Review: 'Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young and Pavement' OST

Gary Young was a bizarre yet extremely talented drummer and producer who consumed mass quantities of acid in Stockton, California, while listening to Yes; played in a punk band with the extremely punk name The Fall of Christianity; and most bizarrely of all, ended up as the drummer in slacker poster-boy  combo Pavement. While Stephen Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, and the rest of the dewy young guys lurched over their instruments in their baggy shirts with their shaggy hair dangling in their faces, middle-aged Gary would be standing on his drum stool, shirtless, twirling sticks like Tommy Lee. The incongruity delighted Pavement's audience of ironists, and Young's drumming supplied the pro-glue that held the whole melodic mess together. He only made one album with Pavement, but Slanted and Enchanted is the one most often cited as the band's best.  

Review: 'As Years Go By: Marianne Faithfull'

In 1990, Mark Hodkinson published As Tears Go By: Marianne Faithfull. Author and subject both disliked the book for different reasons. The author was embarrassed by his overwrought prose. The subject found it ghoulish, or in her term, "scaly." She seemingly thought that by focusing so much on her substance abuse issues, the author was "counting on her keeling over at any moment," as she commented in her autobiography. So, some two decades later, Hodkinson revised his text, brought the story up to date, and slightly altered the title to indicate As Tears Go By was now a different book.

Review: 'Visions, Dreams, & Rumours: A Portrait of Stevie Nicks' Remastered Edition

I'm not one to twirl around my apartment in a top hat and chiffon shawl, but Visions, Dreams, & Rumours: A Portrait of Stevie Nicks is not the first book I've read about the white witch. The other, written by Stephen "Hammer of the Gods" Davis, was disturbing enough that I waded into Zoë Howe's book with some trepidation. During these dark times, reading a book that makes me feel shitty is not at the top of my to-do list, but reviewing books about rock stars is what I do, so I agreed to review Howe's updated—sorry, remastered—edition of her 2017 bio nevertheless. 

Review: Blur's 'The Great Escape' 30th Anniversary Edition

If there was any question that Damon Albarn was positioning himself as the Ray Davies of the nineties with Parklife, The Great Escape shot any doubts dead. The Davies who spat at commercialization with "Holiday in Waikiki", gently mocked the ruined rich with "Sunny Afternoon", guffawed at trendiness with "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", and expressed disdain for a cad with "Dandy" was alive and alright in 1995 thanks to Albarn channeling him to craft such withering commentaries as "Dan Abnormal", "Stereotypes", "Charmless Man", "Top Man", and the positively Arthurian (the album, not the king) "Mr. Robinson's Quango". 

Review: 'The Dance Album of Carl Perkins' Vinyl Reissue

Intervention Records has crafted audiophile reissues of records from the very late sixties through the nineties. For their latest release, the label reaches as far back as it ever has to revive one of the key LPs of rock and roll's earliest days. Originally released in 1957, Carl Perkins's Dance Album lined up a superb set of radio classics, knocking the socks off bobby soxers, greasers, and four Liverpudlian history-changers in the process. But it would do Perkins a disservice to suggest his Dance Album's importance is solely due to The Beatles, as a unit and as solo artists, covering nearly everything on it. Perkins's songwriting stands strong alongside the era's best composers, namely Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry, his "Blue Suede Shoes" easily being one of rock and roll's defining songs and philosophical statements. He also stands out for the crystalline precision of his singing and six-string twanging. 

Review: Tears for Fears' ''Songs from the Big Chair' 2LP Anniversary Edition

Following a moody debut with a couple of angular arty moments, Tears for Fears went full smash with their sophomore album. Things like "Mad World", "Pale Shelter", and "Change" had been UK hits and well-loved underground nuggets in the US but nothing to prepare Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith for what was to come with the world-dominating triple-threat of "Head Over Heels", "Shout", and"Everybody Wants to Rule the World". The latter was consciously crafted to be heard on drive-time FM radio, a scheme that more than worked when it and "Shout" each took the Billboard top spot. 

Review: The Black Crowes' 'Amorica' Vinyl Reissue

For a teenage Stones freak growing up amidst the stink of hair metal, such as myself, The Black Crowes seemed like a breath of fresh air. So what if their sound was completely recycled from scratched-up copies of Sticky Fingers and A Nod Is as Good as a Wink? So what if their best song was an Otis Redding cover? So what if they were yet another bunch of skinny white guys pushing an "I was stewed in blues" image? They didn't screech from lipsticked lips and Ibanezes. They used minimal amounts of Aquanet. And they clearly loved music.

Review: Vinylphyle Edition of 'The Velvet Underground & Nico'

Universal Music recently announced a new audiophile multi-artist reissue series called the Vinylphile series. Each title is mastered from the original master recordings using an all-analog process. They're pressed at the renowned plant Record Technology, Inc. plant and on 180-gram black vinyl. 

The plan is to release two albums in the series per month, though the inaugural slate includes four covering a pretty wide range of styles: Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song, The Band's Northern Lights–Southern Cross, Bob Marley & the Wailers' Exodus, and The Velvet Underground & Nico. 

Review: The Beatles' 'The Anthology Collection'

And so we come to that time of the year when Camp-Beatles releases its annual big vinyl box. For those who have been (im)patiently waiting for that long-rumored Super Deluxe Edition of Rubber Soul, 'tis once again the season for frustrations. 

I'm not one of those though. The remixes of half of Rubber Soul's tracks on 2023's revised edition of 1962-1966 scratched whatever itch I had to hear anything from that album remixed. It has also long been my understanding that there isn't a ton of supplementary recordings from the month-long Rubber Soul sessions. The tastiest items were a fairly different first take of "Norwegian Wood" and a very different one of "I'm Looking Through You", and both of those had already been released three decades ago on The Beatles Anthology 2. 

Review: John Williams's 'Jaws: (Music From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)' "Blood in the Water" Vinyl

It was fifty years ago that a certain movie swam up to make people afraid to go in the water and movie execs afraid to not end their blockbusters with a big explosion. Jaws altered the face of cinema in many ways, some great and some not so great, but I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that at least one element of the film is unassailable: that John Williams score (okay, the dialog, acting, and directing are unassailable too).