NICK DERISO: I must admit, even now, an abiding love for the inner-ear damage that “Purrrr,” this long-forgotten hard-pop release, offers. But there’s more to it: Hollyfaith’s debut on Epic is, in some ways, perfectly done guitar-focused music, raunchily loud but then welcomely tender — and, in no small way,Read More

To take the old-school harmonic brilliance of Duke Ellington into the realm of John Coltane — soon to establish himself as the picture of avant garde, stimulatingly free, out there in such a way as to legitimately draw comparisons with the spiritual — was, you imagine, a challenge of equalRead More

NICK DERISO: You’ll the find the best of this underappreciated, high-style Mississippi blues pianist on 1950s-era Trumpet Records reissues put out beginning in 1989 by Chicago’s Alligator Records. Run out of a Jackson, Miss., record store, Lillian Shedd McMurry’s locally legendary Trumpet label caught several blues greats just before theirRead More

“Trio Brubeck,” though not the first time that Dad Dave had collaborated with the kids, had the randy feel of a whole new direction for the legendary pianist. Following the 1970s recording “Two Generations of Brubeck,” and the more recent “Quiet as the Moon” with son Darius (also on MusicMasters),Read More

NICK DERISO: To put it bluntly, you need to get hip to Linkchain — a player/singer gone too soon, but not before leaving one final blast of brilliance. “Airbusters,” which included his final recordings, jumped off with a rocking barrelhouse number. (Of course, it did: That was ‘Barrelhouse Chuck’ onRead More

NICK DERISO: Four Dobie Gillis types, including brothers from Irvine, Calif., the Swamp Zombies were notable for having some amount of ability on all manner of instruments, but also at the clanging of pots and pans. They remain a great pop-music (or punk folk, I guess) example of what canRead More

The late, and unjustly obscure Washington D.C. guitar guru Danny Gatton — known, quite simply, as The Humbler — finally got his splashy major-label debut with this one, and it sparkles in the white-hot spotlight. Good thing, too. By 1994, one of music’s most versatile, talented and electric performers hadRead More

by Nick DeRiso Start with Husker Du’s “Everything Falls Apart,” a 1982 release that was a little more cohesive than the live debut. They chew UP Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman.” Eleven years later, “Everything Falls Apart” was released again on CD (and this is funny) with some extras as “Everything FallsRead More

A group with the sound and spirit of 1960s-era garage bands, the Woggles are best decribed by the things they are not — despite being from Athens, Ga. No Dead influences. No side projects with Peter Buck. “Teendanceparty” is, instead, refreshingly free of any jangly pretense. In fact, the Woggles’Read More

by S. Victor Aaron Left-handed Chicago electric blues guitar legend Otis Rush is a living link to a Chicago blues scene ruled by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter in the late fifties. But the harsh reality that Rush had never quite attained the status ofRead More