Justin Vernon and company unloaded their souls last night in an extremely moving live incarnation of ‘the record’. As a tangible hush often filled the space, about 300 admirers showed great respect for the band and material throughout.

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“Jeff Tweedy is a twat,” one former major-label president told me at the height of the singer’s travails with Reprise. Though acknowledging the enduring merit of Wilco’s music, the executive–who didn’t even work for Warner Brothers–marveled at Wilco’s desire to make “indulgent albums” for what had become the music industry’s largest corporation. “It’s unacceptable at […]

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Formative jazz-rock fusion group Return To Forever took the stage Saturday night at Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Sterling Heights, Michigan. About midway through the first set, Lenny White took a turn at the mic and addressed the crowd: “In an era of boy bands, this here’s a man band.”

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Mark Pickerel makes a good record. Cody’s Dream is a rollicking trip of deft lyricism, journeyman musicianship and outright charm. The former Screaming Tress drummer and elsewise able sideman has here assembled 13 tracks both cinematic and intimate in their evocation of a trippy American panoramic.

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It seems I have set myself up to fail. I fear there is nothing I can write about Mingus that hasn’t already been written. One need only peruse the half dozen or so substantial biographies (including his own apocrypha: Beneath The Underdog) or the voluminous holdings of The Charles Mingus Collection at The Library of […]

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When R.E.M. stopped by The Colbert Report a few weeks ago, the host admonished the band for being a little too political in the past. He went on to say, “People want to hear songs about girls!” To which Michael Stipe deadpanned, “I’m not big with the girl songs.”

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