This is some good stuff. A New York band that kicks up a glorious racket by combining all the best elements of rock, garage, pop and punk, all with melody,…
Rob Ross
1030 Articles
Rob Ross has been, for good, bad or indifferent, involved in the music industry for over 30 years - first as guitarist/singer/songwriter with The Punch Line, then as freelance journalist, producer and manager to working for independent and major record labels. He resides in Staten Island, New York with his wife and cats; he works out a lot, reads voraciously, loves Big Star and his orange Gretsch. Doesn't that make him neat?
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You’ve got to hand it to Paul Weller; he’s been at this since 1977 – in the recorded forum, that is – when The Jam released their debut single, “In…
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Melodic, catchy, beaty and buoyant would be a good way to describe the sound of the Freddy Jones band, as personified by this new track, “Those Diamonds”, taken as the…
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I had the very good fortune to first meet Captain Sensible 25 or so years ago, when I helped release The Damned’s seminal Machine Gun Etiquette for its first American…
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Kevin Prested does a fine job with his detailed history of Lookout Records, the Berkeley, California-based independent record label which gave a voice and a home to punk bands of…
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I will make no apologies for what I am about to say: I loved Spandau Ballet and I still think their albums – especially the first two – are classics…
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Dead Men Walking are, for all intents and purposes, a new band of some very familiar faces – well, familiar if you grew up in the punk/new wave scene of…
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In this period of celebration for The Who’s 50th Anniversary comes this excellent book by Mark Blake. Pretend You’re In A War: The Who & The Sixties is – for…
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Jeff Beck is my one guitar hero; that’s a known fact. I have all his albums, right through to Flash and have tried to incorporate some of his sound into…
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Los Angeles-based trio Wake Up Lucid unleashes their fourth offering, a 6-song E.P., Gone With The Night and it’s a slab of good old fashioned “super-rock”; a blinding flash of…
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This is excellent – and not in my usual line of musical vision. Tuneful, haunting, melodic, catchy and reminiscent in the best possible way of what I loved in the…
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New York native Jeff Le Blanc has had a busy year; not only did he collaborate with Liz Longley after her latest release (reviewed here on Popdose) on this new…
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Imaginary Future is really the vehicle for Jesse Epstein, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter. Sunlight, the newest album, is his 4th and it’s a concept piece. For the first time in…
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Another study (as opposed to pop history biography) that examines the qualities of the bands that came to the United States in the wake of the February 1964 arrival of…
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This is pure gold. I’m speaking both as a fan and as a music critic (!); this is a small, but perfect reminder of how a record company can do…
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Rob Ross
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This is one of those happier incidents where a band breaks up and comes back stronger than before. The short story is Will Currie and The Country French called it…
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Hailing from the Windy City, singer-songwriter Laura Joy offers up her sophomore effort – a five-song EP, Between Our Words. Low-voltage, lo-fi and warm, this is a fine mixture of…
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Mavericks of Sound: Conversations with the Artists Who Shaped Indie and Roots Music (to give it its full title), is a compendium of interviews done by music scholar David Ensminger…
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This is great. I’ll cut to the chase. New York-based Ohnomoon release their debut EP, VVV and it’s a knockout. Tight, melodic, familiar and combining the elements that I love…
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Six songs from this new New York-based trio and a nice find – The Shift’s 7th Direction is filled with chunky riffs, a water-tight rhythm section and melody. Hard rock,…
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It’s only fitting that a former schoolteacher could write so eloquently and with a sense of poetic finesse. Thus, Rachel Garland delivers these kinds of lyrics on her new –…
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The brilliance – musically and conceptually – of The Who’s third album, humorously titled The Who Sell Out, cannot be overstated or underestimated. Only two years on in their contracted…
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Started in September of 1966, the second album by The Who was to be a very different affair from their debut, My Generation, for several reasons: gone was producer Shel…
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With The Who’s 50th anniversary here, Universal, the owners of The Who’s catalog, have seen fit to bring out vinyl reissues of the band’s landmark first three albums. Geffen Records…
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This new album from Austin, Texas native Joe Pug has a lot going for it, considering its genesis was in a not-so-positive situation. From imbibing too much alcohol to feeling…
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You can make the argument that “classic/’60’s style pop” is making an upward surge in a big way from the United States and leading the charge would be New Jersey…
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A thoroughly enjoyable and tuneful collection of songs, Medicine For The Soul, the new release from the U.K.’s The Vagaband, is an exercise in melody. For a sophomore release, this…
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While her last EP, Robot Heart, turned a lot of heads (along with her interestingly innovative version of Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box), multi-instrumentalist/singer Kawehi is already back again with another…
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The Wrecking Crew is the brilliant new(ish) documentary from filmmaker Denny Tedesco; it’s a labor of love and small wonder – his late father Tommy was the brilliant guitarist who…