A Completely Unsolicited Suggestion For Musicians
Overheard at the band meeting: “Shit! We paid that publicist thousands of dollars to send our album to critics and bloggers, but nobody wrote about us. How come?”
Well, maybe...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Clapping For The Wolfman
My first record player was a hand-me-down 1960s Mickey Mouse one — in a white plastic shell case. I used this from the time I was four years old...
Area Resident’s Classic Album Review: Mott The Hoople | Mad Shadows
More and more I’m discovering that the pre-All The Young Dudes era of Mott The Hoople was their best. Beyond special. This was the period from their inception in...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Free Samples!
I guess it would have been Walk This Way by Run-DMC. That's probably the earliest example of a song which uses a sample from another song as its basis....
Thunder Pie | Two Blinking Specks Over Town Last Night
“Out there the world is immense and sudden.”
— Jason Molina.
Every day now, I seem to fall more and more away from feeling like I’m going to understand. It is...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | My Musical Fantasy? Tickling Mrs. Mills
I am not interested in meeting any more of my musical heroes. I've had the pleasure a few times, and it's usually an awkward experience. What can you tell...
Back Stories: My 2009 Interview With John Mayall
RIP John Mayall. The British blues-rock pioneer reportedly died Monday, July 22 at age 90. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Rock ’n’ Roll Names: The Micks Tape
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always thought the coolest rock ’n’ roll name was Mick. I didn’t personally know anyone with that as a first name until...
20 Questions With Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus
When we last heard from Jim Patton and Sherry Brokus around these parts, they were looking for trouble in the mean streets of Harbortowne on the title track of...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Where’s The 1?
I have had to learn all about anacruses. An anacrusis is a short musical sequence — maybe even just a single note — which creates a rhythmic illusion in...
Thunder Pie | Dancing In The Dark
I was 12 years old in the Philly suburbs when Bruce Springsteen dropped Dancing In The Dark. It was the first single from his upcoming album Born In The...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | The Mercury Rev Conundrum
Slowly but surely, I'm replacing my old CD collection with vinyl. I started collecting records when I was seven years old. I never stopped, and still have all my...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel: What If They’d Stayed Together?
There are plenty of musical hotspots in this world — Seattle, Atlanta, Toronto, Montreal, New York, London, Nashville, Memphis, Berlin, Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston...
Thunder Pie | Everybody Wants to Rule the World
“There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do I'll be right behind you
So glad we've almost made it
So sad...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Rock ’n’ Roll Air Tragedies
Feb. 3, 1959 has been dubbed The Day The Music Died ever since Don McLean released the insipid American Pie in the fall of 1971. The song references the...
