Music
Hidden in Plain Sight: Garage Rock "Returns"
by Sharon MesmerMusic
I was about to take a bubble bath and wanted to find something good to listen to on commercial radio. That’s right: good on commercial radio.
Cuba and Its Music
by Ellen PearlmanMusic
In Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, Ned Sublette has taken on no less a task than rethinking and rewriting Western musical history, going back to 1191 A.D., from a Cuba-centric point of view. After a whopping 700 pages, he has still only come as far as 1952 and is already busily working on Volume Two.
Brian Wilson Presents Smile
by Tony CoulterMusic
Many Rail readers will already be familiar with the bare outlines of the history of Smile, the legendary lost Beach Boys album. Nonetheless, the background story of Nonesuch’s new release is worth rehashing—in part because some of its frequently repeated elements are debatable.
