reviews

Ambient

/ Fiona McQuarrie / 1 Comment

A few months ago, I had never heard of William Basinski, and had never heard any of his music. But lately I’ve been getting into ambient music, because I like listening to it at work – it’s calming but it also helps me be productive. I wanted to explore the genre beyond its best known artists, i.e. Brian Eno and his collaborators, so I looked online for recommendations of other ambient albums. A Reddit thread on the topic of “best ambient album ever” had more than a few mentions of Basinski’s Disintegration Loops albums, so I found those on YouTube and started playing them.

The Disintegration Loops are astounding. The title is literal; Basinski took old analog tapes that he recorded decades ago, looped them into a reel-to-reel tape machine, and played them until the tapes physically fell apart. It sounds bizarre, but it’s fascinating to listen to, as the sounds on the loops gradually devolve and deconstruct.

Since this is not exactly mainstream commercial music, imagine my surprise when this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival program was released, and one of the scheduled events was a live performance by Basinski. From not even being aware of him to suddenly encountering his work and being enraptured by it, and now he was coming to play live in my city? I know when the universe is trying to tell me something. So I bought a ticket, and went to the show this week.

Being something of a newbie to this whole ambient scene, I had no idea whether there would be lots of people at the show, or embarrassingly few (which has happened at a few VIFF events I’ve attended). When I got to the theatre, Continue reading →

“Before The Dawn”, 10 Years Later

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Monday, August 26, marks the 10th anniversary of the starting date of Before The Dawn, the 22 live shows by Kate Bush that were her first concert performances since 1979.

As I wrote in this blog post, when I got the completely unexpected notification about these shows, I knew I had to go – and I did. I saw three of the shows, and even now, 10 years later, they are still among the best live performances I’ve ever seen. Not just for the quality of the music, but for the incredible staging, theatricality, and attention to detail.

In 2016, Kate released a live album of the show’s music. At least three of the shows were filmed, according to people who had their seats at the shows moved to accommodate the equipment. Supposedly the filming was for a DVD, but Continue reading →

Nick Lowe’s Christmas Show

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Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets were on the CBS Saturday Morning TV show today, playing three songs from Nick’s classic holiday album Quality Street (here’s their performance of ‘Christmas at the Airport’). Quality Street is now 10 years old, and it will forever remind me of the Nick Lowe show I saw at Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre on December 19, 2015.

This was a memorable show for many reasons, not least of which was the excellent and exuberant music. It was also memorable because of the audience. This was my first time seeing Nick as a solo act – I had seen him in Vancouver in 1980, as part of Rockpile – but everyone I knew who had seen him on his own assured me that he was terrific. When my husband and I got to the venue and found our seats, it turned out Continue reading →

“Record Collector” Specials

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Over the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to two special issues published by Record Collector magazine.

For the Elton John special, I wrote an article about Elton’s 1975 album Rock Of The Westies. This was a particularly interesting assignment, since I still have the vinyl copy of the album that I bought when it came out! You can buy the issue here, and it’s also available on newsstands in the UK.

Record Collector presents… Elton John

For the Paul McCartney special, I wrote about Wings’ 1971 debut album Wild Life, and also took a look at McCartney’s books, music, and films for kids. You can buy the issue here, and it will be on UK newsstands as of December 7.

Record Collector presents… Paul McCartney

 

 

The Night I Didn’t Meet David Bowie

/ Fiona McQuarrie / 1 Comment

During the first part of my music writing career, which lasted from the late ‘70s to the mid-‘80s, I worked at two different daily newspapers, and wrote a lot of concert reviews on deadline. This usually meant writing the review the same night as the show, sometimes while I was still at the concert venue, and getting the review to the newspaper’s editorial offices so it could go into the next day’s newspaper.

At that time, there were no cellphones and no portable computers, which meant that filing a concert review from outside the office was always an adventure. To illustrate what this was like, I would like to share with you a story of one such adventure: the night I didn’t meet David Bowie.

To set the scene for this story, Continue reading →

Robyn Hitchcock/Kelley Stoltz concert review

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[originally appeared in Shindig! issue #139]

ROBYN HITCHCOCK, KELLEY STOLTZ

Neptune Theatre, Seattle

Friday 16th March

Robyn Hitchcock’s career has outlasted many other acts from the North American “college radio” indie music scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s. This longevity is attributable not only to his brilliant songwriting, mixing whimsical wordplay with moments of genuine poignancy and a keen psych-pop sensibility, but also to his frequent collaborations with other artists.

The value that Hitchcock places on collaboration was demonstrated by his choice of bandmates for Continue reading →

“Her Country”: An Interview with Author Marissa Moss

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Women have always been an integral part of country music, starting with pioneers such as the Carter Family and Patsy Montana. Yet country music has also marginalized women musicians – even more so in the last decade. In 2015, a country radio consultant publicly stated that songs by women were “not the lettuce in our salad…[they are] the tomatoes“.  In 2019, women artists represented only 10 percent of the music played on US country radio stations that year.

Music journalist Marissa Moss,  who’s based in Nashville, saw women in country music making great music at the same time that the industry was focusing on “bro country“, and saw women trying to be successful their own way in an industry that wanted them to conform to very narrow stereotypes. Her new book Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be tells the stories of three female country musicians – Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, and Kasey Musgraves. Through unpacking their experiences, it touches on racism, sexism, corporatization, politics, and oppression, and how all of those shape  performers’ careers and the music we listen to. The book is ultimately hopeful, but it also pulls no punches in describing how badly the country music industry can treat women.

I found Her Country to be an extremely thought-provoking and rewarding read, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Marissa about it.

Fiona McQuarrie (FM): What motivated you to write the book?

Marissa Moss (MM): I had been covering this beat in Nashville, at the time I started writing the book, for about eight years, and it just felt Continue reading →