And You Were Here! — Yesterday, seven other music lovers joined me for the May Riff Album Discussion, which featured Pink Floyd’s sometimes overlooked 1975 release, Wish You Were Here. I say “sometimes,” because in doing research on the Best Ever Albums site (the one I use for my “Worst Best Album Series,” I discovered…

“My doctor told me I had to stop throwing intimate dinners for four unless there are three other people.” — Orson Welles — 11. “8:05” by Moby Grape Moby Grape got its name as the punch line of the joke, “What’s big and purple and lives in the ocean?” “8:05” was written by guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson. It was a highlight of their self-titled 1967 debut album. …

In a lot of ways, Pearl Jam’s Binaural record represents a lot of beginnings and ends for the band. The band said goodbye to producer Brendan O’Brien, and hello to Tchad Blake. They’d already bade farewell to drummer Jack irons, and Matt Cameron joined them in the studio for the first time. Mike McCready went into rehab to say goodbye to an addiction. This would be the group’s 6th studio album, and by this point they’d long left chasing chart numbers in the rearview mirror.

A look at the 90s heyday of a fantastic band — I’ve spent most of the past two years skipping through a meadow of 90s music nostalgia. I love stumbling upon new bands and new genres. My appreciation for more modern music hasn’t waned, but I find the music of my youth oddly comforting. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic…

For someone who describes himself as a non musician, Brian Eno has had an outsized influence on music & musician both. — From his early days as a member of Roxy Music, to his own solo albums, to working with a multitude of artists and producing 100s of records, his body of work is massive. Going through them all is far beyond the scope of this essay, but writing this on his…

A Yardstick for Lunatics — 1. Guitarist Ed King of Strawberry Alarm Clock (“Incense and Peppermints”) later joined A. The Marshall Tucker Band B. The Allman Brothers Band C. Lynyrd Skynyrd D. Atlanta Rhythm Section 2. Professional wrestling manager Jimmy Hart, known as “The Mouth of the South,” was once a member of what band? …

Amoeba Music explores what your favorite artists are listening to — Even if you’re not from California, you’ve likely heard of Amoeba Music. Billed as the world’s largest independent record store, Amoeba’s flagship location sits square in the center of Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard. There are bustling satellite locations on Haight Street in San Francisco and Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Music…

Heavy Rotation — Stars of Warburton, Midnight Oil (Blue Sky Mining, 1990) — Heavy Rotation was a music industry term for songs that one way or another got a lot of airplay. It referred to the large amount of rotation that a particular record got on turntables at radio stations. Since, until the 1980s, this was the only way to get new music…

We travel to four continents in this week’s selection — Greetings music lovers — if you’ve just landed here, this is part5 of a long-running series as we listen to 1001 songs to hear before you die, based on the book of the same name. Catch up on previous instalments via this Medium list. 1001 Songs to Hear Before You Die medium.com Here we go with our eclectic…