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People write stories for a lot of reasons: to share an idea they think is important with the world; to explore places they’ve never been but always imagined going; to interpret their own experiences in a way that both disguises and closely examines the most wrenching, difficult parts of them. (Never underestimate the therapeutic power of taking control over something happening in your own life by writing about it.) But another reason people write stories is more prosaic, even selfish: because we want to create more of the kind of stories we most enjoy reading. The latter was one of…

Ah, the curse of high expectations. On Monday night I saw a very good band play a diverse set-list, delivering enthusiastic and well-received performances at an attractive venue. A good time appeared to be had by audience and performers alike. It should be that simple, shouldn’t it? But as with nearly anything connected to the almost 50-year-old progressive rock band Yes, the truth is more complicated. The complications begin with the fact that there are currently two bands calling themselves Yes on tour: the official Yes led by longtime guitarist Steve Howe and longtime drummer Alan White, and this upstart…

The word that comes up again and again both when talking about and when talking with Pete Mancini is craft. Mancini’s work as a singer-songwriter is all about craft, whether within the context of indie-rock/Americana quartet Butchers Blind or on his newest venture, a debut solo album that leans more to the country-folk side of the broad Americana equation. Mancini himself prefers to describe the music he makes in both contexts as “American music”—a rich mélange of blues, country, folk and the bastard child the three produced together: rock and roll (thank you, Chuck Berry).Mancini applies his considerable craft to…

Let’s be clear from the start what this list is and isn’t. It isn’t a list of my favorite albums, or the best albums by my favorite bands, or anything at all like that; kindly banish such thoughts from your mind. What this is, is a list of albums that reached me at a critical point along my journey and changed the way I heard music. Also, while the list itself is chronological, it’s not in the way you might expect; albums are listed in the order in which they had an impact on me, not the order in which…

You just never know. In one of the reviews referenced in my entry in our 20th Anniversary feature “20 Albums That Influenced Me,” I tell the story of getting to know the “girl next door” (actually three doors down) in my freshman-year college dorm, becoming friends before either of us had an inkling there might be higher stakes involved. Thirty-six years later, we have three grown children and a new grandchild. Neither of us saw that coming at the time; it just happened. You could say the same for my relationship with the Daily Vault, and writing about music. In…

They say it’s better to burn out than fade away. Switchfoot continues to burn brightly after 20 years and 10 studio albums because this band has never stood still; the restless vision of frontman/lyricist Jonathan Foreman won’t allow it, and co-founders Tim Foreman (bass) and Chad Butler (drums) and longtime cohorts Jerome Fontamillas (keyboards/guitar) and Drew Shirley (guitar) are enthusiastic collaborators in the ongoing experiment that is Switchfoot. A key component of that experiment is that Switchfoot—shades of Schrodinger’s cat—both is and isn’t a Christian band. Foreman’s lyrics dig deeply into questions of philosophy, morality, purpose and faith without ever…

“The human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.”― Mark Twain “I would never rule it out completely. But I don’t see it happening,” said longtime Fountains Of Wayne frontman Chris Collingwood in one of several recent interviews promoting the eponymous debut album from his new creative vehicle Look Park. The question: “Could you see Fountains Of Wayne reuniting someday?” It’s not hard to detect the notes of annoyance in the interviews Collingwood has done to promote Look Park; one imagines the inevitability of questions about his old band does little to ease the sting of…