Marvel Studios’ phenomenal hit Black Panther is still in the box office top ten, closing in on a $700 million domestic gross, as it arrives on Blu-ray (also 4K UltraHD). Of course, the titular character—portrayed by Chadwick Boseman—is a featured player in the biggest movie in theaters at the moment, Avengers: Inifinity War. Safe to say, Marvel is king and...
Album Reviews: Love – Forever Changes (50th Anniversary Edition) and More New Music
What a phenomenal year 1967 was for popular music: that one 12-month period witnessed the release of debut albums from the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Leonard Cohen, Procol Harum, the Velvet Underground, the Bee Gees, Pink Floyd, Laura Nyro, Traffic, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Janis Joplin (with Big Brother and the Holding Company). As if...
Bentley’s Bandstand: April 2018
Marcia Ball, Shine Bright. This woman must have a fountain of youth flowing through her backyard, because after a half-century of ripping and running up and down the highways of America and beyond, Marcia Ball sounds more full of fire than ever. Maybe that’s because she’s discovered such a seemingly endless well of righteous songs to write, or possibly she...
Album Reviews: John Prine, Tom Rush, Don Gibson, and More
John Prine Returns with a Gem John Prine’s The Tree of Forgiveness is his first collection of fresh material since 2005’s Grammy-winning Fair and Square. That means fans have endured a 13-year wait, but it was worth every minute, because the new album is a gem. It’s hard to put your finger on just how Prine works his magic. Though...
Book Review: Conversations with McCartney by Paul Du Noyer
Music journalist and MOJO magazine founding editor Paul Du Noyer first spoke with Paul McCartney at a press conference in 1979. At the time, McCartney was about to take what would be the final configuration of Wings on a 19-date UK tour. Du Noyer managed to get a question in, though he was just one face among many in a...
Bentley’s Bandstand: March 2018
David Byrne, American Utopia. In rock & roll, David Byrne has long been the King of Quirk. That’s a high compliment, too. Over 40 years since Talking Heads first rolled into CBGB’s to start their run, nobody has outdone Bryne in roping in more influences to fuel his creativity, and trolling world music at the same time he mines the...
Album Reviews: The Eagles – Hotel California (Deluxe Edition), Plus Five More New Releases
More than 32 million people have already checked into the Eagles’ Hotel California, a country-rock landmark that first charted during Christmas week in 1976 and spent two months in the No. 1 slot. The group’s third chart-topper (following One of These Nights and Their Greatest Hits), it stayed in the Top 200 for two full years. Two of its nine...
Album Reviews: Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac (Deluxe Edition), Plus Andrew Sheppard, Sue Foley, Sam Lewis
I can’t listen to Fleetwood Mac’s eponymous 1975 album without thinking of a lunch meeting I had in New York City early in the year before its release. I had arranged an interview with a folk duo called Carlson and Gailmor, whose debut LP was about to come out, and a publicist at their record company had asked for a...
Bentley’s Bandstand: February 2018
Bing & Ruth, No Home of the Mind. As those moments arrive when the only sure-thing bet for a psychic lift is music that turns sound into prayers, Bing & Ruth hear that call. Led by pianist David Moore, this aggregation reaches the heavens with such artful ease there must be some kind of divine connection involved. How else to...
Music Blu-ray Review: Bee Gees – One for All Tour: Live in Australia 1989, Plus Albums by Sunny War, Nina Simone, and an Elmore James Tribute
If you’re not at least a bit older than the concert featured on One for All Tour: Live in Australia 1989, you might not realize just how big a group the Bee Gees were. Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb (the brothers Gibb, hence the name Bee Gees) sold tens of millions of records—hundreds of millions by some estimates—and saw their...