Mike Bennett reviews the latest from Neilson Hubbard, The Contrast, Oh My God, The Cloudsmen and Martin Gordon. Mike also presents capsule reviews of releases by Simply Saucer, Heathrow, The Spectors, a Styx Tribute, Clem Snide, Gladhands, Grandaddy, The Oranges Band and Analog Radio. Mike also has another CD-R of The Month.

Gary Glauber reviews the latest from Richard Thompson, Switchfoot, Rooney, Bleu, The Villas, Single, The Cloudsmen and Hot Socky.

Ben Collins reviews the latest by Grandaddy, Gripweeds, The Sounds, Rooney and Mull Historical Society.

Michael Lynch reviews The Gripweeds The Sound is in You.

Kurt Sampsel reviews reissues by The Alarm Clocks and Montage.

If you are a first time visitor, visit our About Us page. Please scroll down for this month's columns and interviews.

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Allow Me, Please, This One Indulgence

by Kurt Hernon

“I’ve been having the most fantastic dreams,” my dad said to me. “Wild dreams, like none I’ve ever had before. Filled with lights and incredible music and…” He paused and then, with a genuine bedazzlement that now eclipsed his usually stoic deportment, shook his head, then looked down and added, “They’re indescribable really.”

I nodded, barely taking note of the moment and scarcely engaged in the conversation. “Weird,” I think I muttered. It meant nothing to me. It was just another exchange in a lifetime of exchanges with my father. Just a few...

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The Martin Gordon Interview, Part II

by Mike Bennett

In the first part of my interview with Martin Gordon, the former leader of Jet and Radio Stars (and bass player for Sparks on their classic Kimono My House album), kindly went over some of his history and talked a bit about his new release (and first solo album), The Baboon In The Basement (if you want to buy it, go to martingordon.de ). In this second part of the interview, we talk more in depth about the record, which is a breath of fresh air during these often stale musical times. (And I review the album elsewhere this month). And if you are familiar with his articulate and witty lyrics, then you won't be surprised that Gordon comes off the same way in interviews. It was a true pleasure getting to sling some questions at someone whose music I've enjoyed for years.

MIKE: Fans of your earlier work, in...

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Cyborgs Revisited

by Gary Pig Gold

It was during the Spring of long ago 1977 that, in the hunt for interviewees to be a part of The Pig Paper’s gala Kinks Kommemorative Issue, my photog and co-publisher Johnny Pig (nee Pinto) recalled an encounter several months earlier at an Ontario College of Art concert. There he had met and taken part in a fascinating discussion with an intense young man named Edgar Breau, who as that evening ended offered a gracious invitation to continue ruminating upon all things pop(ular culture) any old time we felt like visiting his home turf in Canada’s most musical of all cities, Hamilton.

John had been particularly...

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Further Observations From a Jangly Music Fan

by Eric Sorensen

While I experience a lull between houseguests (our home has accommodated from two to six visitors on a steady basis since the third week in May), this is an opportune occasion to share recommendations about newly acquired jangly (and not so jangly) music. Here is a summary of June’s top picks:

German singer/songwriter/12-string guitarist Horst-Peter Schmidt just sent me an advance copy of Signature - the new Different Faces disc. This will be the band’s third full-length release and Horst-Peter assures me that the release of this new disc is imminent. All you Byrds, McGuinn, Petty and Dylan fans should be drooling over this twelve-song album! The excellent assortment of original tunes includes a song contributed by Different Faces devotee Dave Lewis, and a nifty cover of Chris Hillman’s “Have You Seen Her Face” - which has a shuffle beat akin to Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” Most...

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So Much Music...too Little Time

by Kevin Mathews

Spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon in May trying to sort out my CD collection and I discovered one thing - I have too many CDs! My aim was to alphabetize my collection in order to improve accessibility and to get a better idea of what CDs I actually possessed. I think I succeeded, thank God, though I had to wonder about the amount of time I had actually invested in listening to these hundreds of singles, EPs and albums. On this issue of time (which remains a integral part of the title of this column), I also realized that perhaps I never did spend as much time as I would have liked assessing the relative value of a disc and sometimes reviewing the review I had previously submitted. But that’s the way it is, I suppose. Still, apart from the odd anomaly, I often get the general view right so no real harm done and it’s only an opinion, right? Right?

This time out, I’ve decided to focus on a particular label (or two) who have...

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