out what might be qualified as an “obsessive” amount, or so I’ve been told. I maintain those people are not, in fact, working out nearly enough. Music is an essential part of maintaining your motivation throughout a long workout. Of course you are tired after work, everyone is tired after […]
Read more "Run Like You Stole It – 10 Songs For A Kick Ass Run List"Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band by Dave Keneston Ever wondered what would have happened if Paul Bunyan was abandoned at birth and adopted by Son House? What if he was raised on Charlie Patton and Bukka White records? Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band brings that fantasy to fruition and features the larger than life voice […]
Read more "Lumberjack Blues"Chronicles of a Rush Fan by Noah Kucij My older brother introduced me to Rush around 1988. A good big brother is a careful arbiter of musical taste, so the first thing he played for me was side two of the second cassette (it was all cassettes all the time back then), 1975’s Fly By Night. […]
Read more "Bristle with the Energy"by Matt Meade This Thursday, April 10th, several bands and artists will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Included among the inductees is Gene Simmons’ band KISS. To hear him talk, the induction is long overdue. Much like how Simmons decided to exclude original band members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley […]
Read more "Gene Simmons Makes Compelling Case for Segregating Rock and Roll HOF"by Noah Kucij You could index the thickness of influence in tape’s grey grizzly hiss – was it a clean copy, a Maxell swiped from Rite-Aid, unwrapped and christened, blue ballpoint a line at a time, still crisp handed over the table at lunch, or was it your brother’s old Beasties, the casing opaque, magic […]
Read more "Ode to Cassettes"“One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show” Music has long been the medium through which mainstream Americans are most likely to become aware of, and then adopt, clever idioms used by those on the margins of society. A teenage Lil’ Wayne raps about his dental prosthesis circa 1998 and ten years later, it is national news […]
Read more "Yeah, But Do You Know What That Song Is Actually About? #1"by Matt Meade I have good news for Bobby Gillespie. The Primal Scream frontman is the latest aging rock and roller in a long line of aging rock and rollers to declare that rock is dead. Speaking with BBC Arts & Culture he said, “Where’s the anger and rage and confrontation in pop music? It’s […]
Read more "The Only Person Who Can Save Rock and Roll…"Old School Record Review grew out of a nearly two decade long conversation about pop music had by a group of friends, who now live all across the world. This blog is meant to be a vehicle for continuing and for cataloging that sometimes silly, sometimes contentious, sometimes revelatory conversation. The form that this conversation […]
Read more "Welcome to the Old School Record Review Blog"
OLD SCHOOL RECORD REVIEW 