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…
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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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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Rob Ross
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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…
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Rob Ross
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That much of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles efforts have been unavailable for so long remains something of a mystery to me. His output with Wings and his solo albums during the…
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Rob Ross
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One of the more interesting (to fascinating) musicians/writers to come out of the post-punk era is unquestionably Nick Cave. As the lead singer of The Boys Next Door and The…
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Rob Ross
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Brooklyn singer/songwriter Hillary Capps shares with us at Popdose her latest video effort for the track “Love Love Love” and we, in turn, want to share it with you! The…
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Rob Ross
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As I did with the recent re-issues of Big Star’s #1 Record and Radio City, I went into listening and watching Live In Memphis with open mind and fresh ears, especially since…
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Rob Ross
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This five-song e.p. comes from a “family band” – the Wyatt siblings: Maddy on lead vocals, acoustic guitar and flute; Paul on lead guitar and Alex on drums, aided and…
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Rob Ross
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David Barbarossa is, undoubtedly, a man of many skins. He was part of the early punk scene as drummer in the original line-up of Adam and The Ants. As we…
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Rob Ross
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Interesting four-song e.p. from Boston synth-duo Adventure Set, who are comprised of singer Ken Scales and multi-instrumentalist Mark Pothier. For this mini-album, they’re aided and abetted by producer Stephen George,…
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Rob Ross
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A very nice debut, indeed; this first offering from Mark Rogers and Mary Byrne, who hail from Pennsylvania, but met in East Atlanta through the growing music scene. Having moved…
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Rob Ross
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The story of director Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank is simple: Jon is a would-be songwriter with endless ideas in his head, but no outlet. He winds up joining, due to an…