Psychedelic Furs: A View 38 Years On, From The Front Row

BACK AROUND 1983, my friend Erica, went away to college at University of Illinois and sent me back some tapes of cool bands she discovered there. One of them was labeled Psychedelic Furs Talk Talk Talk with the flipside being, what I thought for a long time was, US October. I fell in love with The Psychedelic Furs thanks to that tape, and quickly discovered their first self-titled disc and Todd Rundgren-produced personal favorite, Forever…

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Scream from Heaven: R.I.P. Kim Shattuck

LAST NIGHT, as I was taking a short break from playing the silver balls at Pinball Expo to squeeze in a little writing on my next novel Voodoo Heart, my son Shaun texted me to tell me there was a new CD just released by punk-pop band The Muffs called No Holiday. He knows I love The Muffs…Nobody belts out a punk-rock scream like lead singer/songwriter Kim Shattuck. So I was pretty excited that there…

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Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin plays Deep Red

YOU COULDN’T ASK for a better way to kick off “Halloween Season” than a concert by the guy who created the haunting scores for some of the best Italian horror films of the ’70s – 90s. When I heard that keyboardist Claudio Simonetti was coming to Chicago on Sunday, Oct. 13 with his touring version of the classic Goblin, I bought tickets instantly. And he and the band did not disappoint. For the first half…

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Goodbye to my aural gasms… again. Strangeways Radio R.I.P.

For the last five years, virtually every night, I’ve sat at my computer and written stories, answered emails, idly surfed Facebook, whatever… all with the sounds of Strangeways Radio soothing my music-loving soul. I just listened to the last broadcast of this long-running Internet radio station… and now my computer speakers are silent. Empty. I can’t tell you how much I’m going to miss this station, and the DJs, especially Mikey and Zumby,  who made…

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What music do you listen to for XXX?

Originally published on the Samhain Publishing Horror Blog. By John Everson on Jul 12 2012, 2:14 am OK, ADMIT IT. You started reading this because you saw the triple X in the headline, didn’t you?  Well… I have to admit that I was using XXX to indicate a “fill-in”  blank, but I hoped it would get your attention. Don’t run off just yet – we’ll get to the sexy stuff. But before we do, I…

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Pop Stops Picks the Best CDs of 2008

FOR THE PAST 20 years around New Year’s Eve, I’ve published a “Best of the Year” summation of my favorite albums released that year in my weekly Pop Stops column. Last year was the first time that list didn’t appear in print in The Star Newspapers and/or the Illinois Entertainer magazine… This year will probably be the first time I don’t list 25 releases. Not because there weren’t 25 great albums this year but… after…

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