Author: Kurt B. Reighley
Town and Country - Shorter Artist Feature from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007
Cave Singers – By the light of the lamp
Don’t let the name, or the lush landscape depicted on the cover of their debut disc Invitation Songs, fool you. Seattle trio the Cave Singers are city boys. Guitarist Derek Fudesco hails from upstate New York, and singer Pete Quirk grew up on the Jersey shore. Only drummer Marty Lund is an Evergreen State native, [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #71 Sep-Oct 2007
Carolyn Mark – Absolutely free
“My mother used to read me absurdist plays as bedtime stories,” Carolyn Mark reveals, trudging along the sidewalks of her Victoria, B.C., neighborhood. She fires off a staccato “Ha!”, one of her many different laughs, but she isn’t kidding. Other kids got Dr. Seuss and Goodnight Moon; Mark was tucked in with The Bald Soprano. [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #71 Sep-Oct 2007
Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth
The 1980s may have been the decade of excess, but short-lived Cardiff trio Young Marble Giants got in and out before that memo landed on anyone’s desk. Originally released in 1980, Colossal Youth is a miniature masterpiece, fifteen songs rendered in 38 minutes. (This three-CD edition amends non-LP singles, the live Salad Days album, and [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #70 July-August 2007
Nick Lowe – Half a boy and half a man
“I like country & western, and I like soul, and I love that place where the two of them live, black and white, together. It makes sense to me.” –Nick Lowe Nick Lowe was a tender lad of 17 when he began his recording career as a member of Kippington Lodge, the band that eventually [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #70 July-August 2007
Fred Katz – Folk Songs For Far Out Folk
Despite its prescient title, this 1959 oddity stands at the opposite end of the Enchanted Forest from the patchouli-scented noodling of Devendra Banhart and other purveyors of contemporary “freak folk.” The nine-song set features Katz, a jazz cellist and film composer, leading three different small ensembles through a mélange of American, Hebrew, and African folk [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #70 July-August 2007
Betty Davis – Self-Titled / They Say I’m Different
Even before she released her eponymous 1973 debut, Betty Davis — fashion model, scene-maker, musician — had left her mark on pop culture; during her short marriage to Miles Davis, she turned him on to the new sounds (and hip fashions) that birthed Bitches Brew. She had also recorded a pair of solo singles, and [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #70 July-August 2007
Maria McKee – Late December
Lone Justice fans lured back into the Maria McKee fold by her 2005 disc Peddlin’ Dreams probably won’t cotton as much to her sixth studio album, although it includes quieter moments, particularly the gentle pull of the spare “My First Night Without You” and the intimate acoustic introduction to “Power On Little Star”. And McKee [...]
Town and Country - Shorter Artist Feature from Issue #69 May-June 2007
Ryan Shaw – A contender with hits that should’ve been
“My old manager and I used to argue, because I wouldn’t listen to the radio,” recalls Ryan Shaw. But the 26-year-old soul singer didn’t like what he heard on the FM dial. In fact, chart fare seemed the very antithesis of what he thought songs should communicate. “Most music today births self-hatred,” he says of [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #69 May-June 2007
Nightwatchman (Tom Morello) – The Rebel’s Toast
“I know that my experience with groups like the Clash or Public Enemy was absolutely pivotal in making me feel less alone with my political opinions — that there was hope beyond the stifling suburb that I lived in.” –Tom Morello. Four and a half years ago, the artist known as the Nightwatchman found himself [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #69 May-June 2007
Patti Smith – Twelve
Covers have been an integral element of rock ‘n’ roll poet Patti Smith’s oeuvre since day one. So fans might honestly approach Twelve, a set wholly comprised of other people’s songs, with high expectations. Will she take the ’80s radio staple “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, rend it asunder, and refashion it into a [...]
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