First released ten years ago as a CD and picture disc LP, NICK LOWE’s Quality Street is one of my favorite Christmas records of the last decade or so. Its subtitle, “A Seasonal Selection for All the Family,” is about right unless there are a bunch of headbangers in your household. But you do get a nice assortment of originals, covers and traditional holiday songs done the way Gentleman Nick likes to roll these days: smooth ’n’ easy, with a taste of wry humor. In 2013 when this was first issued I picked up the picture disc, which was cut at 45 rpm to help with the fidelity, but being such an it ..read more

KLARK KENT has come out of seclusion! With a new kollection of the Policeman’s solo recordings from back in the day, there is now ample evidence to support the opinion that Stewart Copeland was, indeed, the one with all the talent. Available as a 2LP vinyl or 2CD kompact disc release (downloads are also available), Klark Kent is the kleverly-titled kompilation that brings together all of the one man (band)’s recordings, including never-before-released demos (on the CD version). Kent’s discography starts back in 1978 when his first two singles were released. An 8-song vinyl EP, Klark Kent, foll ..read more

It’s new, it’s now!, it’s… odd. THE BEATLES have returned to the charts with what is being touted as their last single and the press is all over it. The YouTube video brigade has weighed in heavily, too, but there’s not much opinion about the music – it’s all “the cover is horrible,” “this one’s on clear-with-blue-streaks vinyl,” “the packaging on the CD single’s cheap and thin,” etc. “Now and Then” is certainly a pretty good song but as can be the case so often these days, the marketing of the single and the timing of its release has taken the spotlight. (I’ve already mentioned some of it her ..read more

Yours truly’s a bit late on getting this review completed. Reissued this summer, MARSHALL CRENSHAW’s Field Day has come out in a new edition with interesting bonus tracks and an explosive sound that’s nowhere near as bombastic as some said it was back in the day. I don’t remember the furor being as big as is stated in the notes to this new 40th anniversary CD (also out on vinyl), but apparently it left enough of a mark that Marshall says in this edition’s booklet, “I think that all the criticism it got back then was completely lame.” Before we dig in to that, let’s just say now that Field Day ..read more

Being that Dave Wakeling is still touring as both (or either) The English Beat and (or) GENERAL PUBLIC, it certainly makes sense that the latter’s two original albums, All the Rage and Hand to Mouth, are getting a vinyl reissue. Wakeling and his English Beat cohort Ranking Roger started the group after their former band called it a day. Coming just after The Beat (as they are known nearly everywhere else) had just made solid inroads to the US charts with their 1982 release, Special Beat Service – and a couple of minor hits, “Save It for Later” and “I Confess” – it was anyone’s guess if the mom ..read more

Published all the way back in February, PETER BLECHA’s Stomp and Shout: R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll is a captivating read that any fan – or nascent scholar – of the region’s popular music history should lay their eyes on. I certainly have no excuses for taking this long to read and review it. Blecha himself already has a track record of knowing what he’s talking about when it comes to Northwest Rock. He has written numerous articles on it for the website HistoryLink.org, wrote a long-running column in Seattle’s The Rocket* called “Northwest Music Archives,” and has autho ..read more

Ambient music is something I’ve never written about. I have been listening to it – or actively not listening to it – for a few decades now, ever since I was first turned on to one of Eno’s ambient releases (knowing me, I probably started with Ambient 1!) Trying to describe it really puts my writing and communication skills to the test, so when I saw that Independent Project was putting out a reissue of an ambient release by A PRODUCE called Land of a Thousand Trances, I decided to give it a listen. If I liked it enough I’d give it a go. And so here we are. One thing you can say about ambient m ..read more

“Don’t be denied” – it’s a line from the song of the same name, which also closes THE MINUS 5’s new album, Calling Cortez (Neil Vol. 3). (We’ll get to why it’s dubbed “Vol. 3” further on down the road…) Well, apparently my old friend Scott McCaughey won’t let himself be denied of releasing, what?, an album every other month just like his idol Neil Young! Granted, Scott puts his out under completely different names that keep you guessing a bit – Scott The Hoople, The Minus 5, The No Ones, The Baseball Project, Young Fresh Fellows, phew! – but still. The thing is (and I hate to say it), McCaughe ..read more

I love books “written” by rock ’n’ rollers. STEVE TURNER (with Adem Tepedelen) has authored one called Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion and it’s not unlike most of its predecessors. In common would be: Co-writer who probably acted more as (first) editor, story wrangler and memory coaxer; light ’n’ breezy conversational tone that makes it seem like it was spoken into a tape recorder (or voice memo on a smartphone) and then transcribed (hence the quotations around “writer” above); and lots of photos with sarc-y captions. Check, check and check. Mud Ride is Turner’s story, he b ..read more

I’ve been a fan of reggae – and especially dub – for quite some time. Just like a lot of people my age, my introduction to the music came in drips and drabs as a child. First record I can remember hearing that we would now call reggae (actually ska) was Desmond Dekker & The Aces’ “Israelites.” Then it was probably Eric Clapton’s hit of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff.” Hey, we all had to start somewhere and I was a suburban Orange County California kid, so that’s where it started for me. Fast forward with whirring tape sounds to 1981 and I am a beginning DJ at my college radio station, KC ..read more