You remember the Spin Doctors, right? A group of shaggy hairs who shot to superstardom as part of the whole tie-dyed H.O.R.D.E. of neohippies making fun-rock back in the 1990s. You May Also Like: Zig Zag Power Trio, Aaron Comess, Sofia Trio + Others: Five for the Road Five Must-HearRead More

by Fred Phillips This is the song that should have been Warrant’s defining moment. You May Also Like: Left Lane Cruiser’s Bring Yo’ Ass to the Table amped up North Mississippi blues Richard Turgeon, “Learning to Fly” (2020): One Track Mind

Even though it’s really a dance record, I loved the old-school touches from Groove Collective — like an organ, vibes and a flute (memorably tooted on “Rashaanasong” from this self-titled release). It’s like Basie by way of Bootsy. When the cacophony crescendoes, there’s even the pure fusion expansiveness of turn-of-the-1970sRead More

Royal Crescent Mob, a punk-funk quartet from Columbus, Ohio, seemed at the peak of the powers with this, its most cohesive, mature record. So, that was, of course, the end of that. You May Also Like: Royal Southern Brotherhood – The Royal Gospel (2016)

While the all-girl Luscious Jackson made all kinds of concessions by including then-hip back beats and low-key rhymes, Manny still aspires to a groovy article of faith. (It’s something they shared with the Beastie Boys, who ran the label this album appeared on.) Even now, there’s an involving adventurousness hereRead More

by Tom Johnson If you want to look back and see when metal changed directions, Demanufacture is the album that could easily be the one that did it. With their previous album Soul of a New Machine, Fear Factory did something unusual: They released a remix album helmed by FrontRead More

Do you know what today is? It’s our anniversary. R&B songs from the 1990s don’t come a lot in the rotation in that endless soundtrack running in my head, but this sweet, jazzy little Philly soul-cum-New Jack Swing slow jam stands out in my book You May Also Like: WalterRead More

by Fred Phillips Converting a huge CD collection to digital as I’ve been doing slowly for the past couple of weeks can be tedious, but it also has its rewards: Namely, stumbling across very cool records that you haven’t spent any quality time with in years. You May Also Like:Read More

With a name for the record books (said to be the average height of American males), a hometown that couldn’t have hurt and a finely honed screamer-guitarist, Athen, Georgia’s Five-Eight planted itself in the center of all that was groovy in what was then called Alternative Rock. Mike Mantione, theRead More

by Tom Johnson My first real exposure to jazz was either John Coltrane’s Sun Ship or this. Time has erased the gap between the two, but it matters little. Either way, I was in way over my head. I bought both in quick succession, but found Sun Ship simply wayRead More