Posts Tagged Pop
Archive
February 13, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Bashing Out: My Top 10 ‘Drum’ Albums
I was hooked on Modern Drummer magazine as a teen. And I always liked reading the record reviews at the back of the Modern Drummer, they focused on drums and ‘drum’ albums or at least highlighted the drums and drumming on pop and rock records when they reviewed them. They might write-up a pop album because of […]Archive
December 27, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 22: The Beau Brummels – “Triangle”
Another great revelation here, another reason to do this challenge, to read this book and make sure I check out the albums I haven’t previously hear. I know The Beau Brummels as reference only. If I’d ever previously heard any of their music I’d never stopped to identify it; I’m sure I’ve never head them. […]Archive
December 15, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 217 – Verlaines, Wellington, 2016
Shit this was good. I mean great. I mean really fucking good. Cos for some reason I kinda wasn’t expecting it to be. I love the Verlaines, sure. But I’d seen The Chills the night previous (this was billed as “The Dunedin Double” – though it was arbitrary, no anniversary or anything…) and I just […]Archive
December 8, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 461
Ritz, Puttin’ On The Ritz (1979) I have more records than I’ll ever need – but it’s not about need, it’s about want, of course, any collector of any kind knows that. That said I’ve started addressing this – getting rid of a few records here and there, things I’ve bought only to realise I’ll […]Archive
November 30, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 19: Astrud Gilberto – “Beach Samba”
“Stay and we’ll make sex with music…” Er…OKAY! (I’m glad I never heard this as a teenager, geez – what an opening line!) Astrud Gilberto is, for most, the voice of The Girl From Ipanema and that’s enough – by that I mean it’s one the great songs. So anything else she did was a […]Archive
October 29, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 16: Paul Revere & The Raiders – “Midnight Ride”
We should all take time out in – and of – our busy lives to listen to Paul Revere & The Raiders, particularly this album. That’s the take-home from finally sitting down to hear this. Oh, I knew a few of the hits, and a lot of the stuff on here, had a couple of […]Archive
October 17, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 485
Miami Sound Machine, Conga! [Single] (1985) From the album Primitive Love – the Ninth! By Miami Sound Machine and it was here that Gloria Estefan became the breakout star, which eventually caused trouble, jealousy, all that stuff. She went solo. The band limped on. Then didn’t. Etc. I was a big fan of the early […]Archive
October 15, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Grady Tate
The American jazz drummer and vocalist Grady Tate has died. He was 85. The cause: complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was one of my favourite drummers. There’s a good chance he was one of your favourite drummers too – even if you think you didn’t know his playing there’s every chance you did. He played […]Archive
October 14, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 15: The Mamas & The Papas – “If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears…”
It was easy to get sick of Monday Monday and California Dreaming – big, big songs (brilliant songs) but when the sixties revival kicked in these were the sorts of songs that were ubiquitous – or close enough. I liked The Mamas & The Papas because my mum played a cheap Greatest Hits tape in […]Archive
May 31, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
From The Archives: A Chat With Jamie Lidell
As I’ve said previously I had this insane year in around 2008 where I was writing a daily blog, working full-time, writing reviews for Wellington’s paper, freelancing elsewhere including TV and radio spots and publishing work under a fake name for one of the Auckland-based weekend papers. Not sure how it was being done really […]Archive
April 2, 2017 by Simon Sweetman