Top 10 Power Pop Albums of 2011
The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things. Of Shoes and Pips and Basement Tapes, and the best power pop records of the year. Forgive me if I repeat myself, but 2011 was a great year
The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things. Of Shoes and Pips and Basement Tapes, and the best power pop records of the year. Forgive me if I repeat myself, but 2011 was a great year
This has been one of the greatest years in the history of pop music, but you’d never know it if you rely on Rolling Stone, Spin, Billboard, Under the Radar, Mojo, Q, MTV, VH-1 or any of the traditional sources.
As the music giants stagger further into the wilderness bereft of their traditional sales tools, they continue to churn out tired, American Idol-inspired pop and rap records scooped up by suburban white boys who have never heard the Beatles. Aided
I saw Fools Face open for John Hiatt in Madison, WI in 1982. I had their two vinyl LPs, Tell America and Public Places on the Talk label. Fools Face did not disappoint, putting on a galvanizing fifty minute show.
Where else should Elvis be hanging out but at the Fort Collins Senior Center? I saw Bubba Ho Tep? This was the same Elvis whom my wife Ann dated before I met her and who sang at our wedding. His
The world may have entered a gigantic metaphorical sphincter but there is progress in at least one field. Power pop has never been better. We are living in one of the great musical flowerings of history and it shows no
“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you
Nashville’s The Shazam have been around since 1993, delighting audiences with anthemic, hook-laden rock in the spirit of their two poles, The Who and The Move. They moved beyond those obvious influences on ’03’s stunning Tomorrow the World, a blast
Twenty-four year-old Susan La Muse has god-like powers. Actually, her powers surpass those of God since she can reconstitute dead people from scraps of debris and restore them to full health and cognizance. She waves her arms and AIDS disappears
Few shows illustrate how low the state of popular music has fallen than “American Idol.” While AI regularly finds singers of talent, the songs they feature are mostly chestnuts. The show also encourages the type of singing that is more
When I mentioned to friends I was reading Atlas Shrugged their response was uniform: “Oh that. I read it in college but now I have moved on to adult subjects.” These were liberal friends, you understand, and I couldn’t help
The disconnect between beauty and popularity in music has never been greater. Where once America sang the Beatles or Motown (“The Sound of Young America”), today the music industry is severely fragmented. Gangsta rap. Speed metal. Trip-hop. The major recording
Spain Rodriguez is among the giants of underground cartooning, right behind R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and Robert Williams. He has never made a secret of his socialist leanings. His first creation was Trashman, “a hero of the working classes and
Part One: In 2006, I had a minor low pressure area in my brain and conceived a P.R. campaign directed against Islamo-fascism which I posted on Nate Tabor’s “The Conservative Voice.” The results were swift and devastating. Like any other