Salon writer Touré misses monoculture. This isn’t the monoculture of a Starbucks every 1 1/2 miles, bookending the Walmart and the Lowes. You May Also Like: No related posts.

by Tom Johnson The Wilco drummer turns in a surprisingly beautiful and effective minimalist classical drum suite reminiscent of the best works of Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. It’s not something that will get played a lot, and it’s probably not terribly original because it is territory that’s been coveredRead More

by Tom Johnson It took the late Jay Bennett a few years, but in 2006 he finally released the kind of album that made listeners sit up and think “Maybe Jeff Tweedy should have kept him around in Wilco after all.” Full of heartfelt ballads and Stones-influenced rockers, The MagnificentRead More

Photograph by Spencer Tweedy Over the course of a remarkable career, both with her family band the Staple Singers and as a solo artist, gospel-soul icon Mavis Staples has bravely explored the frustrations, sorrows and then joys of the African-American freedom fight. But, lest we forget, she can still rockRead More

by Pico It’s the middle of January, which can only mean we’re about a month late on those year-end lists. Oooops. This past year, I’ve listened to perhaps a little less of the rock, pop and r&b records than in 2008, but the selections for my favorites were easier toRead More

December 17, 2008. That’s the last time a non-jazz record has appeared on a Quickies column. In the intervening half-year there’s been so many fresh non-jazz records that merits at least a few paragraphs, and sometimes the full fledged reviews can’t adequately cover ’em all. So guess what…it’s a QuickiesRead More

In looking back on 2007, it’s time to assess the releases over the last 12 months and pick out the more outstanding ones.