Blogcritics Author: Josh Hathaway

Interview with Glen Phillips: The Secrets of Secrets Of The New Explorers

Josh Hathaway — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:16:22 EDT

"It's the reason the word is 'play' when you're talking about working with instruments"
It's not a Bolivian polka album, but Secrets Of The New Explorers stands pretty far apart from the records Glen Phillips made with Toad The Wet Sprocket and those he's made as a solo artist. The non-commercial sounds of Abulum, the bare bone songs of Mr. Lemons, and even the pop sounds of Winter Pays For Summer are all pretty far removed...

Music Review: Glen Phillips - Secrets of the New Explorers

Josh Hathaway — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:08:58 EDT

Secrets reveals another side of Phillips' record collection.
I've got a very serious cynical streak that runs through me and that mindset has turned words like "diversity" into code for some of the sillier sides of political correctness. In the past few days I've realized that's not entirely good because diversity can be a powerful tool for perspective, something society, our culture,...

Former Toad The Wet Sprocket Singer Glen Phillips Interview Part 1: "Indie Music Has Never Been Better"

Josh Hathaway — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:08:55 EDT

Part 1 of my interview with Glen Phillips...
Glen Phillips has seen the music world through a prism that has broken down the industry into a vast rainbow of colors of confusion. He helped found Toad The Wet Sprocket at age 14 while still in high school and the band was signed by Columbia Records by the time he was 18. More than a dozen years later, he was a solo artist and was on his own...

John Mellencamp's Life, Death, Love and Freedom To Be Released in HD-Audio July 15

Josh Hathaway — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:56:04 EDT

Mellencamp will be the first to use T-Bone Burnett's new HD-Audio format
Of all the gin joints in the world...It looks like John Mellencamp is going to be among the first to release an album in HD-Audio using a new format developed by producer T-Bone Burnett. Mellencamp's album Life, Death, Love and Freedom will be released by Hear Music (Starbucks) on July 15. Burnett produced the record, in addition to bringing...

Watermelon Slim & The Workers Win Album of the Year at 2008 Blues Music Awards

Josh Hathaway — Fri, 9 May 2008 19:19:55 EDT

Bobby Rush led the way with three awards but it's Watermelon Slim who took home the majors...
Watermelon Slim & The Workers had a much better night at the 2008 Blues Music Awards than they did last year, but Bobby Rush had the biggest night of all when the hardware was handed out in Tunica, MS last night.For the second straight year, Slim & Co. led the field with six nominations. Last year they were shut out, this year they brought...

Former Toad The Wet Sprocket Frontman Glen Phillips Guests On B-Sides Concept Album Program Tonight

Josh Hathaway — Thu, 8 May 2008 17:42:27 EDT

A critical piece of the soundtrack of my life...
I went through a huge Tom Petty phase two years ago and I haven't completely recovered from it. While obsessing over all of those great songs and records, I discovered that he did a book of sorts. It wasn't an autobiography, per se. Instead, he agreed to a series of interviews with Paul Zollo in which the two of them discussed pretty...

Music Review: Mudcrutch

Josh Hathaway — Mon, 5 May 2008 14:16:40 EDT

Mudcrutch isn't likely to resurface, but I won't be sorry if they do.
It makes perfect sense that now would be the time Tom Petty would get the idea to reunite Mudcrutch. The path to this point is easy enough to trace, beginning with his 2006 solo album Highway Companion, a record filled with songs about the passing of time. Characters drift from place to place taking stock of their lives, in some cases looking...

Interview: Peter Karp

Josh Hathaway — Sat, 3 May 2008 17:30:41 EDT

Revisiting Peter Karp's December appearance on the B-Sides Concept Album...
The world is full of paradoxes. You'd think life could never be dull if you have a short attention span. I've found that not to be the case. Short attention spans are only one of my many charming qualities, but it's the one I've been thinking about this morning. It's easy to get excited about something only to cast it aside...

Counting Crows' Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings - A Listening Companion: Interview With Adam Duritz Pt. 2

Josh Hathaway — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:36:23 EDT

Anyone who thought contributing a song to the Shrek 2 soundtrack was a sign of happier times ahead was obviously wrong.
There was a six-year gap between Hard Candy and the newest album from Counting Crows, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings and the band has emerged from the recording hiatus swinging hard enough that the record carries a warning - no, not one of those Tipper Gore-inspired parental advisory warnings. This comes with a warning from lead singer Adam...

Introducing Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings: Interview With Counting Crows' Adam Duritz

Josh Hathaway — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:58:07 EDT

"The Internet is the best thing that has ever happened to music in the history of music."
"The Internet is the best thing that has ever happened to music in the history of music," said Adam Duritz, lead singer of Counting Crows. "It's just not necessarily the best thing that's happened to record companies because they won't look at it the right way." Record companies may not get the Internet, seeing...