John Ford launched his career as a feature director with a string of more than 20 wildly successful westerns starring cowboy actor Harry Carey, who often played an iconic character type known as “the good bad man”. Only a handful… Read More
10. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy [Blanco y Negro, 1985] Whilst not a “shoegaze” record by any strict definition of the term, Psychocandy is as important as any of them for ushering in what could be done with pop… Read More
There are two kinds of “Fred Heads” (dedicated Fred Eaglesmith fans). Some relish his songwriting skills. His ability to evoke life on the farm and the pleasures of being on the rural route have been celebrated by notable artists such… Read More
The ‘people’s history’ approach to thinking about and interpreting the past has gained momentum over the last few decades. From Howard Zinn’s indispensable A People’s History of the United States in 1980 to the ReVisioning History series from Beacon Press… Read More
Why shouldn’t jazz and metal find a common cause? A good slice of both genres thrive and precision, complexity, and instrumental prowess. The composer (and sometime saxophonist) John Zorn put them together in bands Naked City and Pain Killer a… Read More
In 1977, Randy Newman had the biggest hit song of his career, “Short People”, which somewhat incredibly made it to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It attracted a fair amount of controversy by people who didn’t realize that… Read More
Ron Miles’ last album, 2017’s I Am a Man was elite. It brought together a striking band—his triomates Bill Frisell on guitar and drummer Brian Blade, along with Frisell’s bassist Thomas Morgan and the always-interesting pianist Jason Moran. The Miles… Read More
In the year 2016, battle lines were drawn. I’m not just referring to on-screen, where heroes fought other heroes in Captain America: Civil War (Russo Brothers, 2016) and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Snyder, 2016), but also off-screen amongst… Read More
Steve Wynn has the patience of a saint. When he formed the Dream Syndicate in 1981, he was up against it, as all the hip critics were falling over themselves to tell the world how little they cared about guitar-based… Read More
At age 13, I encountered my first bootleg: a murky cassette of a Nirvana performance from 1988, seemingly recorded from a toilet stall in the building next door. Over the years, I’ve counted myself fortunate to have had this early… Read More