Can’t Fight The Fever

By David Speranza

When the movie Saturday Night Fever was released in December of 1977, it became a smash critical and popular success that delivered disco to the masses, John Travolta to movie theaters, and a soundtrack that became the biggest-selling of all time. But in my household, the film’s influence was precisely . . . nil. Considering my family’s strict rock & roll diet, at 13 I didn’t have to be told that a movie about disco was persona non grata. (Say it with me now: “Disco sucks.”) But beyond hewing to the party line, we also thought those high-pitched Bee Gee voices were whiny, nasal, and annoyingly ubiquitous in the months following the film’s release.

And those voices—along with the other Fever songs cramming the airwaves—were everywhere. I don’t remember how many times we’d be driving somewhere when that thumping bass and Gibb-brother whine would suddenly infect the car radio, causing one or the other Woodstock-era parent to reach violently for the tuner with a stream of R-rated invective. I knew the rules: if it had a dance beat, it was shunned—as clear as the laws of physics.
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So They Were Stars: The Razzle Dazzle Rockin’ Reign of the Hudson Brothers

By Cait Brennan

The Bible says music tore down the mighty walls of Jericho. In the 1960s and ’70s, rock and roll did the same for a generation of girls and young women. The rise of pop culture brought women and girls an unprecedented level of freedom, power, and influence. Perhaps it can’t quite be called “feminist,” and it may seem like a small thing, but before the mid-’60s, before the Beatles and Monkees, who could have imagined whole magazines devoted to pin-up boys?
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Linda Ronstadt: Not So Easy

By David Speranza

She’s not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She’s shockingly absent from Rolling Stone‘s list of Top 100 Singers. And yet in the 1970s she went where no woman had gone before, a female superstar in a male realm, clearing the way for the generations of pop, rock, and country superstars to come. She was featured on six Rolling Stone covers, the covers of Time and Newsweek, and received such appellations as “queen of rock,” “first lady of rock,” “rock’s superwoman,” and “top female pop singer of the decade.”

She was the first artist since the Beatles—and the first woman ever—to have two Top Five singles at the same time. Her string of multi-platinum albums and unprecedented (for a woman) arena rock shows made her the highest-paid female musician of the decade. Critical approval included a satchel-ful of Grammys, multiple Vocalist of the Year awards, and a date singing “The Star Spangled Banner” at Game Three of the 1978 World Series. Her voice was a technically perfect yet heartfelt instrument capable of expressing a multitude of emotions in an intimidating array of styles. Where female rockers were concerned, there was Linda Ronstadt—and there was everyone else.
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Way Out Sounds: Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Synths That Defined The Seventies

By Ayan Farah

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Roger Joseph Manning Jr. is renowned for the melody-rich, intricately arranged compositions his fans have latched onto throughout his nearly 25-year musical career. In each of his diverse band projects (Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, The Moog Cookbook, TV Eyes, Malibu), his ongoing collaborations with Beck, as well as his stellar solo efforts (2006’s The Land of Pure Imagination and 2008’s Catnip Dynamite), what remains constant is Manning’s unshakable ability to create very complex yet highly enjoyable music that is punctuated by his keyboard wizardry.

His indelible mark in the world of keyboards is embodied by his innovative use of vintage analog synthesizers, while his vast collection of those instruments over the years has cultivated a greater proficiency, intimacy, and almost encyclopedic knowledge of his primary instrument of choice. ” I did a lot of treasure hunting”, explains Manning. “I spent a lot of time in the early Nineties looking for stuff. I was quite the addict for those antique keyboards.”
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Want To Start An Instant Argument? Let’s Talk About ’70s Fenders!

By J Howell

In the exhaustive (and frankly exhausting) world of Internet forum guitar dorkery, few topics seem as sure-fire a heated debate-starter as the mere mention of Fender’s output in the halcyon days of the 1970s. To be fair, even in the mesozoic Internet days of the late ’90s, when I was working in a mostly-vintage-and-used guitar/hi-fi shop, plenty of—ahem—discussion was to be heard nearly any day of the week when it came to Fenders of that period.
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The Jesus Lizard, CLUB DVD

By Ann Clarke

Filmed in Nashville in July of 2009, this DVD is a one-night glimpse into what was a reunion-ish tour that I really wish I’d had a chance at seeing (no shows came anywhere near me). But luckily someone had the sense to capture it (and capture it well, I might add!)

I had seen Jesus Lizard live footage before, but regrettably I have never seen them live. I had a good idea of what to expect, and what is captured on this DVD lives up to my expectations.
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Arkham City: World Of Echo

By Paul Casey

Arkham City, released October 21, is an important Batman story. While perhaps not as unexpected as its predecessor, Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady have turned in a Batman game that builds on that one’s many successes. As someone who has been obsessed with Batman for a couple of decades, with changing degrees of intensity, Arkham City is literally a dream come true.

To have an interactive slab of Gotham City with such extremely detailed and well observed parts of Batman’s long history concealed for your own brand of detective work . . . well, it makes me feel both old and lucky to have been around this long. That the game is actually a wonderful, expertly paced, physical experience is something else entirely. As with Arkham Asylum, it still seems quite unusual to have a great comic book like Batman finally tap into why video games are such an exciting medium.

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The Smile Sessions

By Paul Casey

As Paul Williams said in 1997—prematurely as it turns out—upon the release of 30 minutes of the SMiLE music on the Good Vibrations box set, SMiLE is Done. The release of The Smile Sessions by EMI and Capitol Records on November 1, 2011, is the end of a long strange journey. You can read my thoughts on the phenomenon of SMiLE in my other article, but this one is purely about the music.

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The SMiLE Meme

By Paul Casey

Smile logo
by Mark London

“SMiLE music is sacred. It is not to be messed with. Isn’t anything sacred anymore?”
—Sheriff John Stone

The Smile Sessions, released on November 1 from EMI and Capitol Records, marks in a significant way, the end for those who have centered their lives around the SMiLE Meme. The myth of the Perfect Album. The myth of the Lost Album. The myth of The Beach Boys (and their insecure fans) besting The Beatles (and their satisfied fans). While the reality of the music of SMiLE and the journey it went on is far more interesting to this writer’s ears, some continue to covet the picture in their head with fetishistic pride.

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The Explorers Club, The Carolinian Suite EP

By Cait Brennan

The Grand Hotel is still under construction . . . but your complimentary suite is ready.

It’s been three years since Charleston, South Carolina’s pop revivalists The Explorers Club released Freedom Wind, a peach of a debut record that sounded for all the world like a Great Lost Beach Boys masterpiece. I’ll never forget the first time I heard that album’s “Last Kiss”—speeding down the 101 through Hollywood, right as the Capitol Records tower came into full view, all sunshine and blue skies and ocean breezes. The perfect soundtrack to a perfect day. Somewhere, Brian Wilson was smiling.
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