Thirty years ago this month, in December 1976, Blondie released “Blondie.” There’s something greedy about New York City. The metropolis has a track record of never being satisfied. Taxicab drivers can’t get where they’re headed fast enough; there can never be too many restaurants, art galleries or clubs; the Yankees’ payroll will never be too […]
CBS may make me change my mind. For years I’ve argued that there really is no such thing as “selling out.” I’ve said that musicians need to get paid for their work, and licensing tunes for commercials, movie soundtracks and television shows is just another avenue for people to get turned onto music. Who cares […]
Who says musicians don’t make the same sort of money as they used to, that the Internet is destroying artists’ bank accounts. On Sunday it was reported that a pressing of the Velvet Underground’s first album, “The Velvet Underground and Nico” sold on eBay for $155,401. That’s right. The album that was rejected by Columbia […]
It’s fitting that the day on which the world’s oldest person died; the world’s oldest record store was threatened with closure. On Monday, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bolden (born in 1890) died in the Tennessee nursing home in which she had been living for several years. And on Tuesday, The Guardian circulated reports that Spillers Records in […]
Fifteen years ago this month, on Nov. 19 1991, U2 released “Achtung Baby.” It’s strange how certain slogans stick over the years – oh to be the marketing executive that comes up with one of those long-lasting, lucrative phrases that becomes a part of society. Do you think the “Where’s the beef” creator has ever […]
Ten years ago this month, on Nov. 19 1996, DJ Shadow released “Entroducing.” The problem with history, or rather history classes and textbooks, is that they ghettoize years. They paint eras with broad strokes, attribute one or maybe two events to a time period, and move on. Many things, often certainly worth knowing about, get […]
Twenty years ago this month, in November 1986, The Beastie Boys released “Licensed to Ill.” In Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” the character “Barry” wholeheartedly jokes about whether or not it is okay to judge a formerly great artist for his or her latter day sins – if Stevie Wonder should be penalized for having recorded […]
Fifteen years ago this month, on Nov. 5 1991, My Bloody Valentine released “Loveless.” The explosion of the Internet through the mid-1990s created a way for everyone with a computer to click through a few browser windows and access any information they need. Want to know the average water temperature in November for Rocky Point […]
Ten years ago this month, on Oct. 1 1996, Fountains of Wayne released “Fountains Of Wayne.” If 1991 was “the year punk broke,” then 1996 was the year power-pop broke… and then was tucked away almost immediately and forgotten about 12 months later. Though the early half of the 1990s saw smooth guitar acts like […]
Five years ago this month, on Oct. 9 2001, The Strokes released “Is This It?” The first year of the millennium marked a change in the popular musical landscape. Though the early 1990s witnessed a revolution on par with the British Invasion of the 1960s and punk explosion of the late 1970, the polarizing downtrodden […]