Few bands, if any, can lay claim to as colourful a history as Fleetwood Mac. Their founding guitarist went off the deep end, another quit to join a cult. Marriages splintered and relationships crumbled. And,…
I think every music fan has a band or two they loved who didn’t quite make it. Maybe their big single didn’t get enough airplay, maybe they had problems with distribution or maybe the band…
Deep in the bowels of my paperback copy of The Penguin Guide to Jazz, there’s a short section on Mezz Mezzrow. At the time my copy was published, only a few recordings of his were…
Relatively speaking, rock criticism is still new. Pitchfork’s been around for less than two decades; Rolling Stone is nearing 50. And most of the first wave of rock critics have either moved on to other…
Back some 40-odd years ago, The Who were the loudest rock band in the biz and one of the best. They were four highly talented musicians, taking some of the most introspective and well-crafted songs…
There isn’t anyone really quite like Patti Smith out there. As a musician, she’s almost without peer: by the sheer power of her ambition and ability, she was one of the few women to rise…
Why read a book of music criticism? It depends. You could be interested in a particular essay or review. Maybe you’re researching a band or period of music. Maybe you’re just a music nerd. But…
Back in the day, I read McSweeneys all the time. Not just the features or short stories, but even the web-only stuff, like their annual column contest. It’s been years since I even visited the…
(Photo Caption: TINARS Director, Marc Glassman, in conversation with Farzana Doctor.) The launch was a great success, filled with soothing vocals, wry stories about the audience’s worst mistakes, and Glassman’s psychoanalysis of Farzana Doctor (Is…
