Reviews
Workingman’s Dead – 50th Anniversary Reissue
As a rock music fan I’ve always felt it necessary to reckon with the Grateful Dead. I wasn’t around at the very beginning, but in my lifetime they became a cultural institution. My time came in 1988. I was living in my father’s basement in the far-north suburbs of Detroit, trying to figure my way […]
Daniel Dufour – Standards
by Leo Cahalan (Leo is a jazz head, an audiophile and a vinyl maven. If it’s on Blue Note, he probably has a copy.) “You need to take risks, you never know if the end results will be beautiful or strange, you need to be instantaneous, listening to every moment, without missing a scrap of […]
The Church of Jazz – an interview with author Vaughn Booker
360°Sound spoke with Vaughn A. Booker, assistant professor in the Department of Religion, including the Program in African and African American Studies, at Dartmouth College about his new book Lift Every Voice and Swing: Black Musicians and Religious Culture in the Jazz Century. The book discusses how jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington […]
Consider This – REM’s Out of Time
I recently had occasion to interact with REM bassist Mike Mills on social media about his old band’s classic album and commercial breakthrough, Out of Time. I had @ed Mike as part of my reply to a tweet, in order to compliment him on his lead-vocal turn on “Texarkana,” one of my favorite tracks on […]
Phil Ochs: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
by Kevin Frick (Kevin is a collector’s collector. He has always been the hippest with the music & clothes.) When the latest release from the Phil Ochs archive dropped at the end of May, it couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. The United States is currently experiencing its greatest moment of unrest since […]
Wilco Are An Important Band
Man, Jeff Tweedy has really let himself go. Let himself go back to making important music, that is. I can’t say that I’ve given more than a couple spins, a shoulder shrug and a “meh” for a Wilco record since A Ghost is Born. But their latest, Ode to Joy, has changed that. And it’s […]
Congregation of Vapors: Album Review
Congregation of Vapors Produced by Evan Michals & the project director Recorded at High Bias Recordings in Detroit Ear in Dead Wax Records Congregation of Vapors is a study in post-ironic apocalypticism. A stream of self-consciousness that attempts to answer the seminal question, “What the fuck?” Created by a small cadre of irreverent Detroit apostates, […]
New Order Decades: A Documentary Film
New Order: Decades is a fascinating look at the legendary new wave group that rose from the ashes of seminal post-punk band Joy Division following the suicide of singer Ian Curtis in 1980. Currently airing on Showtime, Decades is part retrospective music documentary, part concert film. “This is a film about the past, the present, […]
Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know
80s music lovers rejoice! Showtime has released new documentaries on two of the greatest bands of the decade — Duran Duran and New Order. While heavily associated with the 80s, these synth-heavy new wave acts from Britain carried on through the 90s and into the new millennium. Both bands continue to produce new material and […]
The Cowls: 360º and Mac & Cheese
Certain Calculations by The Cowls AnalogueTrash Late in 2018 360ºSound was turned on to the music of The Cowls. Very early in 2019, I sat down with the band’s main man, Damion Jurrens, for a lovely conversation over dinner. I met up with Damion at Homeroom: mac+cheese in Oakland, California and we chatted about the […]