by Dave Keneston It’s hard to imagine that the Allman Brothers Band may be coming to end after 2014. With the announcement of the departure of Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes, the future is uncertain at best. After 45 years of brotherhood and family, it’s only right to give respect and due acknowledgment to the […]
Read more "Top Ten Favorite “Duane Era” Allman Brothers Band Songs (Part Two of Two)"by Dave Keneston The Allman Brothers Band has undergone many incarnations throughout its 45 year history, but the most famous and influential era has to be the original lineup of Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Jai Johanny Johanson (Jaimoe) and Butch Trucks. From early 1969 to Duane’s tragic death on October 29, […]
Read more "Top Ten Favorite “Duane Era” Allman Brothers Band Songs (Part One of Two)"“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita…” Introduction: I’m 36 at the time of this writing, just about the same age as Dante Alighieri – “halfway along our life’s path” – when he himself descended into the Hell, noble Virgil (and occasionally Beatrice) at his side. Dante, I should mention, was not received into Hell as are most: […]
Read more "Top 10 Albums You Can Take Straight to Hell: 1 of 10"by Noah Kucij I know Lucinda Williams reminds you of your mom. And that’s fair enough: her breakthrough album, for which she won her first Grammy (the fanny pack of accolades), came out when she was 45. But because her CDs came standard in turn-of-the-century Subaru Outbacks, you may have missed what she’s been […]
Read more "Top Five Lucinda Williams Songs"Dear Kate, I have to come clean: I’m a phony. A poseur. I mean, am I really adding anything novel to the now sizable discourse on your work by naming Hounds of Love as your number one album of all time? Who doesn’t already think this? The truth is, my whole raison d’etre is to be […]
Read more "The Top 3 Kate Bush Albums of All Time: A Love Letter (3 of 3)"You’re probably like me: you started reading Ulysses because some college professor in a tweed jacket (or a fellow student with an immaculate set of breasts) told you to. You felt smart when you began, folding yourself into a corner somewhere with a well-worn copy, feeling as though you were about to embark on some life-changing journey through […]
Read more "The Top 3 Kate Bush Albums of All Time: A Love Letter (2 of 3)"Maybe there is no point to this list. There’s no conflict here. There was never a time that I didn’t love Kate Bush. No hard won battle to overcome her progressive rock-opera proclivities. Never at odds with her vocal ascendancy over at least five octaves, occupying spaces that were ghoulish, languid, sexual, motherly. No personal affront […]
Read more "The Top 3 Kate Bush Albums of All Time: A Love Letter (1 of 3)"by Josh Kohan The ground is muddy, the sky is gray, but the tunes keep cranking, albeit crankily, out of my portable Altec speaker (circa 2006) as I enjoy a mug of hot coffee and crispy bacon on a lazy, Sunday morning. Usually, it is Bluegrass Sundays for me (especially during the cold winters); […]
Read more "The Best Albums of 2014 (So Far)"The 2000s are a downer. I want to be more positive about them as I was tail-ending my teen years in the early 2000s, but Emo ruined everything. You get to the 2000s and it is just all eyeliner and whimpering, so I’ve done the best I could here under the circumstances. 1 – Simple […]
Read more "Sticking it to the Man – Six Decades of Teen Angst (The 2000s)"Bach: The Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould (1955) Let’s be honest: this list is really more about me than you. I call it a ‘list for the dying’ because these songs, these artists, these albums lift me aloft to something akin to the Shakesperean or Donne-esque, metaphysical death: la petite mort, if you will. You know: the […]
Read more "5 Records I Recommend to the Dying (PART 5 OF 5)"by Sarah Gray Since I, myself, was quite the angsty teen in the 90s, I will be giving you two (!) bonus songs for this decade. These songs are near and dear to my heart. I was such an angsty teen it has barely worn off. I still throw my clothes on the floor, do […]
Read more "Sticking it to the Man – Six Decades of Teen Angst (The 90s)"By Sarah Gray The 1980s has some of the best abjectly angsty teen songs available with the rise of the punk rock movement. Not unlike the 90s, which we’ll get to shortly, there is nothing really to be so worked up about, but they’re pretty worked up anyway. Teens of the 1980s: I have a […]
Read more "Sticking it to the Man – Six Decades of Teen Angst (The 80s)"Dear Reader, Believe me, I don’t feel the need to justify myself to you. In regards to the Western musical canon, I’m supremely confident that I know more than you do. In the event of those rare topics of which I am not properly versed, a subtle blend of WikiPedia and my superb writing talent […]
Read more "5 Records I Recommend to the Dying (PART 4 OF 5)"by Sarah Gray It is in the 1970s that teen angst music really becomes angsty. Its focus shifts to flouting conformity and the American dream for the first time. Punk rock, which would really take off in the 80s, takes its first baby steps in the 70s. Teen angst music starts taking a broader look […]
Read more "Sticking it to the Man – Six Decades of Teen Angst (The 70s)"by Sarah Gray What rock and roll began in the 50s really started coming to fruition as a cultural movement in the 1960s. Music played an important role in the countercultural movement, which divided strongly along generational lines. The teen angst songs of the 60s lean toward the highly political, with the Vietnam War and […]
Read more "Sticking it to the Man – Six Decades of Teen Angst (The 60s)"
OLD SCHOOL RECORD REVIEW 