Caropop

Steve Wynn is singer-songwriter-guitarist for the Dream Syndicate and the Baseball Project, with a prolific solo career thrown in there as well. He’s also one of the most thoughtful people in the rock world, someone who was saved from journalism by discovering punk rock yet has retained his searching spirit when it comes to making music. He takes us back to the Paisley Underground and the creation of The Days of Wine and Roses through his solo work, the all-star Baseball Project, and his current, even more exploratory version of the Dream Syndicate. He also goes deep into how he writes for each project and recalls his reaction to hearing that the Bangles' "Hero Takes a Fall" was about him. (Photo by Charles Cherney)

Despite some identifiable influences (Velvets, Modern Lovers, Eno…), the Feelies are a band like no other. Their sound is crisp, their playing precise and explosive, their songs indelible in an often-mysterious way. Glenn Mercer and Bill Million provide the jittery, chiming guitars, while Brenda Sauter delivers melodic bass lines amid the propulsive thunder of Stan Demeski's drums and Dave Weckerman's percussion. Singer-songwriter-lead-guitarist Mercer, who views his voice as just another instrument, takes us through the Feelies’ pursuit of its unique vision over 40-plus years, including such brilliant albums as Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth, that Something Wild appearance, an early shakeup and later breakup, and a triumphant last roundup that will last...how long?

Pylon lead singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay never thought she’d still be talking about—and singing the songs of—this brilliant, groundbreaking Athens, Ga., band more than 40 years after it began recording. Appearing on the scene between the B-52’s and R.E.M., Pylon was conceived as a sort of art project by University of Georgia students who took inspiration from the textile factory where three of them worked. Briscoe Hay, whom Paste magazine named one of the “25 Best Frontwomen of All Time," says the band was a machine, and her job was to fit into the spaces. Although Pylon disbanded (for the first time) after just two albums, Gyrate and Chomp, its taut, propulsive music sounds as potent as when it was recorded. Briscoe Hay turns up the volume on this unique, timeless band's story.

Go-Go’s drummer Gina Schock brought the beat to “We Got the Beat” and elevated that band with her powerful, disciplined attack. She was hooked on muscular rock with her first concert, a one-time-only double bill of the Who and Led Zeppelin. After touring behind a star of John Waters' Pink Flamingos, Schock joined the Go-Go's, and that band took off. How did her fierce work ethic go over with her bandmates? What were recording sessions like? What made the distribution of songwriting credits and finances so unfair? In Schock’s new coffee table book, Made in Hollywood: All Access with the Go-Go’s, bassist Kathy Valentine says, “The drummer rules the band.” The passionate, enthusiastic Schock rules Caropop as well.

When drummer Gilson Lavis joined Squeeze, he became the band’s most experienced musician, having previously played with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Dolly Parton. Starting with the gallop of Squeeze’s debut single, “Take Me I’m Yours,” he powered such undeniable Glenn Tilbrook/Chris Difford songs as “Up the Junction,” “Cool for Cats,” “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell),” “Another Nail in My Heart,” “In Quintessence” and “Tempted.” But the group dynamics grew tricky, his drinking knocked him out of the band twice, and after he got sober for good, he joined old bandmate Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and became an in-demand portrait painter. Lavis flips the Hourglass on an epic career here.

If you’re a fan of Philadelphia soul, you’ve enjoyed the work of Dexter Wansel. He wrote for and produced such Philadelphia International artists as Lou Rawls, Billy Paul, Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass and the Jacksons, and he conducted and played with MFSB, whose “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” was the “Soul Train” theme but wasn't called that for a reason he explains. As a kid working at Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater, Wansel assisted Stevie Wonder, James Brown and other acts. Later he got studio gigs as an early adopter of synthesizers, and his debut album, the much-sampled Life on Mars, showcases his jazz-funk chops and a lifelong passion for space. His stories and memories are a blast.

Drummer Freda Love Smith recently hung up her sticks after a long career playing in bands from Blake Babies to Antenna, Mysteries of Life and the Sunshine Boys. She also wrote Red Velvet Underground, a perfectly titled memoir that covers her rock ‘n’ roll life and her passion for cooking. Here she reflects on growing up in Bloomington, Indiana, and teaming up with John Strohm and, later in Boston, Juliana Hatfield to form Blake Babies. How did Allen Ginsberg come to name the band? Why didn’t that band last, and how did she feel about Hatfield’s solo success? What supernatural force named Antenna? How hard was the decision to retire? What’s she writing now? And why are rock ‘n’ food so entwined?

Drummer Linda Pitmon brings her abundance of power, groove and talent to the supergroups the Baseball Project and Filthy Friends plus other bands. Growing up in Minneapolis, she banged on Tupperware to replicate the fills of her favorite songs. She had indie success with Zuzu’s Petals, then moved to New York, where she connected musically and personally with Steve Wynn, now her husband. She tells of the joy of recording and performing songs about baseball with Wynn, Scott McCaughey and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills. She also previews the Baseball Project’s upcoming album, produced by Mitch Easter, and shares how she has thrived in the male-dominated world of rock drummers.

Soul jazz organist Ronnie Foster works as a solo artist but also played on Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (“Summer Soft”), George Benson’s Breezin’ and albums by the Jacksons, Robert Flack, Grant Green and others. His first album, the scorching Two Headed Freap, came out in 1972 on Blue Note Records and was just remastered by Kevin Gray. Fifty years later he’s got a new Blue Note album, Reboot, his first release in 36 years. He’s also got great stories that cover a half century’s worth of playing, writing, producing, falling in love with the Hammond B3 and becoming best friends with fellow Taurus Stevie Wonder. You’ll also learn what a “Freap” is.

Peter Holsapple is the dB’s sole-singer songwriter when the band finally lands a U.S. record deal, but the excellent Like This is undercut by issues with the mix and distribution. Recording and releasing The Sound of Music is a fraught experience as well, and when the dB’s finally split, Holsapple accepts an offer to tour and then to record with R.E.M. He plays on R.E.M.’s breakthrough single (“Losing My Religion”) and album (Out of Time), but as he recounts in heartbreaking detail, a dispute over songwriting credits ends his relationship with these friends for years. Holsapple is eloquent and gracious as he describes the many industry challenges he has faced while continuing to pursue his love of music.