After a long stint of liking Kiss almost exclusively, I went through a rapid succession of favorite genres between about 12 and 14. First, it was Top 40, recording Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 on TDK D-120 tapes on Saturdays for a year or so. Hearing Def Leppard on the Top 40 started my shift toward harder rock and metal,… Read more »
I am a latecomer to Cheap Trick. I got into them on August 4, 2007. Why do I remember the exact date that I finally appreciated a band that I had heard on the radio for decades? Because that is the day that I first saw Cheap Trick live. All it took was an abbreviated set at Baltimore’s Virgin Fest… Read more »
The strange confluence of pandemic isolation and political divisiveness has people in general (and Americans in particular) in a strange place. As expected, the impact of these times is felt acutely in music. It seems like its effects are ubiquitous with everyone from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra who edited at home performances into incredibly creative presentations when they could not… Read more »
My first concert of 1987 was U2’s sixth date on their Joshua Tree tour. I didn’t know U2 beyond Under a Blood Red Sky, but “Where the Streets Have No Name” immediately captivated me. I intuitively knew this band, this record, and this concert would change my life. My friend David and I convinced our parents to let us make… Read more »
I’ve loved music since I was a kid. Of course, in my youngest days, I was perhaps a bit more into the breathing fire and spitting blood aspects of it than to the music itself. Outside of the world of music, the influence of my dad looms largest in my life, but he didn’t really care much for music, especially… Read more »
I was going to review the new Godspeed You! Black Emperor record, G_d’s Pee AT STATES END!, but better writers have already said what I would say, albeit sometimes in a strange way. Instead, I’ll review a new-to-me discovery from the Godspeed collective: the five-song pandemic collection of “small weekly offerings while in confinement” from GY!BE violinist Sophie Trudeau. The… Read more »