Barney Hoskyns co-founded and editorially directs Rock’s Backpages. He is the author of, among other books, Across the Great Divide: The Band & America (1993), Waiting for the Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes & the Sound of Los Angeles (1996), Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons (2006) and the Tom Waits biography Lowside of the Road (2009). Formerly US correspondent for MOJO, he resides in London's leafy East Sheen, the birthplace of rock and roll.
The most remarkable thing about the former Lizzy Grant’s Born To Die album is that it’s so… ordinary. On the basis of ‘Video Games’ I was hoping for music to match the studiedly glacial, almost Lynch-esque persona, smart pop candy … Continue reading
Chanced on this great recent interview with Thom Bell, Philly soul genius behind the great Delfonics, the Stylistics and other hits… didn’t he blow my mind this time!
Read all about it… Spin now proposing to cover new releases in 140-character Tweet-bites… the end (of critical analysis) is surely nigh.
My playlist for the year just passed: twenty sublime songs to lift the spirit and heal the soul… 1 “The Glorious Land” by PJ Harvey Polly Jean becomes the conscience of the nation on this urgent, elegiac lament. Glorious … Continue reading
At least someone had the balls to say it: the excellent Frances Stonor Saunders on the cult of Christopher’s personality in today’s Guardian…
Manny Finkelmann, who bears an eerie resemblance to John Mendelsohn (aka The Founding Father Of Rock Criticism), provides a withering exposé of what goes on behind the scenes at the Grammy Awards…
It’s finally happened! Along with Guns N’ Roses (groan), the Red Hot Chili Peppers (semi-groan), the Beastie Boys (grin), the Small Faces (broad smile) and Donovan (enigmatic expression), the great – the very great – Laura Nyro (inspiration to all … Continue reading
Herewith the great Mr. Kent, with presenter and arch-fan Bobby Gillespie to his immediate left, receiving the RBP-sponsored Outstanding Achievement in Music Journalism award at last week’s highly-enjoyable Record Of The Day Awards Continue reading
As a staunch and loyal fan of Dame Katherine, I have to confess to some surprise at the plethora of 5-star reviews elicited by 50 TYPES OF SNOW. I’ve spent a week with the album and cannot discern what is … Continue reading
No idea why I started thinking about this, but if you listen to these solos and get the same huge pleasure I do from them, then it was worth wasting half a minute of your life: 1 Jeff Beck on … Continue reading
Couldn’t resist forwarding this Al Kooper email into the ethersphere: I wrote the below missive to Bob Lefsetz Letters column early on Setember 11th 2009 Bob writes a blog that EVERYONE in the music business reads and responds to >> … Continue reading
Watching the West Brom game yesterday I couldn’t for the life of me see why CFC had paid all that money to lure Villas-Boas [or AVB, as we apparently must now know him] away from Porto. Nothing that happened in … Continue reading
(… also the return of myself after almost a decade to the pages of MOJO.) Posting this because I’m loving the record so very much: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Mirror Traffic Steve’s fifth post-Pavement platter, produced in LA by … Continue reading
A quick thought while we lament the snuffing-out of a great talent: Amy died 10 days after the great Jerry Ragovoy passed away, and it reminded me that what was particularly great about Back to Black was that (R&B-wise) it … Continue reading
THIS JUST IN FROM RBP CONTRIBUTOR HOLLY GLEASON, AS POSTED ON LA TIMES BLOGS… Remembering legendary Cleveland rock critic Jane Scott July 4, 2011 | 12:03 pm She was like Andy Warhol: iconic blond hair set in a most determined … Continue reading
In case you didn’t already hear it/read it/know about it, this was what Bruce Springsteen had to say about his big, hard-blowin’ buddy, Mr Clemons… FOR THE BIG MAN I’ve been sitting here listening to everyone talk about Clarence and … Continue reading
The horror, the horror… Last night I watched the last of Adam Curtis’ mind-bending TV trilogy ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE (about… oh forget it, I wouldn’t know where to begin) and found myself thinking, as cameras … Continue reading
L.A. TIMES MAGAZINE Sunday JUNE 5, 2011 The 50 Best L.A. Bands Sparks Van Halen Oingo Boingo The Doors Rage Against the Machine The Beach Boys Los Lobos Linkin Park Love X Weezer The Byrds The Blasters Red Hot Chili … Continue reading
Thanks to the generosity of a well-connected pal, my wife and I found ourselves on Saturday night at a gathering of the very well-heeled – all done up in dickie bows and evening gowns – who’d come together green-belt Surrey … Continue reading
Fans of Funkapolitan, Gene Loves Jezebel and Guru Josh, prepare to gnash your teeth! From Richard Sanderson’s Baggage Reclaim blog…
Brain food for thought… A Generation’s Vanity, Heard Through Lyrics By JOHN TIERNEY New York Times, April 25, 2011 A couple of years ago, as his fellow psychologists debated whether narcissism was increasing, Nathan DeWall heard Rivers Cuomo singing to … Continue reading
Heads up on the eve of Faber’s publishing (in June) the latest book by RBP contributor Reynolds, which boasts the apt subtitle “Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past”. Smart as ever, Simon exhaustively explains how we are trapped in … Continue reading
Not sure how I missed this Russian director’s follow-up to his remarkable debut The Return, but BBC4 showed it last week and I lay on the sofa in a state of suspended dream animation watching this dark drama unfold. Very … Continue reading
Some very good news from the US: Kevin Avery’s anthology of articles by the pioneering Paul Nelson – founder of The Little Sandy Review, reviews ed of Rolling Stone and more, much more – is finally being published in November … Continue reading
This can only be good news. If you’re really desperate to read a Billy Joel book, try Hank Bordowitz’s 2005 tome THE LIFE & TIMES OF AN ANGRY YOUNG MAN… “Billy Joel will not now publish his autobiography in June … Continue reading
