Author: Michael Berick
Record Review from web archive March 25, 2009
Nick Lowe
Quiet Please is, as it subtitle indicates, not Nick Lowe’s first Best Of (that’s 16 All Time Lowes), his biggest Best Of (The Doings), his most hits-packed Best Of (Basher), or his most rarities-filled Best Of (The Wilderness Years). But this two-disc collection is his most comprehensive Best Of, and, perhaps, his best Best Of. [...]
Record Review from web archive March 4, 2009
Brigitte DeMeyer
Although Brigitte DeMeyer comes from the Bay Area, her music radiates with the sounds of the south. Red River Flower, the follow-up to her acclaimed 2005 disc Something Ater All, benefits from being recorded in Nashville with such ace sidemen as Buddy Miller, Mike Henderson, Al Perkins, Phil Madeira and Brady Blade (who again serves [...]
Record Review from web archive October 25, 2008
Two Cow Garage
Fans of classic American bar rock can raise a toast to Two Cow Garage. They serve up a potent blend of ragged-but-right guitar riffs, propulsive drums, nicotine-ravaged vocals, and songs about girls, drinking and rock ‘n’ roll. It is the songs, written by Two Cow Garage’s main men Micah Schnabel and Shane Sweeney, which really [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #75 May-June 2008
Ben Vaughn Combo – Beautiful Thing
Before striking Hollywood gold penning music for TV shows such as “Third Rock From The Sun”, Ben Vaughn was part of the 1980s New York/Hoboken scene, along with fellow retro-minded music-geek rockers the Fleshtones and Marshall Crenshaw. The latter, in fact, covered Vaughn’s sublime “I’m Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee)”. While that song isn’t [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #75 May-June 2008
Kristin Mooney – Hydroplane
Images of travel course through Hydroplane, but Kristin Mooney doesn’t traffic in greasy trucker tales. Moody instead uses her traveling imagery – where you find “highways like veins” or encounter a “dream color bus” – to convey her characters’ physical and emotional rootlessness. While “Mexican highway’ offers a postcard view of “artichoke fields / Lane [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #73 Jan-Feb 2008
Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey – Mavericks
When dB’s founders Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple reunited to record again eight years after Stamey had left the band, fans got excited to hear the cult outfit’s jangly, jagged college rock again. Their 1991-released record, however, delivered something slightly different: acoustic-based, harmony-heavy folk-pop, more Everly Brothers than Big Star. But what initially seemed overly [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #73 Jan-Feb 2008
Dollar Store – Money Music
Dollar Store is the rare Waco Brothers side project that doesn’t include Jon Langford. Guitarist Dean “Deano” Schlabowkske’s outfit retains some of the Wacos’ rowdy, politically spiked alt-country rock. The band’s sophomore effort, however, strips away some of their debut’s twangier elements to create a fierce cowpunk sound reminiscent of Jason & the Scorchers. It [...]
Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007
Lucinda Williams – El Rey Theater (Los Angeles, CA)
Lucinda Williams threw herself a big old party the beginning of September in her on-again-off-again-on-again home of Los Angeles. Over the course of six nights, she did five shows, devoting each one to performing a specific studio album in the first set, followed by a mix of songs in the second set. (She repeated the [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007
Luca – Fractions
Tucson, Arizona, musician Nick Luca showcases several musical personas on Fractions. Power-pop is served up on the infectious opener “Damned”, which he follows splendidly with the bouncy New Wave-ish “One Way Ticket Home”. Luca (who uses his surname as his band name) flashes his grittier side on the Stonesy garage-rocker “Pretty Mama”, but quickly switches [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #71 Sep-Oct 2007
Mugwumps – Self-Titled
The Mugwumps basically are notable for what its members did after they left this short-lived quartet. Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty formed half of the Mamas & the Papas, while Zal Yanovsky was the Lovin’ Spoonful’s founding guitarist. (The fourth Mugwump was Elliot’s then-husband, Jim Hendricks.) These tracks, recorded in two days during August 1964, [...]
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