Author: Bill Adams
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David Bowie – Let’s Dance LP
To begin with, I have to confess that I disliked Let’s Dance from the time I first heard it until early 2016 – right around the time I first saw the Five Years documentary. In Five Years, both Let’s Dance and the album’s producer, Nile Rodgers, played significant roles and seeing that presentation was what…
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David Bowie – David Live 2LP
It’s incredible how good, interesting, revealing and even informative an album can be, while simultaneously being critically abhorred. How such things happen is anyone’s guess, but they do – a perfect example is the live album that David Bowie released in 1974, David Live. David Live was Bowie’s first official live album. The album compiled…
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David Bowie – Diamond Dogs LP
While it might not sound like the greatest endorsement of an album’s quality or of the creative foresight possessed by an artist on the surface, the adage that Diamond Dogs exemplifies first is “Just because an idea doesn’t work out in its intended manner does not mean it should be thrown away and forgotten.” The manner…
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The Tragically Hip – Fully Completely (20th anniversary vinyl reissue)
By the time The Tragically Hip released Fully Completely in 1992, they were already stars. Between the releases of their first two full-length albums (Up To Here and Road Apples), the Hip had already built up a loyal fanbase in Canada and made a few inroads into the U.S. and Europe as well but, in…
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Garbageface – No FUTUR(E)
For the release of his new album, Karol “Garbageface” Orzechowski has decided to challenge the usual methodology and manner in which music is released. His way flies in the face of how music has been marketed ever since Napster turned the music business back into a singles-driven enterprise again. While everyone else is digitally distributing…
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Tesla – Psychotic Supper LP (vinyl reissue)
It’s a little hard to believe now but, twenty-five years ago, the music business seemed to be getting suddenly and violently pulled in several directions at once. At that time, glam metal and hard rock were still pumping out some pretty important albums. Guns N’ Roses would release both Use Your Illusion albums in ’91,…
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Fat White Family – Songs For Our Mothers LP
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Songs For Our Mothers LP by Fat White Family. It doesn’t happen often in the post-CD, post-digital music marketplace but, with Songs For Our Mothers, Fat White Family has proven that creating a satisfying and balanced long-playing vinyl album – with the peaks, valleys and thematic…
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Hater – s/t LP (reissue)
I must confess that I had never heard of Hater before Ben Shepherd put out In Deep Owl a couple of years ago. I was really, really taken with that album and had been thrilled at the prospect of taking an interview with him when the opportunity came up; in fact, I jumped at it.…
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Control / Harrington Saints – Pick Your Poison
While I happily admit that I appreciate the 7” single format, a split 7” is often a much harder sell with me. Why? Often, the focus feels too diverted on a split; the amount of time that each band involved has to leave an impression is very short and splitting focus two ways only makes…
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Trouble Boys
The True Story of The Replacements by Bob Mehr Maybe it has something to do with the sort of “Little Rascals” image that The Replacements have always given off as a lateral by-product of the band’s popular “loveable loser” image and mythos, but even just reading the words “The True Story of The Replacements” –…