Parliament-Funkadelic is one of those bands that I feel like I can go back to again and again. I doubt they would have ever came to mind had it not been for the 1990s. I was too young for any knowledge of their heyday, but the 90s brought them to the top of the list again- whether it was George Clinton producing Red Hot Chilli Peppers and touring with Lollapalooza or a multitude of rappers (Public Enemy, Dr Dre, Digital Underground, Aaliyah) having hits off the backs of their samples. There wasn’t many more impressive bands.
If you watch the first few minutes of 2016s doc Tear the Roof Off- The Untold Story of Parliament Funkadelic, you might think you are getting a hatchet job.
It’s not. It is actually a mostly appreciative story of the bands and those involved. In as much as you can tell the story within an hour constraint, I doubt you could do much better.
I know even as a fan, P Funk has largely remained a nameless collective led by George Clinton. Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell were too talented. I assume many people credit Clinton as doing everything when he was more of the band leader. Eddie Hazel has seen a lot more recognition in recent years, and we can only hope the same for the likes of Fuzzy Haskins, Garry Shider, Cordell Mosson, Bigfoot Braley, Junie Morrison, Stingray Davis, Grady Thomas, and Glenn Goins among other prominent members of the band.
This documentary does a good job of trying to correct that. Famously, Clinton fought a record label over the use of the name the Parliaments and so would take two routes (Parliament and Funkadelic) and many many side projects. They would be signed to Casablanca records to much critical and commercial success.
Things went south pretty quickly in the late 70s and early 80s and the doc says Clinton couldn’t pay the band and started paying them with drugs and hooked many band members on crack cocaine.
Thus we get a glimpse of what made the band so great but we move into the more sensationalist aspects of the band’s story.
Clinton isn’t interviewed or given a chance to speak in this case, but the credits roll with a number of ex-members in pretty bad conditions. I think this documentary at least highlights the relatively unknown members of the bands who deserve attention.
That said, it’s not a particularly fun documentary. I watched the PBS History of Funk one when it came out last year and that is more in line with what people are looking for.
I always regretted not seeing Clinton perform when he came to my town with the P Funk group. But this documentary left a bad taste in my mouth about Clinton and at this point (and at that time), his hired hands which are a shell of a great band.
If you have an old timey picture for your cover of your Americana album, it’s probably gonna be good. Think of The Band’s self-titled or Willie Nelson’s Red Haired Stranger. So I think immediately the Garrett Boys knew what they are doing.
Stephen Garrett is joined with his brother and his son in the Tennessee trio. Steve Earle joins them on the opening track and it’s a fitting collaboration as their music reminds me a lot of Earle with its hints of folk, bluegrass and country music. Also fittingly, the album is produced by Ray Kennedy who has produced Earle and Lucinda Williams. Kennedy co-produced that string of Earle records from 1996 to 2004 (which are some of all my time favorites). He also co-produced (with Earle, Williams, and Roy Bittan) the seminal Williams 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. In recent years, he has reunited with Williams to coproduce her last three albums.
Earle is a good comparison especially since Kennedy produced that amazing run of Earle albums from I Feel Alright to The Revolution Starts Now.
It’s the same style and then you have similar topics- if it’s booze (Wildcat Whiskey) unemployment (God Forsaken Town) bad jobs (Back to Akron) or murder (Pond Ridge).
The Earle song is a fantastic ditty but so also is the title track and “Who I Am”. Catchy upbeat numbers that would sound great on radio if such a station to play these songs existed.
There’s plenty of songs about heritage, family and the land. “Me and this Land”, “It Runs Deep” and “Who I Am” have the pride that still can be found in even the most outlawish of country outlaws.
I like this album a lot. I saw a local public radio station was playing a lot out of it too. This album deserves attention.
For many years, Morrissey was one of my favorite artists. He needs no introduction of course, but over his career he has gone from someone identified as one of the greatest lyricists alive to someone who seems to be only known for his constant concert cancellations and quotes that get him in hot water.
Still, I have spent so much time with Morrissey that I doubt I will ever completely leave him. Besides things have changed to the point there the music itself is available for free if you want it. I can listen blissfully knowing no money is going into his coffers if I so choose.
I loved Viva Hate and the sometimes clumsy songs that came after it. Morrissey went on a commercial and critical ladder that saw him break through in America with Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I, and although it only made it to #46, he legitimately landed a song in the American Top 100 in 1994.
It would largely be downhill from there in terms of sales and plaudits. If I was older then maybe I would have guessed this would happen. Time always wins and there are arguably a couple of artists who made music for decades without a real stinker (Nick Cave and Tom Waits perhaps) and even those with great later-in-life records ( Dylan, Reed, Cash) who rode a rollercoaster of greatness amidst duds.
I really liked the poorly received 1995 album Southpaw Grammar- an album that for once focused on music more than lyrics and the songs upon it bookended by two near ten minute pieces. 1997s Maladjusted was similarly critically mauled but I played it to death then and still think it has some songs that hold up well.
Morrissey laid dormant for almost a decade. In 2004 he teamed with producer Jerry Finn (Blink-182, Rancid, AFI) and released You Are the Quarry. It stands as a second half start in his solo career. Well regarded, I see the online crowd of a certain age treat it with the reverence older fans had for the Smiths. It’s an age thing. That said, while I don’t hate it, I was less impressed with what I consider a downhill progression.
2006s Ringleader of the Tormentors appeared after what feels an eternity of two years and was produced by Tony Visconti (Bowie, T Rex). I do think it stands as one of his best solo albums.
He reunited with Finn for 2009’s Years of Refusal. I still generally liked his output at this point. It’s a reasonable 12 track 43 minute album but still feels like an album with some great songs and a lot of extra padding. It’d be a career highlight pared down to 8 songs.
The next album is after Finn’s passing and is 2014s World Peace is None of Your Business. Joe Chicarelli (who engineered the Joes Garage and Sheik Yerbouti albums by Frank Zappa) is now his producer. Well received by the press, I find it a bit forgettable. 2017s Low in High School did not get as positive as a reception and I similarly find it uninspiring. As a fan, I reflect back on these and realize that I didn’t spend as much time with these as much as what I normally would have, but I also didn’t seem them worthy of my time. A judgment I doubt I would change.
In 2019, Morrissey made the unusual decision to release an all cover’s album California Sun. I consider it a clunker and one of the truly awful albums to be recorded by a good artist.
He returned the next year with I Am Not A Dog on a Chain. Alain Whyte had been Moz’s main songwriter from 1992 to 2009. Boz Boorer had written songs for each album from 1994 to 2017. The combination of the two have become nearly as revered as Johnny Marr and this was the first album where neither has a songwriting credit. (Boorer does appear on roughly half of the songs).
Songwriting now falls on new band members Jesse Tobias (who briefly was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers and played for Alanis Morrissette's band) keyboard player Gustavo Manzur and bassist Mando Lopez (who spent time with the Breeders and Fear).
While not a great album by any means, I did think it was his best album in a decade and the possibility popped up that we may still get a great late era Morrissey album.
Morrissey has spent recent years touring and he has two full albums recorded. Bonfire of Teenagers has been promised since 2023 but seems caught in limbo. Produced by Andrew Watt (Ozzy Osbourne, Rolling Stones, Lady GaGa). The album reportedly has contributions from Iggy Pop, Miley Cyrus and Flea & Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In 2026, he released Make-Up is A Lie again produced by Chiccarelli. Songwriting duties are split between a returning Whyte (who appears on three tracks), Tobias, Manzur, and new addition to the band- keyboardist Camila Grey (from the band Uh Huh Her and Adam Lambert’s band).
In the past, us Morrissey fans would pore over the B-sides. I didn’t often agree with some other fans who preferred them to the official releases but I do think they were often good.
I feel the best material on Make Up is A Lie is only as good as previous B-side material. While his voice is strong, his lyrics are particularly weak. If one looks back to his Smiths work, he often ripped directly from Oscar Wilde, late 50s/early 60s British playwright Shelagh Delaney (who is pictured on Louder Than Bombs) and post war UK kitchen sink dramas. Without those inspirations, his work never really connects.
Opener You’re Right It’s Time sounds like a classic single but what follows is a mixed bag. Music on that track written by Grey, her four contributions may be the album’s strongest. Her “Lester Bangs” is another highlight though it feels like one of those B-sides. The lyrics never quite connect to their potential for me.
“Zoom Zoom the Little Boy” written by Tobias stands out in that it’s upbeat song in what feels like a bunch of dirges throughout the record, but without strong lyrics isn’t particularly memorable. Tobias is responsible for some of my favorite latter era Moz music and it’s a shame that he will probably be remembered as a Whyte/Boorer replacement. That song is followed by Tobias’s second (and only other) contribution here which is another jaunty number “The Night Pop Dropped”.
These songs give it a glammy middle that gives us a glimpse of what potential this album could have been. This middle section also has a cover of Roxy Music’s “Amazona” which is kind of a clunker.
There are some ambitious songs here like "Boulevard" and "Many Icebergs Ago" that go on past the five minute mark but ultimately aren’t very satisfying to me. I have often posited that Morrissey’s solo work would be served well by a more ambitious palate (often using Marc Almond for contrast). I have long given up hope on expecting much from Morrissey outside a standard rock song framework. Perhaps the failure of Southpaw Grammar dissuaded him. Still, one only needs to look at the contrasting praise found on recent albums by Pulp, The Cure and The The for those bands when they have been able to color outside the lines
Old Morrissey would have been spiteful in the most interesting way. “Kerching Kerching” is that on paper but the lyrics are so clunky that it feels like those old B-sides.
Like any number of musicians (cough Billy Corgan) that probably need someone to reign in their biggest failings, it’s a shadow of what it could have been.
When he revisits the unrequited love that made him famous, he is also at his best. “Headache” is a pretty good song with its whispered delivery, it could have been on Vauxhall and I. Similarly “Happy New Tears” is one of his best 2026 songs and fits the mold, though you won’t find it here. You will have to wait for the upcoming Deluxe edition to own it, though (in the meantime, it has been released as a stand alone single).
Separating the art from the artist is a 2026 problem and certainly Morrissey’s sins are less than some artists. It is easy to dismiss his work though when it isn’t good. The two singles that led off that promotional material-the title track and “Notre Dame” are particularly uninspiring- the former, a character sketch that doesn’t seem to accomplish much and the latter- even if it is unhinged conspiracy theory- suffers from the worst crime of all which is being boring.
At one time I would have pictured an elder Morrissey going away every few years and occasionally regaling us with some great latter era records. I think what we will get now is a guy who will bang out records with just enough interesting songs on them to keep me from completely writing him off.
Each decade has its trends. Growing up in the United States in the 1980s, hair metal and glam rock were the marketing hook for a lot of rock bands.
While sounds of these bands varied, I often found some of the bands that came from the vein of the blues rock of the Rolling Stones and the Faces the best. Guns N Roses came from that style. Cinderella was another one that would probably have been marketed differently if they came a decade later.
Some were more true to those Stonesy roots than others. The Quireboys (London was added to the start of their name in the US) was a favorite of mine. Jackyl was another band that was looped in. They were famous for their live concerts which featured the lead singer brandishing a chainsaw. I saw them 20 years ago and they were certainly more Southern Rock than anything.
Of all these bands, my favorite might be the Black Crowes who had six hits on the Billboard 100 from 1992-4 and were constantly on MTV and took six songs to # 1 on the US Rock chart.
While their first two albums went top 10, their third Amorica just missed it at # 11. It also seemed to be the beginning of a commercial decline. Fourth album Three Snakes and One Charm seemed to have got fairly positive reviews but there was no longer the constant MTV presence. This was 1996 and the golden era of the Black Crowes now seemed to be over.
Their 1999 album By Your Side found them off the American Records label (though Columbia took them on). Guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Johnny Colt had left the band and were not to be found on the album. The Black Crowes never went away but they were starting to fade. Personally, I was taking less and less notice of them.
They released a live album paired with Jimmy Page in 2000 and it got buzz. A new album Lions came out the next year (the band choosing not to go any further with Page).
Eight years passed and maybe the biggest news about Warpaint was the Maxim magazine review. Despite a review published in the March 2008 issue, the band revealed that they had not sent any pre-release material, thus the review surely was only based on the radio edit single that was available at that time. Thus Maxim had written and published a review of the album without actually listening to it.
I had not followed the band in years but there is a noteworthy change this time. Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All Stars had joined the band.
There were Rich Robinson solo albums, Chris Robinson Brotherhood albums and many lineup changes (Dickinson would leave as well as drummer Steve Gorman who played on the first nine albums.).
Ten years passed without a full length Crowes album of new material.
That is an easy way for me to jump to 2024s Happiness Bastards. The Robinson brothers may be the only names most people might recognize in the lineup that has picked up keyboardist Erik Deutsch (Leftover Salmon, Shooter Jennings). The Crowes had always maintained some rock fans but the fact that Mojo magazine named it a favorite album of the year made me took notice, though I didn’t investigate further.
When 2026s A Pound of Feathers came out, I couldn’t ignore the buzz I was seeing on vinyl forums.
Listening to lead single “Profane Prophecy” I was hooked. The Crowes always had sounded like the Faces and the Stones and so they do here too. It does help that 21st Century production has updated their sound. Jay Joyce who produced their previous album is here and he has a CV of the modern country sound of Eric Church, Lainey Wilson, and Miranda Lambert, but also John Hiatt, Patty Griffin, Orville Peck and Cage the Elephant.
It’s a nice swagger that holds up the first part of the album quite well. They don’t sound like a band ten albums and 30 plus years in. There is plenty of Mick and Keef style grit in songs like “Cruel Streak” transitioning into less obvious singles and finally the second half ends with more adventurous fare like the five minute closer “Doomsday Doggerel” which doesn’t quite land for me.
That said, the Black Crowes have landed a memorable album in 2026 after a long career that continues to evolve.
