Blog Post

Waterslide’s mastermind, the musical chameleon otherwise known as Mark Doyon, has been lurking around these parts for some time now.  Little did I know when I reviewed the 2004 debut of Mark’s previous musical incarnation, Arms Of Kismet, that it would be the beginning of a series of conversations that continues today, with the June 19 release of Waterslide’s debut album Lincoln Signal.  In trying to come up with a shorthand for what makes Mark so special as an artist, I’m left leaning on the words of others.  When Apple encouraged us a few years ago to “Think differently,” they…

The magic number at the Exit.Emergency / Into It Over It / Make Do And Mend / Polar Bear Club / Bayside gig at Gabe’s Oasis was not five (the number of bands playing would be too obvious) nor was it one (the number of Aleve pills used to battle my 15 year-old daughter’s headache). Rather, the magic number, per my daughter, attending her first real rock show with her dad, was 37. That was the number of times the F word was used during the second act. But that’s getting ahead of the story. As I walked into the…

I made it.  That was my first reaction upon finishing The Book Of Drugs, the memoir by singer-songwriter and former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty. It was no sure thing for awhile there; after the first 120 or so pages I was pretty sure this was the most infuriating book I’d ever read. The form alone irritated me—a faux-epistolary style where there’s no attempt at building any sort of narrative; one anecdote simply blurs into another for page after page after page. But what really drove me to distraction around page 100 was my strong desire to grab Doughty by…

Alone on a bare stage decorated only with an area rug and a sizable amp rig, two songs into a taut 90-minute set that epitomized words like “intensity” and “masterful,” Lindsey Buckingham paused to contemplate the long, twisting trail that has led the Palo Alto native to the top of the rock world, around the globe and back to Carmel's 800-seat Sunset Center as a still-vital solo act. The “big machine”—the musical juggernaut Fleetwood Mac, of which Buckingham has been a part for 27 of the last 37 years—and the small machine—solo recording and touring—nourish and feed off of one…

Ian Anderson's name may not be on a lot of lips today, but his alter-ego in the form of the band Jethro Tull is a phenomenon dating back over 40 years whose work is recognized around the world. His songs are ubiquitous on American classic rock radio, and he’s still on the go at 64, staying busy touring both with Jethro Tull and as a solo artist. Back in 1972, flush with success from their groundbreaking release Aqualung, the band recorded a concept album consisting of a single 45-minute track titled Thick As A Brick. Concept albums were nothing new,…

Like a math problem I could never quite solve, my teenage years were filled with more variables than constants. Through the changes—and occasional outright chaos—one of the constants was my passion for music. And one of the constants I measured that passion by was Ronnie Montrose.Five years after it came out, that first eponymous album (Montrose, Warner Brothers, 1973) was a staple of my high school years, one of those rare albums that every single member of our group of compadres—Geoff, Tor, Neil, Jason C., Mike, Khal, Andy (RIP)—would always say yes to giving another spin. Songs like “Rock The…