Terry Chambers: XTC's powerhouse drummer meets Caropop
Drummer Terry Chambers is an unlikely keeper of the XTC flame. He powered the band over its first five increasingly ambitious albums,...
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Mark Caro
Mar 21, 20222 min read
'She's Not There' and other great debut singles
Interviewing Zombies singer Colin Blunstone for Caropop got me thinking about how “She’s Not There” is one of the all-time great debut...
Mark Caro
Mar 18, 20223 min read
Colin Blunstone and the bizarre history of a great band, the Zombies
Colin Blunstone has one of the most distinct voices in rock, and the Zombies, one of my favorite bands, has as strange a history as any...
Mark Caro
Feb 28, 20224 min read
Big Star's Jody Stephens: The Caropop Conversation
I first met Jody Stephens in April 1993 after a student group at the University of Missouri in Columbia asked the great cult band Big...
Mark Caro
Feb 23, 20222 min read
The Gray Side of 'The Moon'
Renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray works on a lot of albums, but sometimes even he gets excited by the sounds coming out of his...
Mark Caro
Feb 22, 20222 min read
Gary Brooker, R.I.P.
Gary Brooker of Procol Harum has died, according to an obituary on the band's website. Ugh. He had one of the great, soulful voices in...
Mark Caro
Jan 7, 20223 min read
Ethan Russell and his close-ups with the Beatles, Stones and Who
Ethan Russell was a young San Franciscan when he saw Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow Up and decided to move to Swinging London with...
Mark Caro
Dec 10, 20213 min read
Steve Dawson, The Caropop Interview: Still growing after all these years
After I moved back to Chicago following my post-college stint at the Boston Phoenix, I started covering local music for the Tribune. My...
Mark Caro
Dec 1, 20211 min read
To sit or to stand while singing?
One more Get Back-inspired thought: The Beatles do a lot of recording, including vocals, while sitting down. Then again, some of their...
Mark Caro
Nov 29, 20218 min read
Five takeaways (plus bonus tracks) from Get Back, Part 3
1. Wow. I may have mentioned that I’m quite the Beatles nerd, so I’m very much the target audience for Peter Jackson’s Get Back. That...
Mark Caro
Nov 28, 20214 min read
Five takeaways from 'Get Back' Pt. 2
“Come on now, back to the drudgery.” —Paul McCartney, Get Back, Part 2 1. This is a lot. People who aren’t that into the Beatles, whoever...
Mark Caro
Nov 26, 20214 min read
Five takeaways from 'Get Back' Pt. 1
1. I’d read a lot about the Get Back sessions and listened to many bootlegs, but seeing this all was something else. Fears from the jolly...
Mark Caro
Nov 24, 20216 min read
'Let It Be' revisited: digging into the Beatles' rushed, troubled, non-breakup project
Here’s a key point often overlooked regarding Let It Be, the persistent problem child in the Beatles catalog: The album’s sessions began...
Mark Caro
Nov 19, 20213 min read
FitzGerald's Secret Show and Rolling Stones FOMO
The email arrived the morning of Oct. 19: PSSST! C’mon over here…SHHHHHH! OK, check it out: We got a call from a GREAT band who wants to...
Mark Caro
Nov 15, 20211 min read
Richard Thompson, in person at last
Richard Thompson is playing two solo shows at the Old Town School of Folk Music Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and though they're sold...
Mark Caro
Nov 8, 20215 min read
Elvis Costello writes the latest book (and it's a good one)
Elvis Costello is calling his current tour with the Imposters “Hello Again,” but a more apt title might be “Not F—king Around.” There are...
Mark Caro
Nov 5, 20213 min read
Mitch Easter, The Caropop Interview
This dates me, but I first saw Mitch Easter when his band, Let’s Active, was opening for R.E.M. in the fall of 1983 on my college campus....
Mark Caro
Oct 29, 20212 min read
Costello, Spoon bringing the rock
Elvis Costello and Spoon have released new songs over the past couple of days, and both boast a throwback rock energy. The new Elvis...
Mark Caro
Oct 28, 20213 min read
Riccardo Muti and the death and rebirth (we hope) of culture
Sitting in the Symphony Center lower balcony on the evening of Sept. 23 was a surprisingly emotional experience for me and, I assume,...
Mark Caro
Oct 21, 20213 min read
Digging into War with founding member Lonnie Jordan
War is one of those bands that I always liked more than I knew. I’d enjoyed the sing-along choruses and laugh-along verses of “Why Can’t...
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