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02 Jul

Chris Squire: An Appreciation

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Writers hate clichés, but sometimes only clichés will suffice. That may be one of the reasons I’ve struggled to put words together about the death of Chris Squire, co-founder, bassist and harmony vocalist of the pioneering progressive rock ensemble Yes, a band I’ve been a devoted fan of for more than 40 years. The thing about clichés, though, is that, like stereotypes, they all descend from some original germ of truth. “Larger than life,” “a force of nature,” “a tremendous innovator,” “hugely influential”—beyond a doubt, Christopher Russell Edward Squire was all of these things and more. Another reason I’ve struggled…

15 Dec

2014: Half Good

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For me, 2014 was the Year of the Late-Inning Rally. As in, during the first half it felt like nothing caught my interest at all (well, not nothing… there was Elbow). But the second half was a whole other story, as album after album appeared that convinced me to sit up and take notice. So, in the end, not half bad—or, since I’m an optimist by nature: half good. Best Miles Davis-King Crimson CrossoverLevin Brothers – Levin BrothersDrawing on a century’s worth of musical mastery between them, brothers Pete Levin (Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Freddie Hubbard) and Tony Levin (King…

01 Jun

The Lost Reviews of Christopher Thelen

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By the time he retired from The Daily Vault in 2012, site founder Christopher Thelen had written well over 1,000 reviews for our pages. From the 26-review "A To Z" New Year's Eve feature to a month devoted to the entire discography (at the time) of Frank Zappa, he wasn't afraid to tackle anything - or ruffle people's feathers. But after 15 years of running and writing for the site, he finally decided enough was enough, and went off quietly into the background with his dog, Sounder, and we thought we had (finally) heard the last from the old windbag.…

11 Feb

How to Kill the Daily Vault, in One Easy Step

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Don’t buy music. It’s really that simple. If you don’t pay for the music you listen to, if you copy it or download it from a file-sharing site or do whatever else you do to steal it—and yes, it is stealing, quit trying to rationalize it, you are taking something that belongs to someone else (the artist) without their permission and without compensating them, that’s the definition of THEFT, people—then you will eventually, one day, kill the Daily Vault. You probably won’t kill most of the other sites around that claim to deliver music reviews, most of which have already…

05 Jan

Michael R. Smith’s 50 Years Of Debut Albums

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What's new? What's hot? These are questions we've been asking for as long as popular music has existed. Over the past 50 years hundreds of thousands of debut albums have appeared. From January through November 2014, contributing writer Michael R. Smith reviewed his favorites from a half-century of classic debut discs. 1/5/14 - The Beatles / Please Please Me1/12/14 - Simon & Garfunkel / Wednesday Morning, 3 AM1/19/14 - The Monkees / The Monkees 1/26/14 - The Velvet Underground / The Velvet Underground And Nico 2/2/14 - The Stooges / The Stooges 2/9/14 - John Lennon / John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band…

19 Dec

2013: Full Power

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Despite railing on a semi-regular basis against the tyranny of genres in music, I spent an awful lot of 2013 within the confines of just two of them, and the two could hardly have been more different—progressive rock and Americana. But as the saying goes, if you’re going to dig, shouldn’t you mine where the gold is? Best One I Missed Last Year (I Do That A Lot)Gary Clark Jr. – Blak And Blu I prefer this title for this award to the leading alternative: Jason Is Slow Sometimes. Gary Clark’s major-label debut is a blazing inferno of blues-infused psychedelic…

19 Nov

Springsteen & I: The Story of Rock’s Biggest Fan, and His Fans

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They used to call Eric Clapton “God,” but the highest anyone’s ever placed Bruce Springsteen in the pecking order is “The Boss.” This is ironic only insofar as anyone who has ever observed the fervor and absolute devotion of Springsteen’s most loyal fans can attest to the fact that the man has been essentially deified. As more than a casual fan myself, I have witnessed this firsthand, and the results aren’t always pretty. I remember one particular run-in I had in the early days of the Internet with a fan on the old USENET group rec.music.artists.springsteen who was basically furious…

04 Nov

Benjamin Ray’s The Year That Was

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Over a half century into the era of rock and roll, if there's one thing we've learned, it's that every year is different. Some are defining years, some are years of transition. Some are years of transformation, some of beginnings, and some of endings. In every case, it's fascinating to view the entire tapestry of that year's music all at once, to see how different artists reacted to the same trends, the same fresh ideas, in real time, in parallel to one another.Your professor for this extended course in historical musicology will be longtime Daily Vault contributor Benjamin Ray. Every…

07 Sep

The Kinks Retrospective

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They were at the vanguard of the original British Invasion, still considered by many to be one of that movement's original four horsemen -- the other three being the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and The Who. They would go on to be one of the first, and arguably most successful, proponents of the concept album, churning out a memorable string of them between 1968 and 1975. And they featured one of the great love-hate sibling rivalries in the history of rock in the persons of frontman Ray Davies and lead guitarist Davie Davies. They are The Kinks, the subjects of…

13 May

Jon Anderson of Yes: The Daily Vault Interview

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Jon Anderson will always and inevitably be best known as the co-founder, lead voice and lyricist for iconic progressive rock band Yes. The group’s flights of musical fancy, tenacity, and rough-and-tumble internal politics have all become legend over the past very eventful 45 years. Those at-time bruising politics resulted in Anderson’s replacement in 2008 by a tribute band singer, since replaced himself by current Yes vocalist and Anderson soundalike Jon Davison. Anderson himself seems to have taken this tumult in stride; there were a few understandably bitter words in the immediate aftermath of his ouster, which took place while he…