25 songs, 1966-'87: Dennis Alcapone, Cockney Rebel, Dave & Ansel Collins, Dunkelziffer, Fresh Face, Harpo, Hotlegs, Kano, Maximum Joy (x2!), National Health, Annette Peacock, Pointer Sisters, Rich Kids, Billy Joe Royal, Savage Rose, Shockabilly, Slip, Frank Soda & Imps, Unclaimed, Vogues, more!

25 songs, 1966-'87: Dennis Alcapone, Cockney Rebel, Dave & Ansel Collins, Dunkelziffer, Fresh Face, Harpo, Hotlegs, Kano, Maximum Joy (x2!), National Health, Annette Peacock, Pointer Sisters, Rich Kids, Billy Joe Royal, Savage Rose, Shockabilly, Slip, Frank Soda & Imps, Unclaimed, Vogues, more!

A confusing college-daily-paper trend piece from 1981, conflating at least two different kinds of music (am I talking about new wave or funk? why can’t I make up my mind?) and tossing in a questionable anti-disco subtext to make things even more disingenuous. ("DOR" was "Dance-Oriented Rock," btw.)

A confusing college-daily-paper trend piece from 1981, conflating at least two different kinds of music (am I talking about new wave or funk? why can’t I make up my mind?) and tossing in a questionable anti-disco subtext to make things even more disingenuous. ("DOR" was "Dance-Oriented Rock," btw.)

Sandra Jacqueline Denton aka Pepa turns either 56 or 61 Sunday, depending who you ask. So in celebration I thought I'd revive this Boston Phoenix review I wrote 37 years ago of two early Salt-N-Pepa singles -- one you almost definitely know (their best hit ever!), one you almost definitely don't.

Sandra Jacqueline Denton aka Pepa turns either 56 or 61 Sunday, depending who you ask. So in celebration I thought I'd revive this Boston Phoenix review I wrote 37 years ago of two early Salt-N-Pepa singles -- one you almost definitely know (their best hit ever!), one you almost definitely don't.

2022 was supposedly the year neo-traditionalism returned to country radio while everybody showed how much they missed to the ’90s. But what mostly caught my ear were dance songs - flat-out disco, at times - by women, as often as not w/o big label recording contracts, or recording contracts at all.

2022 was supposedly the year neo-traditionalism returned to country radio while everybody showed how much they missed to the ’90s. But what mostly caught my ear were dance songs - flat-out disco, at times - by women, as often as not w/o big label recording contracts, or recording contracts at all.

Between when I was a kid and now, the order I’d long enjoyed as Marsupiala was upgraded to an “infra-class,” itself split between Australidelphia and Ameridelphia, and now containing seven discreet orders. Non-extinct mammal orders now total 29 — up more than 50% from the quantity I grew up with.

Wroted, quoted, or reincarnated 4200+ words on one-hit alt-rockers, geniuses & sceniuses, hootenannies & the blowfish, jagged little pills, P&J Harvey, trip-hop, hip-trop, trance-hop, doo-hop, songcraft vs soundcraft, blurriness vs shagginess, AOL chats, and my 150 favorite albums of 30 years ago.

Wroted, quoted, or reincarnated 4200+ words on one-hit alt-rockers, geniuses & sceniuses, hootenannies & the blowfish, jagged little pills, P&J Harvey, trip-hop, hip-trop, trance-hop, doo-hop, songcraft vs soundcraft, blurriness vs shagginess, AOL chats, and my 150 favorite albums of 30 years ago.

1970-1987 teenpop, Osmonds to Bay City Rollers to Knack to Lisa Lisa. Often excerpted by me since, maybe. But this is how the original version looked in Creem. A year or more later — after Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Spice Girls, Radio Disney, Aqua, K-Pop — no way could I have kept the list so concise.

1970-1987 teenpop, Osmonds to Bay City Rollers to Knack to Lisa Lisa. Often excerpted by me since, maybe. But this is how the original version looked in Creem. A year or more later — after Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Spice Girls, Radio Disney, Aqua, K-Pop — no way could I have kept the list so concise.

That Golden Time of the Day when sunbeams shine through your window at just the perfect angle to let you know you really, really, really need to vacuum up all that dust and dog hair. (An hour later now, thanks to Daylight Savings Time ending.)

That Golden Time of the Day when sunbeams shine through your window at just the perfect angle to let you know you really, really, really need to vacuum up all that dust and dog hair. (An hour later now, thanks to Daylight Savings Time ending.)

25 songs, 1931-1999: American Dream, Borghesia, Carpettes, Curved Air, 809, Sonny Fisher, Joyce Harris, Lyres, Maximum Joy, Oz, David Peel, Ritual, Luis Russell, Martine St. Clair, Stylle Band, Sugarloaf, Trillion, Tristan Tzara, Vee VV, Charles Wright & Watts 103rd Street Band, Yeah Yeah No, more!

25 songs, 1931-1999: American Dream, Borghesia, Carpettes, Curved Air, 809, Sonny Fisher, Joyce Harris, Lyres, Maximum Joy, Oz, David Peel, Ritual, Luis Russell, Martine St. Clair, Stylle Band, Sugarloaf, Trillion, Tristan Tzara, Vee VV, Charles Wright & Watts 103rd Street Band, Yeah Yeah No, more!

PAZZ & JOP PRODUCT REPORT - early November 2025 YEAH: Kindred the Family Soul: Grand Life (We’re Not a Label) 5; Mike Clark Jr.: Keep On Steppin’ (ColliPark/Atlantic EP) 5; Kang 803: New School Blues (KG Music Group EP) 5; Fatdaddy: Perfect EP (Music Access EP) 5... [continued]:

Reading that Kirk Gibson's Parkinson's center just opened in Farmington Hills, MI reminded me I wrote about him when he was still in the minors (and I was 18). But mostly I wrote about his fellow Waterford high school grad Mike Grace, who played 5 Reds games in 1978. He was having a better summer.

PAZZ & JOP PRODUCT REPORT - early November 2025 YEAH: Kindred the Family Soul: Grand Life (We’re Not a Label) 5; Mike Clark Jr.: Keep On Steppin’ (ColliPark/Atlantic EP) 5; Kang 803: New School Blues (KG Music Group EP) 5; Fatdaddy: Perfect EP (Music Access EP) 5... [continued]:

Reading that Kirk Gibson's Parkinson's center just opened in Farmington Hills, MI reminded me I wrote about him when he was still in the minors (and I was 18). But mostly I wrote about his fellow Waterford high school grad Mike Grace, who played 5 Reds games in 1978. He was having a better summer.

As far as I can tell, the NY Times published the term "Kraut-rock" for the first time in 1975, and then not again until 1992. In the meantime, writers there called the droning (and often but not necessarily German) style two different things, one of which I never heard until a couple years ago.

As far as I can tell, the NY Times published the term "Kraut-rock" for the first time in 1975, and then not again until 1992. In the meantime, writers there called the droning (and often but not necessarily German) style two different things, one of which I never heard until a couple years ago.

I hear there's a "meme" going around (not that I've seen much meming myself) regarding favorite albums of 198-NINE. The number. Sound of the funky drummer. That said, here's mine, plus 2100+ words on the end of history, end of the '80s, end of welfare as we know it, a Joshua Clover book, and more.

I hear there's a "meme" going around (not that I've seen much meming myself) regarding favorite albums of 198-NINE. The number. Sound of the funky drummer. That said, here's mine, plus 2100+ words on the end of history, end of the '80s, end of welfare as we know it, a Joshua Clover book, and more.

Reservation Dogs opened its canine theme audaciously in August 2021 with the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog." But it took the Season 3 episode House Made of Bongs, a perfect Dazed and Confused homage set on the last day of high school before the summer of '76, for the show makers to top themselves.

Odd that, far as I can tell, that NYT piece on the proposed prison farm/detention camp for homeless people in Utah does not mention RFK Jr. Seems like the plan could align ominously well with his typically insane & inhumane concept of addiction treatment, which the Times reported on 10 months ago.

Reservation Dogs opened its canine theme audaciously in August 2021 with the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog." But it took the Season 3 episode House Made of Bongs, a perfect Dazed and Confused homage set on the last day of high school before the summer of '76, for the show makers to top themselves.

NEW!! 4800 words on unsung genres, popular masterpieces, whos on first, whats goin' on, psychotic reactions, carburetor dung, mid '60s nostalgia, editorial weeze, auteur theory, metal with organs, prank contests, war crimes, rams in space, monkeys not stopping shows, & my 150 favorite LPs of 1971.

NEW!! 4800 words on unsung genres, popular masterpieces, whos on first, whats goin' on, psychotic reactions, carburetor dung, mid '60s nostalgia, editorial weeze, auteur theory, metal with organs, prank contests, war crimes, rams in space, monkeys not stopping shows, & my 150 favorite LPs of 1971.

3 of the 5 albums focused on here made it into my infamous metal book Stairway to Hell a few years later, which means plenty of the writing did too. But not all of it — including, I’m fairly certain, the battle of bands between Mötley Crüe and Pussy Galore. Not to mention the headline for the ages.

Scott Bloomfield, who posted online as Myonga Von Bontee — a name borrowed from an obscure MX-80 Sound song — was responsible for, I think, the only album I ever gave the maximum 30 points to in the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. Last week, he passed away on his 58th birthday. This is my tribute.

3 of the 5 albums focused on here made it into my infamous metal book Stairway to Hell a few years later, which means plenty of the writing did too. But not all of it — including, I’m fairly certain, the battle of bands between Mötley Crüe and Pussy Galore. Not to mention the headline for the ages.

25 songs, 1926-2012: Boy Meets Girl, Ramona Brooks, Cinecyde, Clash, Mick Farren, Helter Skelter, Dorothy & Hezekiah Jenkins, Marcus Hook Roll Band, Moving Sidewalks, Yoko Ono, Pierre Perpall, Seawind, Sidewinders, Silverhead, Siren, Taist of Iron, Trolls, Venom P. Stinger, Victim's Family, more!

Written in 1981 for a daily paper staffed exclusively by University of Missouri journalism students, in so-called Wall Street Journal-style: Specific example into general trend, back to same specific example at the end. You know it’s a trend, because there’s at least three examples! Curious byline.

"Acid rock” appeared once in the NYT in the summer of 1967 then not at all for the next 2 1/2 years. Once the ’70s started, it turned commonplace, if rarely as a musical description -- It frequently showed up in straight news pieces, few explaining what it *was*. So was it mostly used by “squares"?

4000 or so words more or less "about" my 25 favorite singles of the year before last, most of which you probably either forgot already or never knew in the first place. Also listed: My next 45 w/o comments ( = 70 total), and found YouTube links for all of them -- even ones that don't have videos!

4000 or so words more or less "about" my 25 favorite singles of the year before last, most of which you probably either forgot already or never knew in the first place. Also listed: My next 45 w/o comments ( = 70 total), and found YouTube links for all of them -- even ones that don't have videos!

This week’s NYT obit of an “Idaho State professor who pursued Bigfoot for decades” once again put the infamous crypto-hominid back in my sights. Historical perspective being long overdue, I conducted a treacherous expedition to search for the beast in the heart of the newspaper's ancient archives.

4000 or so words on residual blackface, beatnik slang, birdcalls, willow trees, original versions of songs I never knew were covers, air travel and world wars altering song geography, amusing avant-garde music, what Chuck Berry got wrong about baseball, and my 150 favorite albums of 1957/'58/'59.

4000 or so words on residual blackface, beatnik slang, birdcalls, willow trees, original versions of songs I never knew were covers, air travel and world wars altering song geography, amusing avant-garde music, what Chuck Berry got wrong about baseball, and my 150 favorite albums of 1957/'58/'59.

One of these 3 rapping singing '90s women never had another hit; another turned “electroclash” and had two '00s UK top 20s (one of which resurfaced in 2024 to make the U.S. dance top 10 after which the artist wrote a NYTimes op-ed last week); the third appeared on soundtracks. Guess which is which.

25 songs, 1927-1995: Kevin Ayers (twice!), Blind Melon (!?!), Gus Cannon aka Banjo Joe, Cold Chisel, Glencoe, Hollywood Brats, Inner City Unit, Kak, Little Scotty, Material, Medium Medium, Ella Mae Morse, Raincoats, Spiders From Mars (sans Bowie), Supermax, T-Connection, V.V.S.I., Znöwhite, more!

25 songs, 1927-1995: Kevin Ayers (twice!), Blind Melon (!?!), Gus Cannon aka Banjo Joe, Cold Chisel, Glencoe, Hollywood Brats, Inner City Unit, Kak, Little Scotty, Material, Medium Medium, Ella Mae Morse, Raincoats, Spiders From Mars (sans Bowie), Supermax, T-Connection, V.V.S.I., Znöwhite, more!

Clue that these college-paper singles reviews came before a different college 45s roundup I put together: Earlier Smokey Robinson hit. What did I have against the Go-Gos and Pretenders? Why didn't I mention Melle Mel's French verse? Doubt I knew “Tainted Love” was a cover; who did? Beware of typos.

Clue that these college-paper singles reviews came before a different college 45s roundup I put together: Earlier Smokey Robinson hit. What did I have against the Go-Gos and Pretenders? Why didn't I mention Melle Mel's French verse? Doubt I knew “Tainted Love” was a cover; who did? Beware of typos.

Google Ngram reveals barely minimal publication of the phrase “glam rock” prior to 1980; “glitter rock” usage exceeding “glam rock” from the late ’60s until mid ’80s; and “glam metal” not appearing at all until late ’80s. NY Times searches pretty much confirm this hunch: No “glam rock” until 1989.

Somebody reading these writeups might be inclined to believe country's biggest 2023 trends were (1) songs with good beats you could dance to and (2) young women following Taylor Swift's footsteps like garage bands trying to be the next Stones in 1966. More likely that’s just my own personal taste.

Somebody reading these writeups might be inclined to believe country's biggest 2023 trends were (1) songs with good beats you could dance to and (2) young women following Taylor Swift's footsteps like garage bands trying to be the next Stones in 1966. More likely that’s just my own personal taste.

PAZZ & JOP PRODUCT REPORT - late October 2025 YEAH: Concepción Huerta: El Sol De Los Muertos (Umor Rex Mexico) 7; DJ Babatr: Root Echoes (Hakuna Kulala Uganda) 7; Say She She: Cut & Rewind (Drink Sum Wtr) 5; Adrian Sherwood: The Collapse of Everything (On-U Sound UK) 5... [Continued]: