The Greatest Thing: 20 Must-Hear Elvis Costello Tracks by John M. Borack and Olivia Frain   As co-producers of the upcoming tribute collection Beyond Belief: A Tribute to Elvis Costello, we are obviously dyed-in-the-wool Costello fanatics. Many a day has been spent burning up the phone lines discussing and spinning Elvis discs, with each of us interjecting a “Listen to this lyric!” or a “How does he DO that?” as...

Hi Everyone, Here are my lists of favorite albums of 2012. As is my usual custom, I’ve broken this down into several categories, as I’m just not comfortable ranking unlike entities on one list.   Contemporary Categories   Those marked with an * are LP-only releases and those marked with an ** are download-only releases.  I’m hoping I didn’t forget to include some of the download-onlies: my filing system for them isn’t...

Roll Up for the Magical Mystery Tour (again) By Aaron Kupferberg www.powerpopaholic.com   On September 1967 The Beatles embarked on making their third film, with help from Richard Lester who directed A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965). The band was in uncharted waters after the death of long time manager Brian Epstein, and to prevent additional tax levies by the the government the band formed Apple Corps.  “Magical...

The Shoes Still Fit By Aaron Kupferberg www.powerpopaholic.com   Some say that the 1980’s were a “lost decade” for power pop, with the decline of Badfinger, Big Star and The Raspberries, there was yet to be a band that could pick up the mantle for the genre. The influences of punk and new wave were just starting to take hold of the public’s attention in 1977. It’s into this that Shoes emerged with “Black...

My First Concert By David Bash   In early 1972, The Carefree Sugarless Gum Company (remember them??) had a contest where they asked junior high schools within a 50 mile radius of New York City to send in as many of their product’s wrappers as they could, and the school which sent in the most wrappers would receive, as their prize, an appearance by none other than The Grass Roots!  Even though by 1972 their best days were behind them, we...

My Top 10 Beach Boys Songs of All-Time by David Bash   10. Time To Get Alone-I don’t waltz, but if I ever learn, this would be the song to which I’d do my first! I love all the counterpoint, which had become a Beach Boys staple not long before and would flourish even further in the next few years. The echoed “Deep And Wide” just kills me, as do the strings after the final “aren’t you glad we got...