Mike Bennett reviews the latest from A.C. Newman, Marah, timewellspent, Slow Jets, Carolyn Mark and the New Best Friends and Chris Richards. Mike also presents capsule reviews of releases by Eleni Mandell, Major, The Curse of the Planet Trampoline, Nanook of the North, The Like Young, The Jellybricks, a Kill Rock Stars compilation, Bad Religion, Robin Stanley, The Legends and Rainy Day Saints. Mike also has another CD-R of The Month.

Gary Glauber reviews the latest from Joe Jackson, Chomsky, Eugene Edwards, The Shimshaws, Spymob and The Strawmen.

Shona Winfrey reviews releases by Gomez and Salim Nourallah. Kurt Sampsel reviews a reissue by Them: Belfast Gypsies.

David Fufkin reviews the latest from the whiles.

If you are a first time visitor, visit our About Us page. Click here for back issues.

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Marlon Brando: The Original Rock 'n Roll Hero

Unless you just returned from a very isolated vacation, you know that Marlon Brando recently passed away. Whether Marlon Brando was the first icon of rock 'n roll is like debating what came first, the chicken or the egg. Rebellion existed before...

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The Ric Menck of Velvet Crush Interview

Velvet Crush is a rock band with a long career marked by exquisite songwriting, excellent taste and the right choices. Ric Menck, its drummer, is far more than the man behind the kit. He plays with the chops of a Keith Moon but with the rock solid sparse time of a Charlie Watts. He is an accomplished songwriter. He has toured with Matthew Sweet, Pernice Brothers and worked with Adam Schmitt. On their latest, Stereo Blues, Velvet Crush has made...

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Kill Your Idols by Jim Derogatis and Carmel Carrillo

by Mike Bennett

Any serious fan of rock music can reel off a list of so-called classic albums or sainted artists that do nothing for him (or her, as the case may be). For example, I've never been able to get into Patti Smith – she may have seemed to be an edgy punk in her day, but I have always found her music to be just as pretentious as the prog rock that punk, to an extent, was trying to eradicte.

It's always healthy to question the orthodoxy. It's in this spirit...

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The Last Rock and Roll Column

by Kurt Hernon

Mr. Fufkin,

Please excuse Kurt's absence the past few months as he was nursing a fractured spirit and battling the whogivesafuckanymore's. We hope that the time away has been well spent and will help him carry on in his endeavors.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yin and Yang

Time well spent indeed - deep inside of many a little brown bottle. Time well spent with favorite records. Time well spent wondering why I do this writing shit. Time well spent wondering whether or not anyone gives a damn. Time well spent figuring out that this writing gig had hardened my soul and...

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Dig The New Breed: Four Young Artists That Are
Bringing Real Soul Back

by Jon Bard

In a world gone pretty well mad, it's comforting to take note of the all-too-occasional instances in which sanity prevails. Perhaps that's why a handful of new recordings that stir echoes of classic soul's past have been met with such enthusiasm. Somehow, almost miraculously, a few lovely blooms of taste, restraint and honest-to-goodness soul have risen from the morass of modern-day R&B. It may not be much but, these days, any reason to celebrate should be embraced fully and joyously.

Let us, then, dig the new breed:

Joss Stone

Soul singing is, above...

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The World is Round

by Alan Haber

Customer Disservice

I have lately been in a de-cluttering mood. Nothing having to do with spring cleaning, mind you-just a general feeling of being caught in a cluttered vortex from which there is seemingly no escape. Like the feeling of being one of the yeomen on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise when Captain Kirk pleads with Scotty to give him more power, and Scotty shoots back, "Ai cahn't a-give you more'n the engines'll spit out, Captain!"

That's what clutter does: It stops...

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So Much Music....So Little Time

by Kevin Mathews

...Blurb-O-Rama Forever!

The Davenports Hi-Tech Lowlife (Motherwest)
Not quite as immediate as the sublime debut Speaking of the Davenports perhaps but Hi Tech Lowlife is evidence that Scott Klass (who is the Davenports) is definitely developing his art and craft to the level of greatness. The clever lyrics and the sheer quality of the tunes (which grow deep roots into your consciousness with repeated plays) demonstrate Klass' maturity and pop genius. www.motherwest.com

The Get Up Kids Guilt Show (Vagrant)
I was caught off-guard by the strident power pop evident on Guilt Show and here I was thinking...

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Further Observations of a Jangly Music Fan

by Eric Sorensen

June give me the opportunity to make a visit to the San Francisco area, and it was a blast to drive past Candlestick Park and the Cow Palace (sites of Beatles concerts held in the mid-60s) and the Fillmore West. It was also fun to share a picnic dinner and a Mary Chapin Carpenter concert at the Mountain Winery in the hills overlooking the South San Francisco area. Thanks to friends, Mike and Emily, for arranging this very enjoyable evening. While summer may be the season for families to vacation, pop artists don't seem to be taking any vacations of their own. June brought a very healthy "crop" of new discs for this writer to review, and here is my summary of the new discs and songs that should keep fellow Boomers...

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The Splitsville Interview

by Robert Pally

The new Splitsville CD brings together the best of their previous albums. Paul Krysiak talks about humour, a concept, being rich and famous, financing a record and reincarnation.

Robert Pally: "Incorporated" sounds like a sum up of all your previous albums. The punky bits are there, the soft ones and some Power Pop. Is there some truth in that? How do you see the album?

Paul Krysiak: I think...

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Gary Pig Gold Meets The Man Who Invented The Sixties

by Gary Pig Gold

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight."
(Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington D.C., August 28, 1963)

"From Dallas, Texas, the flash - apparently official - President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central standard time, 2 p.m. Eastern standard time, some thirty-eight minutes ago."
(Walter Cronkite, CBS Television, November 22, 1963)

"Houston, this is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed."
(Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11, July 20, 1969)

"There are SEVEN LEVELS."
(Paul McCartney discovers "the Message of the Universe," August 28, 1964)

Now, if veteran rabble-rousing, uber-networking, visionary ("Blacklisted") journalist Al Aronowitz's lifetime of achievements may be remembered for but one solitary event, may I posit it be for what he managed to pull off in the immediate hours following The Beatles' concert debut at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, Queens, New York, one dreamy midsummer 1964's night.

For it was within mere minutes after the final shrieks of and around "Long Tall Sally" wafted skyward...

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Additional Writers Needed

We are looking for additional writers with significant working knowledge of at least one genre of music, past or present.

E-mail us for more information. Take out the no_spam so that all you are left with is fufkin.com. Spider programs harvest our address and the spam is unbelievable.

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