Caropop

Bruce Sudano had co-written the Tommy James & the Shondells 1969 hit “Ball of Fire” and played keyboards in the bands Alive ‘N Kickin’ and Brooklyn Dreams by the time he met Donna Summer. The two of them clicked professionally and personally and soon were co-writing the smash title track and other songs for Summer’s blockbuster 1979 album, Bad Girls. They also co-wrote Dolly Parton’s #1 country hit “Starting Over Again,” based on his parents, and continued collaborating throughout a marriage that lasted until her 2012 death from lung cancer. Since then, he has rebooted his own career, recording several albums, including the new Talkin’ Ugly Truth, Tellin’ Pretty Lies. Sudano takes us from his mentorship with Tommy James through his life with arguably the disco era’s greatest artist, for whom he and his daughters recently accepted a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. Toot-toot! Beep-beep! (Photo by Amy Waters)

Cicely Balston won the 2023 Music Producer’s Guild’s Mastering Engineer of the Year Award, and when you hear the music she has mastered—and the smart, easygoing way she discusses it—you understand why. Working out of AIR Studios in London, Balston has applied her talents to the doom-punk band Witch Fever and David Bowie’s back catalog, as well as some dynamite-sounding hip-hop reissues for the Vinyl Me, Please record club, including Eric B. & Rakim’s Don’t Sweat the Technique, Gravediggaz’s 6 Feet Deep, and Madlib’s Shades of Blue. How did this young British woman become an ace hip-hop masterer, and do those albums require a specific skill set? Are people too fixated on analog vs. digital? How did she become a mastering engineer anyway, and what's the most commonly misunderstood aspect of what she does? (Photo by Silvia Gin.)

If you love music, you have loved recordings mastered by Greg Calbi. Ever hear that Bruce Springsteen album Born To Run? He mastered that and has thoughts about how it turned out. He also tells of working with, among others, John Lennon, David Bowie, Harry Nilsson and Todd Rundgren. This legendary engineer has mastered classic albums by Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, Supertramp, R.E.M., Paul Simon and the Strokes. More recently he won a Grammy for his work with Kacey Musgraves and mastered new albums by the Smile and MGMT. He shares decades’ worth of insights into how he makes great music sound even better. What’s his mastering philosophy? How does he give digital recordings the warmth of analog? And when did he get chills upon realizing he was one of the first people to hear a classic album? (Photo by Andrew Lipovsky.)

Slim Jim Phantom is the Stray Cats’ drummer, host of “Slim Jim’s Rockabilly Raveup” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage and a cool-cat storyteller. He takes us through the Stray Cats’ formation, with bassist and elementary school classmate Lee Rocker and singer-guitarist Brian Setzer, and their early days as a “rockabilly bar band” playing New York clubs like CBGB before they relocated to London. The band had recorded two British albums by the time a U.S. label released the compilation Built for Speed, which, powered by the hit singles “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut,” turned the Stray Cats into unlikely early ’80s stars. Why did the band split after the follow-up album—and reunite after solo projects? What’s happening with the Stray Cats now? And who is on Phantom’s rockabilly Mount Rushmore?

That tap-tap, tap-tap at the beginning of “Blister in the Sun” may be one of rock’s most air-drummed fills, and former Violent Femmes drummer Victor DeLorenzo explains how the song's indelible intro came to be. He shares many more stories about this Milwaukee band, including the name’s origin, the invention of his tranceaphone and the jaw-dropping tale of how the Pretenders discovered Violent Femmes busking outside the theater and invited the trio to open for them that night. Violent Femmes’ instant-classic self-titled debut sounded like nothing else, the third album was produced by Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison, and after five studio albums, DeLorenzo had had enough. He tells of his ongoing acting career that included a tryout for Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables, his reaction to the "Blister" Wendy's ad and his up-and-down relationship with his former bandmates.

As Rhino Records’ senior director for A&R, Patrick Milligan oversees ambitious packages such as the Joni Mitchell archival series; deluxe releases from Warner Music Group artists such as the Ramones, the Doors and Crosby, Stills & Nash; and the recently launched, limited-edition High Fidelity vinyl series. That last one, which features audiophile pressings mastered by recurrent Caropop guest Kevin Gray, has included acclaimed versions of the Cars’ debut album, which sold out, and Television’s Marquee Moon, which Television guitarist Richard Lloyd discussed here last week. Milligan shares his reaction to the praise and pushback these releases receive, explains the selection process of the High Fidelity titles, previews upcoming albums, and tells of how the company and business have changed during his two stints at Rhino. Is his job a crate-diggers’ dream?

If you ranked rock's great two-guitar tandems, Television's Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine would be at or near the top. Verlaine was the poetic songwriter, idiosyncratic singer and improvisatory guitarist, but Television would not have been Television without Lloyd’s dazzling counterpunches and composed solos that take melodic leaps no one could anticipate. Television launched the mid-1970s art-punk scene at the grungy East Village club CBGB and produced arguably the greatest album from that era, Marquee Moon. How did the band capture such combustible magic in songs like “See No Evil” and the epic title track? Why did Television make only two more studio albums, and why was Lloyd dissatisfied with each? Why did Jimi Hendrix punch out a teenage Lloyd? What impact did drugs and alcohol have on Lloyd’? How did he wind up making more great music with Matthew Sweet? And how did he feel when Television moved on without him? Was he in touch with Verlaine before the Television leader died a year ago?

Cheers ended its 11-year TV run in 1993, yet on the Emmy Awards in January, George Wendt showed up as his old character, Norm, and drew laughs and, yes, cheers. Even 31 years later, everybody knows his name. Wendt discusses his beginnings at Chicago’s Second City, including his firing and rehiring there. How did that ensemble work prepare him for Cheers? How did the series’ energy change when Kirstie Alley replaced Shelley Long? Was the Saturday Night Live episode he co-hosted with Francis Ford Coppola the weirdest one ever? How did he wind up in those “Da Bears” sketches and in Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video? How did he enjoy his roast hosted by his nephew, Jason Sudeikis? Pull up a stool and grab a beer, because Wendt has stories to tell.

Brendan Canty’s work in Fugazi established him as one of rock’s great drummers, but this thoughtful, multitalented artist has done much more than that. Rooted in Washington, D.C., Canty played with the hardcore bands Deadline, Rites of Spring, Happy Go Licky and One Last Wish before Fugazi, Deathfix afterward, and he currently is stretching out his jazz-punk chops in the instrumental trio Messthetics. He’s also a soundtrack composer and filmmaker, having directed documentaries featuring Eddie Vedder, Wilco and others. Here Canty takes us deep into the music, where exploration and improvisation bang up against structure. He tells the story of Fugazi, from the breakout song “Waiting Room” and intense touring through the band’s 2003 “indefinite hiatus.” And he explains how a big reunion would—or would not—jibe with Fugazi’s values.

Our Colin Moulding conversation picks up with XTC working in Woodstock, N.Y., on what would become one of their most beloved albums, Skylarking. Moulding appreciated that producer Todd Rundgren chose to include five of his songs, though the recording experience was a bit of a minefield. XTC built on its newfound momentum with Oranges & Lemons, a bright, lively album that features Moulding’s hit single “King for a Day.” Moulding continued to be a keen observer of everyday life, but financial issues plagued the making of Apple Venus Volume 1 and Wasp Star and precipitated Dave Gregory’s departure. Moulding reveals what prompted his final split from singer-songwriter Andy Partridge as well. Moulding has since reunited, briefly, with original XTC drummer Terry Chambers as TC&I, and he continues to make music in the band’s collective hometown of Swindon, England. Might the four of them ever share a stage, a studio or just a night out again?