Mike Mettler

Sort By: Post Date | Title | Publish Date
Music Reviews
Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust: The Bridge
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 20, 2014
Performance
Sound
“What did you do in the Cold War, Daddy?” It was a question Billy Joel felt his daughter Alexa would ask someday, and at the height of the most decidedly chilly U.S.–Russian relations in the ’80s, Joel didn’t have an acceptable answer. So he packed up all of the gear, crew, and machinations behind his mammoth Bridge Tour and headed to Russia to spearhead the largest-scale tour a Western musician had ever done in the Soviet Union. A Matter of Trust is the four-disc box set that serves as an extended chronicle of the time in July and August 1987 when an animated American piano man opened the eyes and ears of an Eastern Bloc country just beginning to experience the rise of freedom.
Continue Reading >
The S&V Interview
Billy Sherwood Says Yes to Taking Circa Into the Hi-Fi Valley
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 17, 2016
These days, Billy Sherwood — the multi-talented, multi-hyphenate musician who cites bassist, vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, producer, mixer, and engineer as being among the many caps he wears in his sonic haberdashery — is spending the bulk of his time as the bassist in Yes, having been handpicked by the late Chris Squire to be his replacement. As rewarding as being in Yes is for Sherwood, his passion project is his other band, Circa, in which he plays guitar and sings lead vocals. Sherwood, 51, called me to discuss his goals for the overall sound of circa's new album Valley of the Windmill, what it’s like backing up William Shatner, and what the future may hold for Yes.
Continue Reading >
The S&V Interview
Blondie Seeds Their Signature Sound on Pollinator
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 08, 2017
As defined as the sound of legendary new-wave icons Blondie may appear to be on record, it’s how they’re able to open things up onstage while supporting their buzzworthy new album Pollinator that keeps things interesting for the bandmembers themselves. Drummer Clem Burke and I got on the line to discuss Blondie’s special chemistry on record and onstage, how to be creative while working with click tracks and drum machines, and the special kick he added to the back half of “Heart of Glass.”
Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Disc Review: Sherlock: Season 1
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 25, 2011
Review
BBC/Warner
Movie ••••½ Picture ••••½ Sound •••½ Extras •••½

“The game is on!” So flows the contemporary parlance of Sherlock Holmes, brilliantly re-imagined as the world’s only consulting detective in modern-day

Continue Reading >
The S&V Interview
Bluesmaster Buddy Guy Is 'Alive and Well'
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 20, 2018
There are legends, and then there’s Buddy Guy. The Chicago-based octogenarian blues guitarist originally from Lettsworth, Louisiana just keeps going and going. And if his new album, The Blues Is Alive and Well (Silvertone/RCA) is any indication, the Guy train won’t be making its final stop anytime soon.
Continue Reading >
Music Reviews
Bob Dylan: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions Deluxe Edition Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 04, 2023  |  Published: Apr 05, 2023
Performances
Sound
Bob Dylan hit a bit of a rough patch as the freewheelin’ 1980s gave way to the dour 1990s. Dylan ended the MTV decade on a high note with September 1989’s Oh Mercy—a visceral, smoky triumph produced by Daniel Lanois—but he stumbled out of the new-decade gate with the half-hearted mish-mosh sheen of September 1990’s Under the Red Sky.
Continue Reading >
Track One
Bob Dylan: Never-Ending, Ever-Rolling
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 15, 2011

Bob Dylan, bard for the ages, brought his never-ending tour to Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on the torrential evening of Sunday, August 14, and reinforced his prowess as the key observer and interpreter of our ever-distressing modern times.

Continue Reading >
Music Reviews
Bob Dylan: The Rolling Thunder Revue – The 1975 Live Recordings
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 17, 2019
Performance
Sound
Bob Dylan has long seen the value in releasing extensive historical collections befitting his anointed artistic legacy. The latest entry in the Dylan archival canon is a massive 14-CD box set via Columbia/Legacy, The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, a 148-song, 10-hour collection that focuses on the first, late-1975 leg of the touring Revue. The box contains all five of Dylan’s full first-leg sets that were professionally recorded between November 19 and December 4, 1975 as spread over 10 discs…
Continue Reading >
Music Reviews
Bob Dylan: Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981 Deluxe Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 31, 2018
Performance
Sound
No other artist in the rock era has followed his own muse as deliberately and as singularly as Bob Dylan has. Right from the dawning of his career at the outset of the 1960s, Dylan has chosen his own lane and then merged into it full-on, regardless of any external pressures or expectations. Whether the message is parlayed with his voice backed only by an acoustic guitar or translated with full band accompaniment, the foremost poet of our times has known exactly what information he wants to share with us every step of the way, critics and cognoscenti be damned.
Continue Reading >
Music Reviews
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Mike Mettler  |  May 08, 2015
Ahhh, reggae. What is also known as Jamaican dance music has become nothing less than an international phenomenon, thanks in no small part to the pioneering sounds of Bob Marley, who would have been 70 this year. (Marley died of cancer at the relatively young age of 36 in 1981.) Calling Marley the king of reggae is a bit like saying 4K Ultra HD looks fantastic—it’s a fairly obvious statement, but no less profound. The seminal ’60s and ’70s work of Bob Marley & The Wailers literally defined a music genre that continues to engage people the world over—in fact, it may be the most universal music there is.
Continue Reading >

Pages

X