From the desk of Peter Crowley:

Alex Chilton died Wednesday, apparently of a heart attack, at age 59. He was scheduled to play SXSW today in Austin. Here's a passionate obit from the San Francisco Chronicle and an interesting one from the Houston Chronicle.

I don't know his solo songs, like he was doing when someone made this bootleg cover for a 1985 show at Berkeley Square (in Berkeley, Calif., not the one in Saranac Lake, though that woulda... read more

From the desk of Peter Crowley:

After writing that bit the other night about Nils Lofgren and Neil Young's finest collaboration, I dug up some more shared moments between the two of them:

1. I rather like the podcast here - Nils playing Neil's "Like a Hurricane," an extended version of the one on Nils' latest album, a tribute to the man in question. I'm not wild about Nils' voice, but I like the mood he... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

Ever hear an armonica? I hadn't till last night when Cecilia Brauer, who looks to be in her late 70s, played one at the Knitting Factory last night, a few acts before my band, Frankenpine, went on. What a gorgeous sound. What is it, you ask? It's a bunch of glass bowls on a horizontal skewer attached to a fly wheel. They spin and a person wets... read more

From the desk of Peter Crowley:

The first thing I noticed about the Drive-By Truckers' new album, "The Big To-Do" (their 10th, those busy bees), was the obvious - the twisted circus art all over the cover and all through the liner notes. Wes Freed, who illustrates everything for the band, returns with better-than-average stuff.

The second thing I noticed... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

Iggy Pop delivered a heckuva speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's induction ceremony Monday night when he and the Stooges were welcomed into the hall. What made it so good? The highlights:

"Roll over Woodstock, we won."

"He [guitarist Ron Asheton] was pissed off you didn't induct him while he was alive. But I imagine Ron is up in heaven right now, sitting at a table with Brian... read more

From the desk of Peter Crowley:

Nils Lofgren (front left in this picture) is one odd cat. In his first years of high school he went from being an accordion-playing gymnast, for crying out loud, to a small-time rock guitarist, to playing on... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

The New-York Historical Society (which, yes, hyphenates New and York as if to chain itself to the city's past) is home for the next few months to an exhibit about the Grateful Dead. Nevermind that the Dead are from San Fancisco, the exhibit asserts that because the band performed so often at in New York, Gotham became the Dead's home away from home. Fine.

But that's not the... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

In 1981, Iowan singer/guitar picker Greg Brown founded Red House Records. Originally it was just a means to put out his own stuff, but eventually it grew into a bigger deal and, under the late Bob Feldman's direction, signed lots of folkies. A quarter-century went by and Brown's daughter, Pieta, started making music and, it turns out, got pretty good. So she signed... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch

The Felice Brothers + The Pogues = Mumford & Sons. These guys are great. From the UK, their first album, Sigh No More, came out a few weeks ago. Definitely worth a listen. Sometimes, I think, the lead singer's voice sounds a little Widespread Panic-ish. Just a little. Anyway, knockout stuff. Listen.

(Photo nicked from Mumford & Sons' Web site.)

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

One of the things I like most about playing in a band is meeting musicians from other bands. You share a bill with someone a few times and, lo and behold, someone from their band is sitting in with yours and, an hour or so later, you're all at the bar yapping about Townes Van Zandt, complaining about the F train and planning an all-night festival of murder ballads... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

Today, Jimi Hendrix's estate releases Valleys of Neptune, a record of songs no one's heard before, except for the the handful of tracks on the album ("Fire", "Red House", etc.) that everyone's heard before. That sounds more cynical than I intended; I'll probably buy the record. But I thought instead of writing about Hendrix's rough-draft material, I'd spend some time looking at a Hendrix protege—Prince.

Prince has cut so many... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch

Whoa. This is heavy. Junior Kimbrough playing in a little shack of a building. Love the subtlety of his fretting hand. Love the fact that he and the bassist are playing behind their amps. Love how long it takes someone to bother swining the door from out of Kimbrough's face. Love the reverb. Kimbrough died in 1998 of a stroke.

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

All right, I admit it. I like the name. Dusk Tiger. How can anyone with a heartbeat not get off on that? And, to be honest, it's a pretty good-looking instrument. Love the grain and the curvy metal scratch plate. But really, Gibson, another robot guitar? For more than $4,000? Dark Fire, which has sold like a box of STDs, wasn't enough? This is such an idiotic... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

Whilst visiting a neighborhood Starbucks recently (I know, I know, but I was cold and required something warm), I found myself staring at the store's CD display: One disc a collection of tangos, another having something to do with Mardi Gras, one I can't recall and the fourth titled something like "From Nashville!" That's the one that really caught my eye, and when I turned it over, I found... read more

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

What are the chances Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy will get back together for an Uncle Tupelo reunion? Even if it's just one show? Probably nil. Here's a clip supporting that outlook. That's understandable, I suppose. People always want their favorite bands to reunite, which is understandable, too. Bands we love become surrogate familes. And reciprocal or not, we build relationships with their members. So when they... read more