An Interview with Larry Fast of Synergy

By Brian Castleberry
March 27th, 2009

Synergy’s Cords marries Larry Fast’s incredible compositional skill with the synthesizer to a driving pop format. This final touchstone in our brief review of important 1978 recordings is yet another key entry in the history of electronic music during its most experimental and free-thinking heyday.

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1978: The Year After Punk

Pt. 4: Prince Comes For You

By Brian Castleberry
November 14th, 2008

As the conservative movement took hold of American political life in the late 70s and early 80s, a prime target for right-wing vitriol was the sexual freedom that characterized post-60s America. Associated in the minds of right-wing Christians with left-wing thinking, homosexuality, urban environments and any number of minority groups out of favor with the [...]

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1978: The Year After Punk

Part 3: Ode to Street Hassle

By Brian Castleberry
October 24th, 2008

In the midst of all the punk-rock press excitement of New York in 1978, Lou Reed could have easily ridden the new sound to re-newed superstar status. He had, after all, been the single most important figure in the Manhattan underground rock scene for a decade already.

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1978: The Year After Punk

Part 2: The Moog Joins Tubeway Army

By Brian Castleberry
October 12th, 2008

Few artists garner such a schizophrenic critical reception as Gary Numan, frontman of the post-punk group Tubeway Army. Even Numan fans seem to despise and revere him at the same time.

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1978: The Year After Punk

Talking Heads Talk About Building and Food

By Brian Castleberry
October 6th, 2008

If ’77 was the year British and American punk rockers challenged the status quo, 1978—the year after punk—was a more complicated time. First of all, music producers, record companies and radio stations were frothing at the mouth for something new after the surprise popularity (and infamy) of groups like the Ramones and Sex Pistols. Deals [...]

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