Music Reviews

When I am asked to describe my personal goals when making records, I frequently say that I'm looking to make classic, timeless works of art. I want to make albums that can be listened to for many years to come, without sounding tied to an era in any way. When I think of a scene where the

Songwriter and novelist Willy Vlautin has led Portland's Richmond Fontaine for 20 years. With this new group, The Delines, he's written songs for Amy Boone (The Damnations TX) to sing, and grabbed his bandmate/drummer Sean Oldham, bassist extraordinaire Freddy Trujillo, The

Over the last few years, my town of Portland has become a traveler's destination for food (as well as beer, coffee, comedy, books, and music). Many come to sample the delights of world-renowned restaurants like Pok Pok, and many of these food tourists end up in line at Voodoo Doughnuts (Their

"It's been over 20 years since the original CDs were issued. Since then the technology has improved, and there are all these new digital formats out there, so it made sense to revisit the studio albums," Jimmy Page told me when he visited New York to promote the newly remastered CD,

It was 1985. I was in a band called Vomit Launch. Our guitarist, Lindsey Thrasher, was DJ'ing at our college station (KCSC) in Chico, California. While there one day, she picked up the phone and a promoter said, "White Flag just dropped off the bill, opening for the Dead Kennedys. Are

I've been a fan of Patty Griffin's since I heard her first album, Living With Ghosts in 1996. The record is just Griffin solo with her acoustic guitar, and the sound quality is pretty rough. It sounds like an SM58 knockoff on the vocal and a direct out of the acoustic guitar recorded

For this 100th issue, John and I tried to think of some of the albums that captured the attention of our contributors and interviewees in our early years, as well as what has made for good listening in the studio and at the "luxurious" Tape Op offices. Think of this list as part of the

When I think of home recording, my worst imagined nightmare is someone trying so hard to make their recordings sound "polished" or "professional" that they lose sight of the music and feeling - and end up mucking around on the same 12 songs for a decade and eventually have a CD

When I interviewed John and his engineer Ryan Hewitt for Tape Op #61 in February of 2007, they were in the middle of making this record. Between John's touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ryan's working on some other records at the time, including Flogging Molly's Float which

In Tape Op #82 I picked Brendan's brain about his thoughts and experiences with recording. Here he drops his fifth solo album, this one recorded at the decidedly retro-ish Welcome to 1979 Studios in Nashville, and mixed by Brendan and Tape Op contributor Chris Mara. Chris says, "It was

Steven Wilson (also of Porcupine Tree) presents one of his many side projects here, No-Man, a 22-year old collaboration with singer/songwriter Tim Bowness. The music is melancholy, layered and beautiful - not unlike later Talk Talk albums, some of Dead Can Dance's more "song"