Archival, History of Rock Criticism, Interviews

Interview with Jason Gross (Perfect Sound Forever)

By Scott Woods Jason Gross is the founder and editor of Perfect Sound Forever, the longest-running internet music publication, with its monthly schedule dating back to 1993 (roughly three years before I even knew what a “web” was). Gross has written for numerous publications over the years (Spin, the Village Voice, Blurt, et al.), produced critically acclaimed CD reissues by Delta 5, Kleenex, and Essential Logic (via … Continue reading Interview with Jason Gross (Perfect Sound Forever)

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Archival, Year-End Lists

Best Music Journalism/2021 edition (Jason Gross/R&R Globe)

Back in the pre-blog incarnation of rockcritics.com, we used to post Jason Gross’s “The Year in Music Journalism” surveys, a sort of good-bad-ugly of all things rock writing-related. So I’m pleased to see that Jason is still doing his thing, with the 2021 edition of the survey hosted at Rock & Roll Globe. I interviewed Jason recently about this feature—19 years in the running—which will … Continue reading Best Music Journalism/2021 edition (Jason Gross/R&R Globe)

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Canada, Year-End Lists

Top 12 Songs of 2021 (Howard Druckman)

To kick off our year in this/that/and whatever posts, Howard Druckman posts his favourite songs of the past 12 months. (Pictured above: Snotty Nose Rez Kids.) It’s actually 14 songs, because for Mustafa and Donovan Woods, it was impossible to choose the best out of two songs. So for each of them, it’s two-songs-per instead of one. Needless to say, the pandemic figures heavily in … Continue reading Top 12 Songs of 2021 (Howard Druckman)

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Top 50 lists

Top 50 Favourite Songs: David Cooper Moore

My friend Isabel Cole explained to me that in horoscope-speak your “moon” is the secret Spotify playlist that you’d make to soundtrack your inner life. She also reminded me that astrology is fake, which is why it’s good—it’s like an improvisational prompt with arbitrary parameters to ensure it’s not just an act of confirmation bias. Something seems like it doesn’t fit, but then you make … Continue reading Top 50 Favourite Songs: David Cooper Moore

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Top 50 lists

Top 50 Favourite Songs: Jim Esposito

Been reading everybody’s lists. Obviously a lot of you people are a lot younger than me. Lucky you in some regards. But apparently you missed some really great music. I come from the Classic Rock era. Some of this stuff I bought 6-7 times—45s, albums, 8-tracks, cassettes, then CDs, box sets, re-masters. Record company execs had nerve getting upset when I could download stuff for … Continue reading Top 50 Favourite Songs: Jim Esposito

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Obits

Greg Tate , 1957-2021

Nelson George remembers Greg Tate, who died yesterday at age 64. Encountering Tate’s work in the Voice during the ’80s—encountering his voice—was an excursion into new modes of thinking, writing, and listening. So much beautiful, mind-bending wordplay (which, trust me, is not faint praise; it’s the door to the building). In George’s words, Tate “understood rhythm, metaphor and hyperbole like a master musician does harmony, … Continue reading Greg Tate , 1957-2021

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