The founder of The Modern Lovers, Jonathan Richman, was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground. His original band had members that went on to bigger bands (Jerry Harrison to The Talking Heads and David Robinson to The Cars). Richman himself changed musical direction after the dissolution of The Modern Lovers, …
Television’s Marquee Moon was released in 1977. At the time, we were celebrating the arrival of punk and its adding new energy and style to the musical landscape that had been dominated by disco (at least on the airwaves). A friend of mine introduced me to Television. There were a …
The English Beat’s first album came out in 1980. The English Beat (“English” was added to the band’s name in North America to avoid confusion with an existing American band named “The Beat”) was part of the second wave of ska music in England, along with contemporaries The Specials, Madness, …
You want some angry, loud, fast-paced rock? Here you go, in spades. It grabs you, surrounds you and lets you vent, then safely releases you back into society. This came out in 1996. I had not heard of Social Distortion, but the CD cover was quite intriguing: the ventriloquist dummy …
