X “4th Of July” (1987)
A perfect 4th of July song called 4th of July, by underrated L.A. punk band X, the simplest group ever to alphabetize in your record collection... Read More
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers “The Last DJ” (2002)
Something incredible happens when you tune in Sirius Radio channel 31. Supernatural, even. Tom Petty is still alive. Still there nonchalantly talking about music – his own, and that of multitudes of other artists. Still rambling from topic to topic in an excited but unhurried drawl. Still irreverent, a bit... Read More
J. Geils Band “(Ain’t Nothin’ But A) House Party” (1973)
Not that long ago the rock world lost a great, a guy whose name everyone knows, but I’m not sure whether everyone knows he was that name. Huh? John Warren Geils Jr., better known professionally as J. Geils, was, of course, the namesake for the long-time blues/rock powerhouse, the J. Geils Band, the group he...... Read More
Guster “Do You Love Me” (2010)
It was about 11:00PM on a warm, late-summer night last August at Thompson’s Point in Portland, Maine, the smell of salt air and spilled IPAs still present, as the starlit sky guided a muddy path for an eclectic group of giddy patrons departing the just-concluded concert by the band Guster. I was meandering slowly with...... Read More
Dan Baird & Homemade Sin “Licka Sense” (2017)
Dan Baird is everything I love about rock and roll. “Three chords and a cloud of dust,” as his website proclaims. Including his stint as a solo artist, he’s occupied the lead spot in four of my favorite bands of the last 4 decades. If you wanted to package up his work in a time...... Read More
The Knickerbockers “Lies” (1965)
I guess the biggest of the “lies” here was that this delightful, melodic and catchy little song was not actually recorded by 4 mop-topped Beatles in Liverpool, England – as one might quite naturally assume – but by a garage band named The Knickerbockers led by a couple of brothers from Bergenfield, New Jersey. Apocryphal...... Read More
Still with Weezer, none the wiser
These are very confusing times to be a Weezer fan... Read More
The Kinks “Better Things” (1981)
It seems to me the turning of the annual calendar means not only the onset of a new year but the inherent wish, whether recent times have been good or bad, for things to get better. And on that theme there are many good songs from which to choose, but some are just, well, better...... Read More
Starbuck “Moonlight Feels Right” (1976)
The making of a good song requires all kinds of choices, with lyrics, with instrumentation, with production, and more. The solo break generally presents fewer options, guitar, of course, filling the vast majority, with piano or saxophone likely being next in line. Some notable exceptions, though, do exist. Midway through ‘Pictures Of Lily,’ one of...... Read More
Hozier “Nina Cried Power” (2018)
“It’s not the waking, it’s the rising” With that softly delivered line, Hozier begins one of the hardest-hitting songs I’ve heard in a very long time. “It’s a song about protest songs,” he says, “It’s a thank you note to the spirit of protest.” Hozier vaulted from obscurity to international acclaim with the roof-raising, anthemic...... Read More