Tag Archives: rock and roll

Vimma’s Tornadon Silmässä

A listener, especially one who doesn’t speak Finnish, could be excused for mistaking the music on Vimma’s Tornadon Silmässä for standard World music folk pop. The pretty voice of Eeva Rajakangas and the catchy, often lilting melodies of main composer … Continue reading

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Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks – By Jon Fishman of Phish

Frank Zappa was an iconoclastic American musician. He surfaced in the ’60s but was decidedly non-hippie and anti-drug, and his music drew more on jazz and cabaret than the folk and acid-rock of that decade. If I had to pick … Continue reading

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Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks – by Larry LaLonde of Primus

Frank Zappa has become legendary in death. He must be laughing as he looks down, or up, from wherever he is spending eternity. His music is still available in beautifully packaged editions, just the way he always wanted it to … Continue reading

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Muleskinner Jones’s Death Row Hoedown, and Terrible Stories EP

Muleskinner Jones is the English answer to the Handsome Family, crossed with the off-kilter cowpunk of the Meat Puppets, say, or perhaps Butthole Surfers. It’s a hole in the current musical scene that was just begging to be filled, and … Continue reading

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Various artists’ The Best of The Johnny Cash TV Show, 1969-1971

American musicians always have, for the most part, understood that the various categories of American music are mostly imaginary. They’re marketing tools drawn up by those in the business of selling music to the public, and they cater mostly to … Continue reading

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Podcast review: Discord & Rhyme episode 125, The Beach Boys’ All Summer Long and Sunflower

I was never a super fan of the Beach Boys. I liked all of their hit singles – and there were a LOT of them – at least those that were played on the radio after I started paying attention … Continue reading

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Seven Nations’ The Pictou Sessions, and Seven Nations (self-titled)

Some months back, I raved about Seven Nations’ 1999 release The Factory. Now I’m back with a pair of releases from one of the best Celtic rock bands out there. The Pictou Sessions, released in 2000 on their own label, … Continue reading

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Seven Nations’ The Factory

It’s almost inexcusable that I could have had this particular gem in my collection for so long and not written a review of it. I confess, then, that I was saving it for a rainy day, and as I fear … Continue reading

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Commentary: RIP Jimmy Buffett

Well. I didn’t see this one coming. Mr. Margaritaville has transitioned to the Big Beach. I’m not a real Parrot Head, as the Buffett fanatics call themselves. I stopped following him in the mid-80s, when he started getting played on … Continue reading

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Son Volt’s Okemah and the Melody of Riot

Jay Farrar has put out a record that is a worthy successor to his band Son Volt’s 1995 debut, Trace. Okemah and the Melody of Riot is a masterpiece that reflects – somberly, angrily and joyfully – on the current … Continue reading

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