Showing 1 - 25 of 27
Artist: The Flamin' Groovies
One of America's greatest, most influential, and legendary cult bands, the Flamin' Groovies came out of the San Francisco area in 1965 playing greasy, bluesy, rock & roll dashed with a liberal sprinkling of British Invasion panache, in an era soon to be dominated by hippie culture and hyperextended raga-rock freakouts. Caught in a double bind of... [+] Read More
Artist: Mike Wilhelm
Wilhelm was an important member of two San Francisco Bay Area groups, in two different decades. In the 1960s, he was a guitarist and songwriter for the Charlatans, often identified as one of the very first San Francisco psychedelic groups, although they were more appropriately described as mixers of blues, folk, jugband, and nineteenth century... [+] Read More
Artist: William St. James
This New York-based folk-rock trio -- Bill Kirkland (vocals, 12-string), Jim Wilson (vocals, six-string), and Anne Willcocks (vocals) -- might have been a '70s Peter, Paul & Mary, if only the '70s had needed PPM. Their earnest, sincere lyrics and sweet harmonies were pleasing, and Kirkland and Wilson got the most out of their acoustic... [+] Read More
Artist: Lisa LeeKing
Desert Island List
Black Sabbath - Greatest Hits
The Bobbyteens - Not So Sweet
The Black Halos - The Violent Years
The Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison & San Quentin
Sam Cooke - boxset
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
Danzig - Danzig
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Flamin' Groovies - Teenage... [+] Read More
Artist: Chesterfield Kings
Upstate New York's Chesterfield Kings landed upon the growing punk/new wave scene in the late '70s with an unbelievably raw '60s rhythm & blues sound that borrowed heavily from pre-1966 Rolling Stones. The group, so unlike any other underground sensations of the period, arguably kickstarted the entire '80s garage rock revival, which flourished... [+] Read More
Artist: Richard Robinson
As producer, Richard Robinson's main credential is doing Lou Reed's first solo album, and generally aiding Reed in making the transition from ex-Velvet Underground leader to solo star. At the beginning of the 1970s, Robinson was hardly the kind of industry vet one might have assumed would qualify for work with an artist of Reed's stature. He had... [+] Read More
Artist: The Del Lords
Formed in the early '80s by ex-Dictators guitarist Scott Kempner, the Del Lords combined elements of '60s garage rock with country, blues, and folk influences to become one of the initial progenitors of roots rock. Kempner recruited former Joan Jett guitarist Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, bassist Manny Caiati, and drummer Frank Funaro, and the Del Lords... [+] Read More
Artist: Roger Bechirian
Producer Roger Bechirian was a key player in new wave, having worked with Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack, Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, and others.
Born in Calcutta, India, in 1954, Bechirian took piano lessons as a child. His family relocated to England when he was ten. Bechirian began developing his future production skills using his father's tape... [+] Read More
Artist: Roy Loney
Bay Area native Roy Loney, a founding member of the great Flamin' Groovies, quit the band in the early '70s, ostensibly to pursue a solo career. Oddly, his first solo recording didn't appear until 1979, nearly seven years after leaving the Groovies. In the interim, Loney had taken a series of record industry jobs, at one point working as a sales... [+] Read More
Artist: The Brats
The Brats were a New York-based quartet consisting of Rick Rivets, a former alumnus of the New York Dolls, Keith West (not connected at all to the singer from the U.K.-based Tomorrow), Andy Doback, and Sparky Donovan. The group was organized by Rivets and based in Queens, NY, where West was something of a rock & roll guru to a lot of teenagers.... [+] Read More
Artist: Chamber Strings
Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Junior grew up in the former "Rubber Capital of the World," Akron, OH, and spent time in Cleveland before splitting for Chicago, IL, at age 16. About a year later he formed the Mystery Girls, then moved on to front the Rosehips. When the Rosehips issued their 1994 album Soul Veronique in... [+] Read More
Artist: Nixon's Head
Philadelphia garage-poppers Nixon's Head wear their influences (Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, XTC, and both Nuggets boxes) on their sleeves, but their new wave-inflected jangle pop stays clear of the slavish revivalism that plagues similar bands. They're not pretending to be the 1976 Flamin' Groovies (who themselves were pretending to be the 1965... [+] Read More
Artist: Jim Dickinson
A longtime staple of the Memphis music scene, producer Jim Dickinson helmed sessions for successive generations of cult heroes spanning from Screamin' Jay Hawkins to Big Star to the Replacements, additionally lending his keyboard talents to recordings from Ry Cooder, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, and others. Dickinson began his career... [+] Read More
Artist: Man
Man was one of the most promising rock bands to come out of Wales in the early 1970s. Along with Brinsley Schwarz, they helped establish the core of the pub-rock sound, but they played louder and also had a progressive component to their work that separated them from many of their rivals. The group originated as a Four Seasons-cum-Beach Boys... [+] Read More
Artist: Crime
Proclaiming themselves as "San Francisco's first and only rock & roll band," Crime was a forerunner in America's do-it-yourself punk history, releasing their first single in late 1976. Though they never referred to themselves as punk (a term they felt was a media concoction), Crime had all the elements of a classic punk band, with their snotty... [+] Read More
Artist: Cassell Webb
Texas-born Cassell Webb has enjoyed a career that carried her from late-'60s psychedelia to country music and latter-day folk-rock to progressive rock/pop, and moved her across an ocean in the process. Her voice, which can sound ethereal or mournful and crosses genres as easily as Webb's career has over more than 30 years. Born in Llano, TX, in... [+] Read More
Artist: Tim Hollier
Tim Hollier was one of the most unfairly neglected of folk-based artists to come out of late-'60s England, his brand of trippy, quietly elegant psychedelic folk-rock deserving an infinitely wider hearing than it got -- not that he ultimately did badly in music, but he deserved better earlier. Born in Brighton in 1947, Hollier was raised in West... [+] Read More
Artist: Dave Edmunds
Roots-rockers are seldom as purist as Dave Edmunds. Throughout his career, he stayed true to '50s and '60s rock & roll -- for Edmunds, rock & roll history stopped somewhere in 1963, after the Beach Boys' first singles but before the Beatles' hits. After establishing himself as a hotshot lead guitarist in the blues-rockers Love Sculpture, he... [+] Read More
Artist: Teenage Head
Often billed as Canada's answer to the Ramones, Teenage Head were in truth just as much a new wave band as they were a punk rock outfit. They had a similar affection for pre-Beatles rock & roll, especially rockabilly, as well as a sense of trashy fun that made them a terrific party band when they were on. Their songs were unpretentious... [+] Read More
Artist: Bruce Eder
Bruce Eder is a journalist and critic whose articles have appeared in print periodicals and reference books as well as online. Additionally, he is a writer and reissue producer in music and motion pictures whose work has been released on compact disc, videocassette, laserdisc, and DVD from the 1980s to the present, and he has also been one of... [+] Read More
Artist: David Cleary
David Cleary (b. 1954) is a classical music composer and cellist who also has a keen interest in and knowledge of rock music. He received a D.M.A. from the University of Cincinnati, M.M. from the Hartt College of Music, and B.M. from the New England Conservatory, with all degrees in music composition. His works have been performed and broadcast... [+] Read More
Artist: Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo was in many respects the quintessential critics' band: in addition to its adventurous eclecticism, defiant independence, and restless creative ambition -- three qualities that virtually guarantee music press acclaim -- the group's frontman, Ira Kaplan, even tenured as a rock scribe prior to finding success as a performer. So... [+] Read More
Artist: Mark Deming
Critic, journalist, sometime musician, onetime actor, and full-time Midwesterner Mark Deming was born in Jackson, MI, during a brief moment in the John F. Kennedy administration that James Ellroy failed to document in American Tabloid. In 1964, Mark's older brother Steve brought home a copy of "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris, and played it at full... [+] Read More
Artist: Don Raye
Most songwriters of the 1930s never figured -- or even planned on figuring -- in the history of rock & roll. A few bluesmen got lucky (and Big Joe Williams and Willie Dixon got really lucky, as performers and composers); and every so often Irving Berlin's or Cole Porter's publishers would luck out when some rock or country artist decided to try... [+] Read More
Artist: Moberlys
Long before Seattle was the grunge rock capitol of America, it had a long history of rugged, tough-as-nails rock, beginning in the '60s with garage rock stalwarts the Sonics and the Wailers, and culminating in the '80s with Jim Basnight and the Moberlys, a band that evoked the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the same time, while turning out... [+] Read More
