Deep Purple: Whoosh! (2020)

Sometimes listening to nothing but new music – or music unfamiliar to my ears – can be a drain. I’m constantly trying to create context on the fly, thinking about what works, what doesn’t and where a particular song, album, or artist/band fits within my musical worldview, if at all. What I’m saying is sometimes I want to listen to music for comfort, where there is no greater picture to see, and just wrap myself in a warm blanket of music that simply exists to provide a good time. Enter once again Deep Purple, whose 2020 album Whoosh! took a while to get used it, but now can wash over me like a warm bath, leaving me clean and ready to tackle the next thing. Does it really need to be more than that?

ChrisMay 29, 2025Leave a comment

Miscellany

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks @Westbury Music Fair, 5.16.25

On Friday evening I shook off my introverted-ness enough to head out to Westbury, NY to see Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks perform a selection of (mostly) Yes classics, with a few choice cuts from their stellar 2024 album True sprinkled throughout the band’s two sets. Armed with nothing but a crappy camera phone I got to see a legend sing and wave his tambourine around like it was still the md-70s, despite the man himself being in his 80s. It was wonderful, and to memorialize it I wanted to throw a few words up here.

ChrisMay 19, 2025August 15, 2025Leave a comment

Jeff Beck: Wired (1976)

If my admiration for Blow By Blow was tempered at best, I wasn’t sure if Wired was going to be any better. A few more days spent watching ton of live videos showed me exactly what it is about Jeff Beck that was so influential: the guy was an absolute master when it came to dynamics, phrasing, and no one used the volume knob and whammy bar better than he did. Would that translate to a better studio album, especially one with a change of guard that now included some of the very same players that was inspiring him in the fusion world? I like Wired more: there are a few small issues here and there, but to my ears this sounds like the fulfillment of what Beck was shooting for on his previous album.

ChrisMay 16, 2025May 16, 2025Leave a comment

Jeff Beck: Blow By Blow (1975)

I know a consistent refrain here is that it’s never too late to discover an artist or band. And that’s true, for the most part. But time and distance can sometimes blur or fade the response to a legend, and I’m not going to lie here: Jeff Beck is most certainly a fantastic guitarist, but if I’m going by my first thorough impressions of Beck’s first “proper” solo album, the instrumental multi-genre hyphenate Blow By Blow I’m a little underwhelmed. There are a few moments where the tracks really soar, and Beck’s playing is always fine, but the songs themselves often feel rote and shallow. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you, and happy to return my cool cred card but on the whole not sure this is one I’ll revisit often.

ChrisMay 13, 20251 Comment

Vinyl

The Damnation of Adam Blessing (1969)

Sometimes there is no explanation for why one band rockets into stardom and one band just…simmers. Certainly listening to the self-titled debut from The Damnation of Adam Blessing (or Damnation, if you’re streaming services) you’d be hard pressed to find any fault: killer lead vocals, solid grooving rhythm section and plenty of fun guitar work shaped around covers and originals. Is it just case of so much music exploding at the time for every one big band grabbing the spotlight a dozen others get lost in the dark? are lost in the shuffle? I don’t know, and while I admit to getting blinded by terms like “underground” or “cult” when it comes to the rock of the late 60s and early 70s there’s a lot in The Damnation of Adam Blessing that convinces me these guys were huge in another reality.

ChrisMay 5, 2025May 5, 2025Leave a comment

CD, Vinyl

Neil Young: Live At Massey Hall 1971 (2007)

Immersive sound, incredible songs, hearing an artist work their way through soon to be classics…listening to Neil Young in this context was revelatory the first time I hear Live At Massey Hall 1971 when it was first released. It was the first Neil Young record I ever bought, and the album that made me a fan despite knowing so many of his songs via the osmosis of his omnipresence on radio thoughout the 70s, 80s, and even the 90s. It’s a fragile album of immense power, for me one of the pinnacles of the singer-songwriter experience. Passionate, political, personal…all the “P”s are represented on this classic document.

ChrisApril 16, 20251 Comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: classic rock