Tag Archives: Alternative Rock

I’m not sure where I’ve been for the last eight years regarding the group Spain, but until now I plead abject ignorance. For three intensely quiet, calm-on-the-surface but boiling underneath albums for Restless Records between 1995-2001, L.A.’s Spain was the band outlet of bassist/singer-songwriter Josh Haden, son of jazz bass …

I like Taking Back Sunday quite a bit – great screaming melodic punky emo – in a good way. They are on tour with Saves the Day! through November and have some very cool news for fans: Taking Back Sunday and Nokia have teamed up to provide fans direct contact …

Daniel Miller is the most influential figure in the history of technopop. As artist (The Normal, Silicon Teens), founder and owner of Mute Records (and sublabels Blast First, NovaMute, The Grey Area), and producer (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Fad Gadget), Miller has had a hand in many of the genre’s finest …

Two of the best modern rock albums of the ’90s were released in ’91 – what do they have in common? Almost everything. Lloyd Cole is a Scottish modern rock singer/songwriter in the manner of Robyn Hitchcock or John Wesley Harding who has not been appropriately appreciated in the U.S. …

Are you throwing a Halloween Party? Do you want something cool for the ghouls who will be in attendence? The best collection of spooky modern rock songs that any DJ worth his dead ass can have, should include the following songs with which to rock the dead, (and paralyze the …

Just in time for Halloween – the sound of synthesized putrefaction, metaphorically speaking anyway. What is the most successful technopop song of all time? Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” from their ’81 Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret album. Originally an obscure soul single from the ’60s by Gloria Jones, Soft Cell’s version finds …

The confluence of Simon and Garfunkel galavanting anew throughout the land and the SACD release of classic Dylan albums led me to think about one of the most unusual and amazing figures in recent recording history. Do you know this man? He was president of the Young Republican Club and …

I have been robbed – something precious has been stolen from me, the music of Jeff Buckley, the virtuoso, singer/songwriter son of the late folk singer Tim Buckley. Jeff Buckley, born November 17, 1966, was on the verge of mass popularity, when he died tragically at the tender age of …

Our favorite blogger-law professor-record producer-space afficionado-dude Glenn Reynolds has a very heartfelt and evocative discussion with Bob Walkenhorst of the Rainmakers on his GlennReynolds.com site: Back when I was practicing law in Washington, I went to see a show at the 930 Club, a little place that held a couple …

I’ve been in a Bowie mood. Yesterday I discussed Bowie’s “plastic soul” period – today it’s Bowie’s extremely fruitful musical partnership with the great guitarist Mick Ronson. Ronson was born in 1947 and grew up in Hull in the north of England. As a child Ronson played violin, recorder, harmonium …