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Featured Feature: Felix Cavaliere
About This Archive
In Summer 2009, I (Bill Kopp) began a blog; that blog is updated with new content -- reviews, essays, interviews, features and whatnot -- every business day. And that's been the case for over three years; there you will findBut prior to the start of the blog, I wrote quite a bit as well. The site you're currently viewing is the permanent archival home for that content. Here you'll find interviews with Crowded House, Flaming Lips, Robyn Hitchcock, Tommy Keene, Los Straitjackets, Andy Partridge (XTC), Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices), Polyphonic Spree, Joe Satriani, Pete Yorn and many others.
You'll also find reviews of hundreds of releases (CDs and music-related DVDs) from the mid- to late 00's, as well as essays and other relevant items. Lastly, you'll find a list -- no longer updated -- of unofficial/ROIO recordings that may or may not be part of my permanent collection. Nobody's saying.
All told, there are countless hours (mainly because no one's counted 'em) of reading to be found in this archive. But for everything post Summer 2009 -- right up to this very day -- visit the Musoscribe blog. You can always come back here later.
Featured Review
Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective
Seven CDs represents quite a lot of music. And all of the music on Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective was recorded in the space of six and half year years. The earliest tracks date from spring 1965, and the latest cuts were recorded in fall 1971. But the 129 tracks span an impressively wide stylistic range, making the case (if such a case really needed making) that Duane Allman was one of the great guitarists of his generation. As a band leader, jam/collaborator and/or session player, Allman never failed to bring a fresh and unique approach to the song at hand.While Allman developed a signature style – especially on slide guitar – he was adept and bending his style in the direction other artists’s projects needed. The result (as showcased mostly on discs 2-5)...
Coming Soon to the Blog...
Interviews & Features
- Bill Spooner of The Tubes
- Bobby Rush
- Rudi Protrudi of The Fuzztones
- The Orange Peels' Allen Clapp
- Stick Men: Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Markus Reuter
- and plenty more. No kidding.
Album Reviews (Reissues etc.)
- Quicksilver Messenger Service - Live at the Fillmore (June 7, 1968)
- Curved Air - Airwaves
- and plenty more. No kidding.
New Album Reviews
- Judy Dyble - Talking With Strangers
- R. Stevie Moore - "I Missed July" b/w "Traded My Heart for Your Parts" single
- Hymn for Her - Lucy and Wayne's Smokin' Flames
- and plenty more. No kidding.
Show Reviews
- 50 Shades! The Musical
- The Black Angels with The Allah-Las
- Charles Bradley & the Extraordinaires
- They Might be Giants with Moon Hooch
- and plenty more. No kidding.
Twitter Feed
Let me tell you what I think...
Somebody -- we think it was either Elvis Costello or Frank Zappa; recent evidence suggests Martin Mull...nobody's sure -- famously said that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Well, so be it. And speaking of ol' Frank, it really was him who defined rock journalism as "people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read." With that in mind, I offer musoscribe.com as my own humble addition to that proud tradition.I've written for Billboard, Shindig!, Trouser Press, jambase.org, Ugly Things, 60sgaragebands.com, WNC Magazine, and many other publications large and small. From 2005 until its demise, I wrote for Skope Magazine; from 2006 until the end, I served as Editor-in-Chief of that national music magazine. And for what it's worth, my music collection numbers in the several thousands. And I'm a musician (though the rewards for my being one are decidedly non-monetary).
I hope you find the site entertaining, and perhaps even useful.
Again, the blog contains my work from mid 2009 to present-day, but my older pieces are here Here's what's on:
- Features - In the last few years -- and continuing still -- I have interviewed some of the most fascinating and influential artists on the music scene. Click into this section to read features on (and interviews with) Yoko Ono, Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Neil Finn of Crowded House, bluesman Johnny Winter, and many, many more.
- Reviews - Here you'll find informed reviews and critical assessments of recent music releases. You'll find some undiscovered gems, and get the lowdown on some really awful albums that should never have been released.
- Essays - Career-spanning retrospectives on Pink Floyd and Todd Rundgren can be found here, plus interviews and features with important music-related figures. And more, of course, including stories on music-related technology.
- The "Blast From the Past" column - Everything old is new again; as Edgard Varèse famously said, "The present-day composer refuses to die!" Read reviews of notable and recent reissues.
- (the collection) - If I had a huge collection of unreleased music (not saying I do, you understand) this is where you'd find a current inventory of it.
- About - About me, if you care to know a bit more.
