Popdose Guides »

The Popdose Guide to Nick Lowe

Jeff Giles March 11, 2008 18

Doesn’t look like the godfather of punk, does he? Well. Maybe not the godfather, but perhaps a kindly uncle. Either way, Nick Lowe’s footprint on punk — hell, on all of British pop music,

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The Popdose Guide to Al Jarreau

Jeff Giles March 4, 2008 15

What, you thought we were kidding around with the whole “Al Week” thing? Shame on you. And while we’re at it, shame on you for thinking Al Jarreau is too square for the retrospective

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The Popdose Guide to Toto

Jeff Giles February 19, 2008 46

I love rooting for the underdog. In almost any scenario, whether it’s sports or politics or just plain real life, I root for the little guy. This means I’m frequently frustrated, of course, but

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The Popdose Guide to Tom Waits

Ben Wiser February 12, 2008 18

[He doesn't write them anymore -- in fact, they aren't even online anymore -- but truth be known, it was my good friend Ben Wiser who inspired the original Idiot's Guide series, via his

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The Popdose Guide to Lloyd Cole

Ken Sumka February 5, 2008 14

[Editor's Note: I just checked, and it was November 24, 2005 when I got an e-mail from Ken saying "If you ever want someone to do a guest Idiot's Guide to: The Smiths, R.E.M.

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The Popdose Guide to Ornette Coleman

Michael Fortes January 29, 2008 19

I am not one to toss around the word “hero” lightly. It takes extraordinary courage to earn such a designation. I am also not one to write one of these artist overviews with too

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The Popdose Guide to The Call

Jeff Giles January 15, 2008 31

Welcome to the Popdose Guide to The Call, a semi-forgotten group that had a couple of hits in the ’80s, but has seen its catalog fall out of print and into obscurity over the

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The Popdose Guide to Nanci Griffith

Jon Cummings January 8, 2008 14

Nanci Griffith is arguably the most important folk-music artist of her generation. That statement is risky not so much because there are so many other contenders for the throne, but because we live in

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The Popdose Guide to John Mellencamp

Anthony Kuzminski January 1, 2008 11

Act I: Johnny Cougar Chestnut Street Incident (1976) purchase this album (Amazon) I remember finding a cassette of this album back in the ’80s and enjoying the hell out of it, most notably for

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The Popdose Guide to John Hiatt

Jeff Giles April 10, 2007 0

For the first decade or so of his career, John Hiatt was a case of mostly unfulfilled potential. Everyone knew he was a good songwriter — particularly other songwriters — but, for one reason

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