Knock and Knowall

Album Review Steve Kilbey Sydney Rococo Golden Robot Records  https://goldenrobotrecords.com/golden-robot-records/steve-kilbey/ http://thetimebeing.com/ Like many American music fans around my age I didn't become aware of the Anglo/Australian band The Church until the release of their sixth album Starfish and the hit single "Under The Milky Way." I didn't become a fan of The Church until their follow-up Gold Afternoon Fix. That is the album where I jumped on and many who had discovered the band in the previous year quickly jumped off. I had never heard anything quite like Gold Afternoon Fix , an album that infuriated their label Arista Records and caused a rift that saw the label find clever ways to cheat them and sabotage their career. (One story, told to me by a promotion person at BMG, involved the pressing of 10,000 copies of a promo single, which were immediately destroyed and charged to the band.) Gold Afternoon Fix made me a fan and I set ...

Steve Hackett is one of the most enduring rock artists working today. Despite a long, fruitful solo career. with close to thirty solo albums in his catalog, he is still closely associated with the band he left in 1977. Steve does not avoid, but rather embraces, the association. In addition to releasing a new solo album of original material every two years or so, he has also created modern, sonically superior versions of those classic Genesis songs and goes out of his way to feature them live on massive world tours that would tire a younger man. At the end of January, just weeks before his 69th birthday, Hackett will release a new studio album At The Edge Of Light and embark on a 160 plus date world tour featuring Genesis music, classic solo material and select tracks from the new album. Steve was kind enough to call me late one cold evening from his London home. Here is what we talked about. Eric Sandberg: How are things in London? Steve Hackett: Very cold at the moment. ...

  Photo by Armando Gallo I am endlessly fascinated by the subject of popular music career paths. Who was in what band? Why did this one leave that band...who flourished...who sank like a stone...what were their motivations? I have spent countless hours studying Pete Frame's hand-sketched Rock Family Trees book and contemplating these scenarios. For example, take Bryan Ferry's relationship with Roxy Music. He was making solo albums concurrently with them but they mostly consisted of cover songs. When Roxy scored an international hit with "Love Is The Drug" he went solo. Everybody floundered after this so Roxy Music returned, releasing two uneven albums culminating in the creation of their timeless classic Avalon.  This accomplished, Ferry jettisoned his Roxy Music band mates once again to rebuild his solo career and never recorded under the name Roxy Music again. Genesis is a different story. Genesis' first album was a Moody Blues facsimile, while the...

Essay: Two Depressing Christmas Songs that Don't Suck It's become fashionable to complain about Christmas music - it starts too soon, it's too syrupy, and now it's even sexist and rapey . For example, Robyn Hitchcock, who's one of the "patron saints" of this site, recently Tweeted: Part of the problem is that it's a holiday that we're all expected to like, but we perceive differently. Many people don't even observe Christmas as a holiday, religious or secular, while some seem to really believe it's "the most wonderful time of the year" - kind of like there are people who think that Disneyland is the "happiest place on Earth". (I think there's a large overlap in the later groups... for them, Christmas at Disneyland must be the closest thing to an ecstatic experience...) Then there are those of us - and there are many - who have a complex relationship with the holiday. I come from a non-religious background, wi...

  Concert Review 9th Annual Jackshit Christmas Show  McCabe's Guitar Shop December 14, 2018 https://www.jackshittheband.com/band.php https://www.mccabes.com/ https://www.mhopus.org/ I can honestly say that, until the evening of December 14th, 2018, I didn't know Jackshit. I was invited by Mike Berman (my erstwhile partner in this little opining venture) who could scarcely contain his excitement at securing two tickets...something about Elvis' rhythm section, some Scottish guy and guest stars? Heck, I'd go see William Hung if it was at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. I've never once looked at my watch during a show at McCabe's. Now it's the morning after and boy do I know Jackshit. You ignorant fools! I've been a devoted fan for years! I have all their albums! Look, one is signed by all three of them! But seriously, folks, there is nothing serious about Jackshit except for their astonishing musical ability and their obvious sh...