Author Archives: Richard Cortazar

Don’t you love the British press? I think they’re so cute, I just want to eat them up with a spoon. Every year New Music Express, that esteemed bastion of music journalism, latches onto a promising new band, much like a young adolescent might become infatuated with the cool kid at school. After receiving such »

Forget the Beatles. And Led Zeppelin. While you’re at it, why not Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, REM, and even Radiohead? If you could only listen to one band’s complete oeuvre for the rest of your life, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Velvet Underground would indulge any and »

Modern rock as we know it, obligatory distortion and all, would absolutely not exist without the irrepressible Iggy Pop. Here is a man that has confounded progressive medicine through his refusal to burn out and fade away. Even if we assume that Iggy is part feline, and consequently has nine lives at his disposal, he »

The problem lies in the fact that once they perfected this technique, they continued to remake albums that insisted on pushing the melodic envelope until the songs became totally incomprehensible. 2002′s “Sound-Dust” was promising due to its return to more tuneful song forms, but then vocalist Mary Hansen died and the group found itself at »

The first thing every band needs is a good name. Camera Obscura is not one of these. I just really dislike the idea of naming something after a technique. And, please, not an obscure (wink wink) photographic technique because then it just sounds really pretentious. Granted, you will dominate the photography racket, and, believe me, »

Holidays are so depressing. Not because of the ubiquitous underlying sense of apocalypse that arises within your soul when facing that occupied table of strangers that you had formally known as relatives, but more because of the horrible schlock that your favorite artists have decided to record and distribute. Luckily, though, this winter’s tale appears »

I love easy listening. It’s just so damn — what’s the word? Oh yes, say it with me — easy. Sometimes almost too easy, but not quite. Following an incredibly thought-provoking lecture, I like to unwind with a cup of warm, soothing chamomile, kick my slippered feet up, and kick back with the smooth sounds »

After pressing play on the new Strokes album “Room on Fire,” I thought, “Is this it?” Not “Is this ‘Is This It?,’” mind you, but “Is this it?” 34 odd minutes later I realized — this — is — IT! Just what exactly “it” is or what it “is” is up to you, really, but »