The chords underpinning a song are like the tune’s bones. Some genres, like country or punk, routinely have very simple chord changes, using two or three simple chords. The Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ uses the three power chords B5, E5, and…
Townes Van Zandt was born into a prominent Texas family and had a high IQ, so his family groomed him to become a lawyer or senator. He suffered from manic depression, and was given insulin shock therapy, which erased much…
Welcome back to the last episode of the 6 week decade challenge. Let’s check the leader-board. Average Paul 61% Badfinger 65% Chris 66% J 67% 2loud2oldmusic 68% jprobichaud 72% Angie 74% Jim S 74% Bruce 75% Rich K 81% Tony…
Vampire Weekend’s first three records collided indie rock into African guitars. The New York four piece emerged with their debut album in 2008, as the popularity of indie guitar bands was waning, but their approach was fresh enough that they…
The two main creative forces in Slint, vocalist/guitarist Brian McMahan and drummer/guitarist/vocalist Britt Walford, both played in the Louisville punk band Squirrel Bait in the mid-1980s. Along with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Ethan Buckler, they formed Slint in 1986.…
The 1970s quiz last week threw out some divergent scores, and the leader board now looks like this: Average J 59% Paul 63% Badfinger 67% 2loud2oldmusic 71% Bruce 74% Rich K 80% Jim S 80% Angie 82% Tony 93% As…
Little Richard emerged in the first wave of rock and roll in the 1950s, with hits like ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’. He and his contemporaries lost steam by the late 1950s; Elvis joined the army, Buddy Holly perished…
Welcome to week 4 of the Music Decades Challenge. Of the contestants who’ve completed all 3 challenges so far, the leaders in average score are: Badfinger 56% Paul 62% J 62% Bruce 68% jprobichaud 74% Rich K 78% 2loud2oldmusic 79%…
Brooklyn power-pop band Charly Bliss impressed with their 2017 debut Guppy. Their energetic power-pop was indebted to the 1990s, with parallels to Weezer’s debut and Veruca Salt. But Guppy was a terrific album; the band’s excellent hooks, coupled with Eva…
Background Andy Partridge, bassist Colin Moulding, and drummer Terry Chambers started playing in a band together in 1972, opening for Thin Lizzy in 1973 and plying glam-rock as the Helium Kidz. The group eventually added manic keyboardist Barry Andrews and…
