Tag Archives: Classic Rock and Oldies

Hey, summer’s over (although it’s a balmy 73 right now). How do I know? Because we are going to a haunted house tonight, so it must be near Halloween – what, you say it’s a month away? The Halloween season is now as long as Christmas. In fact, once October …

Revisiting a classic slab of Britpop. . .

The Brian Wilson tale one is a strange, sad, but ultimately uplifting one. Against all odds, the troubled genius of the Wilson family, 62, has outlived both of his brothers, returned to writing and performing, and now in two weeks will finally present to the world, if not “THE,” then …

Brad Wilson is a proud practitioner of the wall-of-sound variety of blues-rock. His first solo CD opens with a straight blues, “Black Coffee At Sunrise,” but most of the LA rocker’s songs (he wrote all thirteen) are in the blue-eyed tradition of the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd, with a solid …

The Vote For Change tour has very impressive lineups and is generating a big buzz – of the six different touring units, I think the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band / R.E.M. / John Fogerty / Bright Eyes group the most impressive. It just got a little more …

I am not particularly a fan of Pink Floyd’s The Wall – I see it as a rather tuneless and humorless exercise in introspective self-pity by Roger Waters that destroyed the band. It does, however, work rather better as a stage production. The ’90 Berlin performance is spectacular and the …

Every once in a while I get in the mood for doo-wop – the remarkable and earnest blending of serious voices, (often) in the service of silliness. While doo wopping I heard the familiar strains of “Book of Love,” which reminded me of one of my favorite moments from DJing. …

I was listening to Buddy Holly the other day – he’s one of my all-time favorites, a recurring touchstone. The beauty, simplicity and reverence expressed in “Everyday” strikes me as truly angelic. That night, I had a dream: February 3, 1959: Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper take …

The SoCal legend's first studio album in over six years. . .

So there we are tooling along cheerfully in my daughter’s LeBaron convertible, top down, temp in the high 80s, the moving air thick and summery. The baby, 7 months old yesterday, giggling maniacally in the back, his little fuzzy hairs dancing on his little fuzzy head in the welcoming wind. …