Shelved: Jeff Buckley’s Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk By Tom Maxwell Feature The posthumous Buckley industry began with this problematic album, proof that the people who control a musician’s estate don’t always have his music in mind.
Violence Girl By Longreads Feature How a young bilingual Latina became one of punk’s enduring icons and helped create a new musical universe.
In Praise of Del Amitri’s Album Waking Hours By Longreads Feature Some albums make it hard to separate the music from the experience of listening to it.
Stumbling Into Joy By Kate Hopper Feature The electric bass chose her, but it took 44 years to heed the call.
Why Lhasa de Sela Matters By Longreads Feature Raised in a school bus by itinerant hippie parents, with one foot in Mexico and one in the US, the singer blossomed into her true multicultural self in bilingual Montreal.
A Fresh Look at The Smashing Pumpkins’ 1998 Album Adore By Longreads Feature Loved and loathed in equal measure, one thing critics can’t take from this influential 90s band is their willingness to evolve musically.
Shelved: The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s “Brain Opera” By Tom Maxwell Feature What happens when you’re not different just for the sake of being different.
Remembering Daniel Johnston By Tom Maxwell Feature This outsider musician made music sound new again to everyone who listened.
Shelved: Van Morrison’s Contractual Obligation Album By Tom Maxwell Feature This is the sound of not really trying.
Shelved: Jimi Hendrix’s Black Gold Suite By Tom Maxwell Feature The genius guitarist’s autobiographical, multi-song fantasy album sat in his drummer’s apartment for twenty years. Now in the care of the Hendrix estate, will it ever see the light of day?
Tom Petty’s Problematic Album Southern Accents By Michael Washburn Feature In 1985, one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most beloved songwriters made a regrettable misstep with a narrow conception of Southern identity.
Shelved: Lee Hazlewood’s Cruisin’ For Surf Bunnies By Tom Maxwell Feature It’s no surprise that the legendary songwriter and producer dabbled in surf music. What’s surprising is why music this good remained unreleased for 50 years.
Manic Street Preachers’ Album The Holy Bible By Longreads Feature How a band seemingly out of step with its times outlasted so many of its indulgent, in-step contemporaries.
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll By Longreads Feature From Bob Dylan to David Bowie to The Beatles, the legendary Beat writer’s influence reached beyond literature into music in surprising ways.
Remembering Roky Erickson By Tom Maxwell Feature Despite ongoing personal struggle, the psychedelic rock pioneer left a singular body of work that continues to influence musicians and challenge listeners.
The Enduring Myth of a Lost Live Iggy and the Stooges Album By Aaron Gilbreath and Tom Maxwell Feature In 1973, Columbia Records professionally recorded the infamous band for a planned concert record. Columbia never released it. Maybe they never recorded it.
The Revolution…Without Prince By Kevin Sampsell Feature Hoping to reconnect to their love for the iconic musician, Kevin Sampsell and an old girlfriend go to hear his best known band play without him.
The Manhandling of Rock ‘N’ Roll History By Evelyn McDonnell Feature Less than 8 percent of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s inductees are women. Time for it to step up and induct an all-female class in 2020.
Shelved: Brian Wilson’s Adult/Child By Tom Maxwell Feature Music from the time after the good vibrations ended.
Three Decades of Cross-Cultural Utopianism in British Music Writing By Longreads Feature The history of England’s fertile music press reveals as much about the opinionated English youth who created it as it does the music they covered in the second half of the 20th century.
Accidental Music History: How Jeff Gold Saved Rare Iggy & the Stooges Recordings from the Dump By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Sometimes this is how musical history gets saved.
You Don’t Own Me By Joe Bonomo Feature Some fans prefer small club shows, others like arena rock shows, but do we care what the bands prefer?
Remembering Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks By Tom Maxwell Feature The Buzzcocks’ enduring influence might have surprised punk frontman Pete Shelley, but not his fans.
Link Wray’s Rustic Masterpieces By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Link Wray is best known for his rock instrumentals, but in the early 1970s, he and his brothers recorded three albums in a chicken shack that sound like nothing else in his massive oeuvre.
Living to Create: Talking Music and Writing With Drummer Emily Rose Epstein By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary Musician Emily Rose Epstein talks about her dual life as a rock drummer and writer.
Beyond “Rumble”: Talking with John O’Connor About the Other Link Wray By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Journalist John O’Connor talks about writing his epic Oxford American magazine feature on musician Link Wray.
An Oral History of Detroit Punk Rock By Steve Miller Feature In Detroit’s empty buildings and troubled streets, restless kids squatted, ran punk clubs, pressed their own records, and made their own magazine. They mostly stayed out of trouble.
The Making of Nirvana’s Most Vulnerable Album By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight An oral history of the night Nirvana recorded “Unplugged,” their most tender, original live performance.
Shelved: The Sound of Big Star’s Self-Destruction By Tom Maxwell Feature As the band dissolved, they managed to capture their destruction in some dark, powerful music.
Shelved: The Velvet Underground’s Fourth Album By Tom Maxwell Feature The story of the Velvet Underground’s fourth album that almost never was.
