Rob Smith provides some soulful sides to get us through winter’s last throes, in this week’s Popdose.com Friday Mixtape.
Rob Smith
226 Articles
Rob Smith is a writer, teacher, wage earner, and all-around evil genius who spends most of his time holed up in his cluttered compound in central PA. His favorite color is ultramarine blue. His imaginary band The Dukes of Rexmont tours every summer.
Rob Smith
4 Min Read
Much as he might want to, “Rob Smith Can’t Say No” to Billy Joel’s heavy metal (!) band Attila, only at Popdose.com!
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
We in the States have grown accustomed to the idea that Robbie Williams can be safely ignored, but in his latest Death by Power Ballad, Rob Smith shows us the error of our ways.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Rob Smith explores Sade’s first album in ten years, “Soldier of Love,” at Popdose.com.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Popdose’s Rob Smith “Can’t Say No” to reader requests. This time out, he gets his teeny-bopper on with Shaun Cassidy’s 1979 live album.
Rob Smith
4 Min Read
Rob Smith talks gibberish, nonsense, and Bad English in the new “Death by Power Ballad,” only at Popdose.com.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
In the latest installment of Popdose’s Flashback ’90 series, Rob Smith revisits the heartbreak and loneliness of Cowboy Junkies’ album The Caution Horses.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Rob Smith explores the lo-fi universe of singer/songwriter Dolph Chaney in the latest installment of “Rob Smith Can’t Say No,” only on Popdose.com.
Rob Smith
4 Min Read
Rob Smith explores the great Queen ballad “Sail Away Sweet Sister” in the latest installment of Popdose’s Death by Power Ballad.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Popdose’s Rob Smith “Can’t Say No” to Japanese rock, or J-Rock. This first in an ongoing series of musical explorations based on reader suggestions covers X Japan, Luna Sea, and more!
Rob Smith
2 Min Read
Popdose’s Rob Smith wants YOUR input for his new column, “Rob Smith Can’t Say No.” Send him your musical suggestions — anything you want — and he has to listen. Ready, set, go!
Rob Smith
4 Min Read
Rob Smith ponders the connection between reality TV and Alias’ classic power ballad “More than Words Can Say” in this week’s Death by Power Ballad.
Rob Smith
3 Min Read
Ex-Kansas vocalist John Elefante offers his cover of “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and Popdose’s Death by Power Ballad is there to praise it, in the spirit of the holidays.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
This recent missive to Clive Davis, major label majordomo and Svengali to the Adult Contemporary set, discusses Uncle Donnie’s ideas for a post-comeback Whitney Houston comeback. Whether Clive or Whitney…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
You blame it on Facebook. Had you not bowed to the entreaties of your more connected co-workers, you wouldn’t have seen her name, read her profile, or seen she now…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised about this, but Lev brought over this missive in which Uncle Donnie weighs in on the ongoing Aerosmith drama. -RS TO: Steven Tyler FROM:…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
We’re gathered together today at the Popdose dinner table to fill ourselves with the bounty of goodness from local farms and our communal garden out back (and, later, we shall…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
It’s rather pointless to review an AC/DC box set—you either love the band and have the thing already ordered or on your Christmas list, or you’re not going to bother….
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
What happens when three hairy Texans get sensitive? “Rough Boy.” It may not have lived up to its title in any way, but Rob Smith has a soft spot for ZZ Top’s contribution to the artform of the power ballad.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
This is a memo written in 1977 to the Canadian management of Rush. If pictures from this period are any indication, Uncle Donnie had taken to sporting a green Mohawk…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Back in her late-70s, “It’s a Heartache” period, gravelly voiced Bonnie Tyler was viewed chiefly as Rod Stewart with a vagina (a designation many have claimed simply describes Stewart himself)….
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Just because you extol the virtues of super freaky girls…and you’re dead…doesn’t mean Uncle Donnie can’t give you a little advice, does it?
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Some albums defy the usual judgments of good or badÁ¢€”they’re just wrong. I’m thinking of Liz Phair’s major label records (with the exception of the chorus of “Extraordinary”); or Sonny…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Had Bon Jovi been killed in a horrific, fiery airplane crash in 1985, we would remember them much differently than we do today. Had they experienced a painful, flesh-melting demise…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Yeah, sure, Courtney Love might seem like she has it all together — but Rob Smith’s Uncle Donnie Skwatzenschitz sees through that put-together facade, and he’s reaching out with a plan.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Built to Spill, There is No Enemy (2009, Warner Bros.) Purchase this album (Amazon) If Doug Martsch sang like Dave Grohl, Rivers Cuomo, or even Thom Yorke, Built to Spill…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
“It’s always that one song that gets to you. You can hide, but the song comes to find you.” — Rob Sheffield (Love Is a Mix Tape) I dislike Rob…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
The popularity of David Gray’s White Ladder nine or so years ago was a fluke, an accident, a total surprise, never should have happened. The man had been plugging away…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
According to Lev, Uncle Donnie served in some capacity in the Def Leppard camp during the recording sessions for Adrenalize, and wound up going out with them on one of…
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
After a four-year layoff, David Gray is back with a new album — which is just one of the things discussed during Rob Smith’s interview with the multi-platinum singer/songwriter.