I don’t know if Peter Buck, the fellow who played guitar in that band from Athens, Georgia, intended his third solo release to be “funny” but damn it, it is. …
Rob Ross
1039 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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Rob Ross
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It’s a sadly familiar story: a hard-working band performs works their way to a major label deal only to have the rug pulled out from under them and… nothing. It’s…
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Rob Ross
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This is excellent – pure and simple. Chicago singer-songwriter Brandon Cunningham delivers four absolutely stunning tracks on this latest E.P., Giveout. From sparse and haunting to lush and textured, this…
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Very nice and impressive mini-album from Honey & The 45s, a Chicago-based outfit. Mad is a smooth mixture of soulfulness, funky grooves and Americana (quite an achievement) with great production…
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Rob Ross
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Delightful; warm; embracing. A few quick adjectives to describe Reckless Skyline, the new album from Caitlin Canty. This Vermont native delivers twelve songs that feel highly personal and intimate and…
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Rob Ross
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An E.P. is always a good way to dip your musical toe in the market; it’s also a great way to begin laying the foundation of a band-to-audience relationship. Two…
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Interesting, dreamy – veering close to neo-psychedelia and very good indeed. Pennsylvania’s Birdie Num Num And The Spirit Squad unleash 9 songs of melody, power, atmospherics and catharsis. Led by…
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Rob Ross
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A ninth solo album is no mean achievement; singer-songwriter-guitarist Victor Krummenacher (most often recognized for being a member of Camper Van Beethoven) has done just that with his latest effort,…
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Rob Ross
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I was fortunate enough to receive and read Heather Augustyn’s last two books; one on the history of ska and the other, a painstakingly researched biography of the late Jamaican…
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Since I didn’t do this last year, I’m throwing my hat in with every one of the fine folks here at Popdose as 2014 was one of the most interesting,…
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After a year of musical triumphs, this is a perfect way to end 2014. A wonderful mixture of classic sounds, harkening back to the likes of The Beach Boys, The…
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This Portland, Maine native sounds like he just stepped out of Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, circa late 1966/’67 with an album ready to go for Dunhill Records and…
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1979’s Setting Sons is probably the second finest piece of work released by The Jam during their career, which, on record, spanned from 1977 to 1982 – the finest being…
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VERY interesting and intriguing historic look at the Positive Force organization, which began in Nevada, but has thrived and stayed the course in Washington D.C. from 1985 onward. Led by…
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Rob Ross
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1977’s Two Sides To Every Story by the late Gene Clark, the erstwhile co-founder of The Byrds, has been long considered his finest solo effort (in the singer’s opinion). It’s…
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As it stands, the R.E.M. nostalgia/reissues campaign hasn’t slowed a bit, although this is definitely one for the completist/hardcore fan – and I should preface this by saying I certainly…
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Clean, neat and warm sounds fill this latest release from Boston’s The Grownup Noise. A full mix of acoustic guitars, piano, violin are part of the mix that color The…
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Rob Ross
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Austin, Texas resident and powerhouse singer Delaney Gibson delivers this lush, grand, well-produced album of eleven songs. Tall Like The Tree is the third release from this talent and it…
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Rob Ross
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What makes this book so interesting is, for a start, I have little-to-no great knowledge about the ’60’s folk-rock revolution aside from love for bands like The Lovin’ Spoonful, The…
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Rob Ross
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It’s already three years since Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe officially announced the end of R.E.M. as a band (after a 30-year run as a recording unit and…
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Rob Ross
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Okay, this is the shit – straight up. Some very obvious hook-mastery and full-bodied classic power pop but then it gets weird and spikey in an XTC kind of way. …
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If there’s one album that I can automatically point to/at which helped me – helped to shape me as a songwriter and start to hone my craft by way of…
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Rob Ross
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Good sounds all around from Screaming Trees mainman (and erstwhile Queen Of The Stone Age), Mark Lanegan and his band (including the incredible Alain Johannes on guitar and production duties…
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Rob Ross
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This new 6 song mini-album follows up the stellar 2013 release Someone Else’s Cake. Where that album had varied styles of what could be deemed as “classic power pop”, Pure…
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The music and artistry of Don Van Vliet, known to all and sundry as Captain Beefheart is very black and white – there are no greys here – you either…
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Rob Ross
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What was technically recorded as Arthur Lee’s second solo album after the dissolution of Love in 1971 became viewed as the “great lost Love album”, as the album was going…
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Rob Ross
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This is one of those albums where I cannot even remotely pretend to be objective – The Monkees was the first album I ever owned in my life, so it…
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Rob Ross
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I don’t know how to find the right words for two albums that were almost “standard issue” when I was a teen and starting to move towards playing guitar and…